SB Nation - Tra'Mayne Bondurant

Links: Jaron Hopkins highlights, receivers named to watch-lists

K_Zim — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 20:01:00 -0000

In-state recruit Jaron Hopkins' stock is rising. The four-star recruit, according to ESPN, had this mixtape released from his past season at Basha High School. He's probably headed to Dobson this next season, though a month or so back, Richard Obert at The Arizona Republic reported that some prep schools were also in the mix.

The 6-foot-4, 185 pound wing oddly doesn't have a ton of big-time offers. Luckily, the Arizona Wildcats have offered and appear to be in the mix.

While a bit on the thin side, Hopkins' upside lies in his smooth handles and slashing ability. His jump shot could apparently use some work, but his athleticism and ability to finish around the hoop is what sets him apart.

Arizona receivers Dan Buckner and Terrence Miller have been named to the 2012 College Football Performance Awards watch list, the athletic department announced. In the next two weeks, a number of preseason watch-lists will be released and while we can't say this has any significance, it does bring up a good talking point on two receivers who have a lot of boom or bust potential. Buckner, of course, has the size and talent to be great but it's still yet to be proven whether he can be a Juron Criner-like man-beast. Likewise, Miller has showed potential as somewhat of a tight end-receiver hybrid type, but he struggled to find time last season, for whatever reason.
Not Arizona related, but here's a quick look at two (actually) important and respectable preseason watch-lists that came out today.
The athletic department also released its in-depth basketball prospectus to preview the 2012-13 season. Here's the full PDF file. The most interesting part of this whole thing is the questionaire with Sean Miller. Two interesting points are brought up. For one, it'll be interesting to see how quickly and effectively the seven newcomers gel. And sort of in the same light, the size of Arizona will be helpful. Miller used the phrase "death by inches" last year; this year, Solomon Hill and Kevin Parrom will shift to their natural small forward positions, giving UA a couple more inches of size at the 3-5 positions.
Athlon Sports released preseason Pac-12 offensive and defensive squads for the 2012 season. The Wildcats were pretty anemic -- the most in the conference -- for this season, according to the website. They only had UA players Tra'Mayne Bondurant and Kyle Quinn on the third teams. Arizona was the only team to have no players make either the first or second teams. Safe to say, nobody's giving the Wildcats much respect; I can't imagine that will translate to Rich Rodriguez's team being as bad as, say, Colorado or Utah, but that's why we play the games, right?

The Scale of Uncertain Positions on the 2012 Arizona Football Team

K_Zim — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 20:21:51 -0000

The 2012 football season is not only about implementing Rich Rodriguez's run-heavy spread, and it's not only about allowing Jeff Casteel's stack defense to gel over the course of a year.

No, patience isn't the only obstacle. Personnel is another.

The Arizona Wildcats, while not left by Mike Stoops with a bare cupboard, have holes across the board. Some of it has been turnover and some of it has been injury, but there's a number of core groups that we're looking at without knowing who the No. 1 guy might be going into this season.

By position, we look at the three biggest uncertainties on the Arizona football team from a scale of "I have bacon neck" to "this place is burning down."

Wide receiver

How uncertain? Kind of uncomfortable, like I have bacon neck

Potential No. 1: Tyler Slavin, Dan Buckner

Sleepers: Johnny Jackson, Richard Morrison

Questionable: Garic Wharton, freshmen, Austin Hill (injured)

*****

Defensive backs

How uncertain? Prepare to live with ugly, like a bad tattoo

Potential No. 1: Tra'Mayne Bondurant, Marquis Flowers, Shaq Richardson

Sleepers: Mark Watley, Jourdon Grandon

Questionable: Jonathan McNight

*****

Defensive ends

How uncertain? Call the ambulance

Potential No. 1: Dan Pettinato, Dame Ndiaye, Lamar De Rego

Sleepers: Let me check my crystal ball.

Questionable: Like predicting the weather.

Arizona's Spring Game and the launch of AZ Desert Swarm's YouTube

K_Zim — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:00:44 -0000

Technology is scary sometimes.

