civil and cal, ok, agreed new nickname is needed (pretty sure geoffrey doesn't have knobs on his neck like frankenstein)

gf needs a nickname that his teammates, announcers & fans can scream when he clown stomps opponents shots in the paint but also simple enough that drunk girls can remember at parties (kind of like shocky1)

ap, fridibulator...hmmmm...

a few ideas:

the 'Fridge
the Friddler (maybe a "why so serious?" chant after a shot block)
F-R-I-De-fense
In your Frid
Right Said Frid (really hate that one)
Frid Flintstone (yaba daba YOU!!)
the Friddle (like the middle)

these are pretty bad for the most part - I apologize, but at least it's a start......

Why the fascination with nicknames? Does Crabbe have one? Cobbs? Solomon? Kravish? Bak?

Doesn't appear to me there is any need. The only good one that I have seen in the last while (at least that I can think of) is Thurmanator.

Kevin Johnson did not have one, unless you consider KJ to be his.

The ones being bandied about, for example, for Kravish and now Frid, perhaps are good for our amusement, with nothing better to discuss. However, if I were either guy, I would say no thanks to all suggestions.

antipattern;841999620 said:

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Elson may have been in the NBA a long time, but he didn't make a huge impact while at Cal. The same can be said for Sean Marks.

I'm all for The Fridibulator making it to the NBA down the road, but here's hoping he realizes his potential while he's still a Bear!

---

Sean Marks was a central player for Cal. He was hitting threes and swatting shots. I do agree that Francisco was not a key player at Cal, but this minimizes all the stuff that did, or did not, happen owing to his role in the offense and defense.

south bender;842000347 said:

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Why the fascination with nicknames? Does Crabbe have one? Cobbs? Solomon? Kravish? Bak?

Doesn't appear to me there is any need. The only good one that I have seen in the last while (at least that I can think of) is Thurmanator.

Kevin Johnson did not have one, unless you consider KJ to be his.

The ones being bandied about, for example, for Kravish and now Frid, perhaps are good for our amusement, with nothing better to discuss. However, if I were either guy, I would say no thanks to all suggestions.

---

agree, I could care less about nicknames. I care if he can play or develops into a player who can contribute... if he could contribute this year, he would not be a RS.(unless injured) What is his vertical? 15 inches or 25 inches?
how much can he bench? 200lb or 300lbs? what is his 40? 5.0 or 6.1?
How good is his up and under? How is his FT shooting mechanics? How much desire does he have to develop his game/skills?

south bender;842000347 said:

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Why the fascination with nicknames? Does Crabbe have one? Cobbs? Solomon? Kravish? Bak?

---

BluesandGold2;842000788 said:

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Sean Marks was a central player for Cal. He was hitting threes and swatting shots. I do agree that Francisco was not a key player at Cal, but this minimizes all the stuff that did, or did not, happen owing to his role in the offense and defense.

---

Fans continue to undervalue big men who don't fill up the box score. Elson was HUGE for the Bears, his defense and ability to negate a lot of dribble drive penetration changed the teams defense. He was cat quick and got a ton of steals and was usually good for a couple of put back buckets you don't get if you're not of his size and athletic makeup.

The guy who some fans REALLY undervalued was Jamal Sampson. He was the best defensive big man I've seen at Cal by a MILE. Yogi got a lot of blocks but he was not nearly as smart or effective at denying post position, and basically shutting down the lane as was Sampson.

Same can be said for those who didn't lament the loss of Zhao. He was also a difference maker on defense. Monty was SUPER upset when he left to play professionally because he understood exactly how much of a game changer he was on defense.

If down the road, Frid can give us 25 minutes a game, give us an 8 and 8 and play 80% as well on defense as Sampson, he will have been a steal and will be a critical piece of the puzzle as we look to go deep in the tourney.

CalHoopFan;842000965 said:

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...The guy who some fans REALLY undervalued was Jamal Sampson. He was the best defensive big man I've seen at Cal by a MILE. Yogi got a lot of blocks but he was not nearly as smart or effective at denying post position, and basically shutting down the lane as was Sampson...

---

I couldn't agree more. Sampson was a terrific defender, especially for a freshman. Probably my biggest regret from the Braun-era was Sampson's decision to leave for the NBA after his freshman season. First of all, you have to wonder if Sampson's NBA career could have turned out differently if he had an additional year of college ball. And the 2002-03 team, with Tamir, Shipp, Wethers and Midgley could have really done some damage with Sampson anchoring the middle. They did pretty well with Gabe Hughes, but Hughes was too foul-prone and couldn't stay on the floor, and he was not nearly as solid a defender as Sampson. Wethers was such a good perimeter defender his senior season. With Sampson in the middle, that team would have been truly special defensively.

