Notes From Wonderland 02/16

He won’t make an announcement for several days, but Davonte Neal has chosen the school he will attend. The Chaparral athlete is down to Notre Dame, Arizona, North Carolina and Arkansas. Most national recruiting experts seem to give the nod to Notre Dame, but those closer to home believe it is Arizona where he will wind up.

The Arizona Republic’s Richard Obert tweeted that he believes Arizona will be the place and talking to one source close to the Neal family and the Arizona football family, the belief is Arizona will be the location.

Of course we won’t know until Next week for sure…

Arizona offered the best player in the state of West Virginia. Multi-position athlete Ryan Switzer had 40 touchdowns a year ago and just picked up an Arizona offer.

“I heard from Arizona and they offered me,” Switzer told CarolinaBlue.com’s John Leggette. “Rich Rodriguez is down there and he’s a West Virginia guy.”

Actually landing Switzer could be tough. In the same interview he mentioned distance is a huge factor.

I want somewhere with a winning tradition, a good fan base and somewhere that my parents can see me,” Switzer added. “I think that’s important because I have a lot of support and I think it’s only right for them to see me play. I don’t want it to be a 14-20 hour drive or anything. I think something like a two day trip for a game…”

Sophomore guard Jordin Mayes made the trip to the Washington schools and will be suited for the games, but his availablity is still in doubt.

“He’s progressing, but I’m not optimistic that he will play this weekend,” Sean Miller said at his weekly news conference earlier this week.

Although he is not optimistic, Miller did not completely rule out Mayes playing.

“Maybe he can play a little bit Saturday,” said Miller.

In the end it comes down to pain tolerance and the sophomore point guard is still having quite a bit of discomfort…

In case you missed it, two former Wildcat commits had big weeks. Former Wildcat big man Jeff Withey was named Big 12 Player of the Week, while former Wildcat verbal commitment Mike Moser was the Mountain West’s top player last week. Withey signed with Arizona but left the team his freshman year when Lute Olson retired before every playing a game. Moser verbally committed to the Cats, but de-committed and signed with UCLA after Olson’s retirement. Moser briefly looked at trying to transfer to Arizona, but Pac-10 rules would have forced Moser to sit out two years…

Former Wildcat TE Bam McRae has been named the new Head Coach at Marana Mountain View. McRae has great ties to local youth football leagues and was a student assistant for the Wildcats. He becomes the second former Wildcat player to get a head coaching gig this year. Kris Heavner was named the head coach at Santa Rita...

The Cats will likely take their first summer exhibition tour next August. Details are being sorted out but Miller said on his weekly radio show that the Cats plan on taking advantage of an NCAA rule change that allows limited summer workouts for teams who are going on an exhibition tour.

According to the Arizona Daily Star, the team is 99% certain to make that tour in the Bahamas. The team would wait until August so that they could bring their freshmen class. Players are only eligible to go on an exhibition tour after they enroll. The plan is to have the entire class take summer session classes prior to the trip. The Wildcats’ last exhibition trip was in 2006 when they went to Canada…

The Hi Corbett era begins for the Arizona baseball team on Friday. I for one really like the move. The team gets a real clubhouse, while the fans get better parking and the ability to drink a few wheat sodas at the game. Yes being off campus is not ideal, but overall I think it is a cool move...

Saturday night the baseball team will honor the past. Two-time World Champion manager and 1980 Golden Spikes Award winner Terry Francona headline a Major League Baseball All-Star autograph session before the game starting at 3:15 p.m. Other past and present professionals that will be on hand to sign autographs will be Brian Anderson, George Arias, Jordan Brown, Jason Donald, Shelley Duncan, Gil Heredia, Jack Howell, Nick Hundley, Brad Mills and Ed Vosberg. Additionally, members of the1962 Arizona baseball team will be introduced on the field before the start of the game to honor their 50-year reunion. Francona will throw out the first pitch...

It was a rough start for the softball team last weekend. Although they outscored their opponents 42-20, they went 3-3 at the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe. They lost games against Nebraska, Georgia Tech and Texas A&M by a total of three runs...

Future UConn guard Omar Calhoun just passed a major milestone. He became the career scoring leader at Christ The King High School in New York. The player he passed was former Wildcat great Khalid Reeves...

Arizona recruit Tyus Jones looks to be one of the best point guards in the 2014 class. He had 32 and 45 points in back to back games and also picked up an offer from Duke...

In case you missed it, former Arizona and MLB pitcher Joe Magrane's daughter is a contestant in American Idol. The 16-year old singer survived "Hollywood Week" and is among the final 60 or so contestants...