But as most Internet-savvy people (most of you) know, keeping up with it is just a way of life these days. The SB Nation mothership recently launched a YouTube channel as we work toward bringing our ugly faces to your homes to discuss the teams we all follow with close eyes.

In tune with that, we're joining the club, and I'm pumped to debut our AZ Desert Swarm YouTube channel to follow up the football team's Spring game, which kicks off tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Kino Stadium. Because of the construction on Arizona Stadium, it'll be fun to see how the events staff pulls this one off, but the product on the field will of course be the bigger storyline.

If everything goes well, we'll have a recap up in conjunction with the launch of our YouTube channel.

But on to football things.

Return of the ACL-stricken

Ryan Finley's preview of the Spring Game talks about what you probably don't want to talk about. While it acts as the end of the beginning of the Rich Rodriguez era, there's also going to be the return of several players that missed last season due to ACL injuries.

Linebacker Jake Fischer tore his ACL in last year's Spring game, and he return to start at middle linebacker in RichRod's 3-3-5 defense. His playmaking ability, and that of safety Adam Hall, will be a welcome sign to a defense that struggled mightily for last season's 4-8 squad. Defensive tackle Willie Mobley and running back Greg Nwoko are also good to go after suffering ACL tears last year.

Cornerback Jonathan McKnight is the only player that suffered the major injury that's still recovering, Finley writes.

What to watch on offense

As I wrote in the past week, we'll get a good look at how quarterback Matt Scott will play within the spread-option system. Will he run a lot, or will the team look to keep him out of harm's way?

Likely, he won't be keeping it to a great degree. The stable of backs is there, and between the talent of Ka'Deem Carey, Kylan Butler and Greg Nwoko -- back-up Daniel Jenkins is out with a minor injury -- Scott will be in good shape to get rid of the ball.

What to watch on defense

This might be the most telling sign for how the 2012 season will shape up.

Mike Stoops left behind a bit of talent on offense between all the skill players and a young and growing O-line. But the D? It's a completely new system that's been beaten up in two prior scrimmages. Still, we're going to keep an eye on Fischer and Hall's return. The Wildcats struggled simply from not having pure playmakers last season, and these two guys fit that bill.

And of course, we're always hoping Tra'Mayne Bondurant is aiming for heads in a metaphorical, non-Saints-like way.

What to watch on, gulp, special teams

Does John Bonano still have magic?

Links: Former Wildcat landing at NAU, Arenas reveals gun story

K_Zim — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:00:25 -0000

Jeff Goodman of CBS tweets that Memphis assistant Jack Murphy might land the head coaching job at Northern Arizona while Bruce Pascoe and Paola Boivin have also confirmed the news on Twitter. Murphy is a 2002 Arizona alumn and did everything from team manager, to video coordinator, to director of operations while in Tucson under Lute Olson. Murphy, who worked with the Denver Nuggets and followed former Wildcat Josh Pastner to Memphis, is also the son-in-law of former UA athletic director and current UNLV AD Jim Livengood, which set up a weird meeting when UNLV, Memphis and Arizona were in Tulsa for last year's NCAA Tournament.

If Northern Arizona does go with Jack Murphy (which I think will be the case), it'd be a terrific hire. Young, smart and will recruit.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanCBS) April 12, 2012

Former Arizona Wildcats guard Gilbert Arenas told USA Today the back story that led to his gun charges as a member of the Washington Wizards. Apparently, he'd like to forget the days of Agent Zero in return for some peace as he charges into his 11th game with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Here's the Basketball Prospectus' analysis of Kaleb Tarczewski's game at the Nike Hoops Summit. Briefly, this is to say he has a longer way to go than most Wildcat fans anticipate. While his No. 5 overall ranking is good and all, he'll need to do a lot to avoid being the next Kyryl Natyazhko. I say that not as a prediction, but only as a reminder not to freak out if he's riding the bench early next season.

In case you missed the links in the story, here's ESPN and Scout.com's team ratings that both have a top three of Kentucky, Arizona and UCLA, in that order.

An amazing feature on Arizona linebacker Dame Ndiaye's Blind Side-like journey to college football. The story begins in Senegal, then goes to New York, then to San Diego's Hoover High School, where Ndiaye played ball with Arizona hoopster Angelo Chol.