LOUMFSG2;842000994 said:

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I couldn't agree more. Sampson was a terrific defender, especially for a freshman. Probably my biggest regret from the Braun-era was Sampson's decision to leave for the NBA after his freshman season. First of all, you have to wonder if Sampson's NBA career could have turned out differently if he had an additional year of college ball. And the 2002-03 team, with Tamir, Shipp, Wethers and Midgley could have really done some damage with Sampson anchoring the middle. They did pretty well with Gabe Hughes, but Hughes was too foul-prone and couldn't stay on the floor, and he was not nearly as solid a defender as Sampson. Wethers was such a good perimeter defender his senior season. With Sampson in the middle, that team would have been truly special defensively.

---

lou, did you know that jamal flunked/did not attend virtually every class his one year at cal?

go kal

Shocky1;842001067 said:

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lou, did you know that jamal flunked/did not attend virtually every class his one year at cal?

go kal

---

I did not know that, but now that you mention it, I remember hearing that not being into the academic side of things played into his decision to leave early. Too bad, he had talent. Wonder what he is doing today (his Wiki page ends with him being released by the Celtics in December 2011) . . .

he is the academic advisor to the head bb coach at deer valley hs

Shocky1;842001084 said:

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he is the academic advisor to the head bb coach at deer valley hs

---

lol, nice . . .

it's official, per monty jr the deadly shooting law firm of bird, matthews and singer have signed all the documents

so what needs to happen next for cal's monster class?

bird (3.0+ gpa), matthews (3.55 gpa) and singer (3.4 gpa) are all elite student athletes and will join the court next season with other 2013 first time playahs in blueshirts frid and rodriguez

frid-currently listed as 7'1", 235 lbs needs to be a muscular & legitimate 250 lbs by next fall
rodriguez-currently listed as 6'9", 225 lbs needs to be an explosive & legitmate 240 lbs by next fall
anything other than dynamic physical development shows a lack of passion & commitment by them to the program as one of them will need to step up to compete with behrens to become the 1st big off the bench (currently the thurminator)

if necessary, with only 12 players on scholly (13 are allowed by ncaa rules) frid should be given a one year scholly so he can eat properly at the team dining facilities to facilitate his growth...powers deserves a one year scholly more than frid but future upside trumps loyalty

so bird, matthews and singer need to arrive in berkelely for summer bridge (sam won't mind missing miami's sweltering dog days of summer) to start building chemistry with future teammates obama, cobb salad, solo, doc kravish, t-wall, captain kerk and uc bearens

meanwhile, the bears need to close on gavin schilling this april
-6'9", 235 lbs inside/outside game
-born in germany, raised in france
-dad lives in germany (used to be a professional handball player)
-currently attending findlay in lv
-4 hs in 4 years in usually a red flag but his geographically spread out parents dictated his attending hs in germany, illinois, etc
-louisville (pitino) and ucla (hovland) staying in touch
-unofficial to usc, likes international biz school
-only official to minnesota, negative was the "weather"
-his top 3 college criteria: 1) great academics with his major 2)style of play 3)great relationship with hc
-"like big cities, don't want to be locked in a small town"

top 3 priorities for this summer:

mr cranky pants needs to get off his azz and spend more time with our future recruits and their families... willie beamon (marcus lee's bro bryan who played at grand canyon univeristy) feedback/warnings regarding our hc's recruiting should not be ignored if we are going to the next level (the bears are not stanfurd where recruiting is more about selection than relentlessly recruiting with a personal touch like coach cal)

btw, i mistakenly thought wb was the deer valley head bb coach, was clown punked by bm's clever early misdirection that he has only seen ml "for the last year and a half"...that's ok, anybody who has ever seen me putt on the 2nd green at sfgc, the 9th at cypress point or the 5th at augusta national knows that shocky1 can be easily fooled

so monty sr needs to spend at least 2 weeks this summer in the beautiful northwest watching and showing love for current 2014 cal commit pg 6' ahmaad rorie...winning championships isn't going to happen with him on the sofa all summer watching swell pbs specials like "the day in the life of a shoemaker on the amalfi coast" so he should make the washington trip fun and take wife sarah up to the chic hotel murano in tacoma (and no, that is not an oxymoron-tacoma and a 5 star hotel) for a summer holiday...watch as many of ahmaad's games as possible during the 2 weeks and in the mornings play chamber's bay in tacoma, a future us open site, along with sahalee and seattle golf club