Will Shabazz's decision keep Ben Howland around? Bruins Nation discusses how the embattled head coach can use this season to his advantage (or not).

Again, here's Sebastian Pruiti's rookie rankings, which discuss that Derrick Williams is struggling in transition opportunities. Maybe that's because, well, he's a hybrid four-man, not a wing. But who am I to tell people that?

Our boy Tra'Mayne Bondurant is back at it, this time playing the spur position for RichRod's 3-3-5 defense.

Adam Kramer of Kegs and Eggs fame -- a very entertaining college football blog -- writes this piece for the website that shall go unnamed on how well the Wildcats and Sun Devils will do this season based upon how Rich Rodriguez and Todd Graham threw out the first pitch for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Not journalism, and not to be taken seriously, but funny nonetheless.

Reviewing the All-Pac-12 Wildcats

K_Zim — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:04:14 -0000

It's not surprising the Arizona Wildcats only placed one man on the All-Pac-12 teams.

But between the talent of Juron Criner and Nick Foles, that one man was cornerback Trevin Wade. It's just a little reminder that making the All-Conference teams has a lot to do with how deep in talent some positions are compared to others, and it also shows that we can sometimes forget to appreciate guys who fly under the radar.

Wade was exactly that forgotten man.

Meanwhile, Foles and Criner -- along with center Kyle Quinn, kicker John Bonano, defensive back Tra'Mayne Bondurant -- were listed as Pac-12 honorable mentions.

Here's a review on all of the above players' seasons.

Trevin Wade

Yesterday, I said Wade should be taken in the NFL Draft somewhere around the sixth round, and I guess the league agreed. Wade finished with 52 total tackles on the year and a team-high 13 pass breakups. He only had two interceptions this season, but that's thanks to quarterbacks refusing to test his side of the field.

He promised before the season to come out focused and he did just that. Now if he had gotten his teammates to do the same...

Nick Foles

You're probably wondering how in the world the league Foles could be left out. Well, Andrew Luck and Matt Barkley are good too -- but their teams won, and Foles' Wildcats didn't.

Here are the quick facts. Foles threw for 4,334 yards, had a 2:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio and completed 69 percent of his passes. And of course, there's the leadership thrown in there that makes it harsh to keep him off even the second team.

Pretty much, he played a game of musical chairs with Luck and Barkley and lost. That sucks.

Juron Criner

So Juron Criner is good, but he was inconsistent. Robert Woods was dominant for the USC Trojans, and Criner hurt his reputation with injuries, dropped balls in the middle of the season after returning from an appendectomy and silence to the media.

That didn't help his name reach Pac-12 voters' ears.

Criner ended the season with 956 yards with and 87-yard per game average and 11 touchdowns. No too shabby, and it's likely inaccurate to say Criner isn't one of the best four receivers in the conference (both the First and Second Teams have two WRs on them).

Kyle Quinn

Quietly, Quinn led a young offensive line for the Wildcats and he must have impressed. I'm not one to judge the O-line very accurately, but while they often struggled, it was Quinn who was clearly the leader and the rock of the bunch.

I mean, Foles couldn't have put up 4,334 yards without a little help up front, right?

John Bonano

Was this just a stick-it-to-Stoops pick? After Stoops' firing, Tim Kish took the risk with the kick-off specialist and it paid dividends. Bonano went on a perfect-streak to begin at at the very least, made his extra points.

Maybe the voters just thought it'd be funny, but props to John either way.

He went 8-for-12 on field goal tries and had 22 touchbacks on 67 total kickoffs.

Tra'Mayne Bondurant

Weirdest honorable mention, and I don't even have to look at the other players from all the other rosters. Bondurant didn't start until halfway through the year, only showing up on special teams duties. So it's a bit questionable for the Pac-12 to get him enough votes to be mentioned here.

Then again, Bondurant was dominating when he got his chance. He was second on the team with six pass breakups in only six full games and accumulated 45 tackles, most of which were in that span. He also had an interception and 3.5 tackles for loss.