ahmaad-perfect cal fit for 2013
-3.8 hs gpa
-25 ppg as a soph including 33.7 ppg in the state tnt
-switching high schools this year from 2a clove park to 3a lincoln

decuire is from seattle so he needs to spend a different 2 weeks too in tacoma watching ahmaad...travis should also make arrangements with bb hc aubrey shleton to become the key note speaker at the lincoln hs sports banquet nite

the bears also need to continue to stay closely in touch with denmark's 6'11", 240 lbs sami eleraky at his highly confidential top secret federal protection jc to ensure he is on track both athletically and academically for 2014

other summer priority is for the entire staff including gottlieb and monty jr
to see every soldiers game for 2015 pf ivan rabb, 6'9" from bod, #3 ranked player in 2015 class

rabb already has july offers from the bears and arizona...signifcant recruiting advantage for cal is that his grandfather is a huge bears fan...rabb will be eventually offered by every major program in the country, now is the time to build quality relationships with everyone in the rabb family

monty sr needs to connect with bod, hardy nickerson head fb coach can help if necessary, to ensure he is the keynote speaker at the next bod athletic banquet...monty has a great sense of humor (sarcastic) but he can also come across as arrogant if one doesn't "get" him so it is important he get get off to the right foot with ivan the terrible and his family

sure hope the bod hs bb schedule is taped to monty's blackboard

continuing to win games won't hurt either...

university of california, berkeley=#1 ranked public university in the world

go beers

Are you sure we're a serious contender for Schilling? I've seen a lot of lists associated with that kid, and we're not even mentioned on most of them. And even if we are, there's lots of other schools going after him, so at best we're one of ten or so. Also, he's not taking any visits until fall, presumably so he can see who else gets interested after his year at Findley -- i.e. the list is likely to get longer.

Nice post, Shocky.
Somebody give that man a raise. Or a promotion. (He'll likely be satisfied with just following his advice.)

Maybe Travis McClure can also connect with King McClure of Texas, the #17 recruit for 2015. Distant cousins reunited via common passion of basketball?
http://insider.espn.go.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/player/evaluation/_/id/143190/king-mcclure

Shocky1;842006505 said:

---

it's official, per monty jr the deadly shooting law firm of bird, matthews and singer have signed all the documents

so what needs to happen next for cal's monster class?

bird (3.0+ gpa), matthews (3.55 gpa) and singer (3.4 gpa) are all elite student athletes and will join the court next season with other 2013 first time playahs in blueshirts frid and rodriguez

frid-currently listed as 7'1", 235 lbs needs to be a muscular & legitimate 250 lbs by next fall
rodriguez-currently listed as 6'9", 225 lbs needs to be a strong & legitmate 240 lbs by next fall
anything other than dynamic physical development shows a lack of passion & commitment by them to the program as one of them will need to step up along with behrens to become the 1st big off the bench (currently the thurminator)

if necessary, with only 12 players on scholly (13 are allowed by ncaa rules) frid should be given a one year scholly so he can eat properly at the team dining facilities to facilitate his growth...powers deserves a one year scholly more than frid but future upside trumps loyalty

so bird, matthews and singer need to arrive in berkelely for summer bridge (sam won't miss the sweltering dog days in miami) to start building chemistry with future teammates obama, cobb salad and captain kerk

meanwhile, the bears need to close on gavin schilling this april
-6'9", 235 lbs inside/outside game
-born in germany, raised in france
-dad lives in germany
-mom lives in las vegas
-currently attending findlay in lv
-4 hs in 4 years in usually a red flag but his geographically spread out parents dictated his attending hs in germany, illinois, etc
-louisville (pitino) and ucla (hovland) staying in touch
-unofficial to usc, likes international biz school
-only official to minnesota, negative was the "weather"
-his top 3 college criteria: 1) great academics with his major 2)style of play 3)great relationship with hc

schilling, the german import/export is the final missing piece of cal's monster recruiting class

top 2 priorities for this summer:

mr cranky pants needs to get off his azz and spend more time with our future recruits and their families... willie beamon (marcus lee's washed out of college older bro, bryan lee) feedback/warnings regarding our hc's recruiting should not be ignored if we are going to the next level (the bears are not stanfurd where recruiting is more about selection than relentlessly recruiting with a personal touch like coach cal)

btw, i mistakenly thought wb was the deer valley head bb coach, was clown punked by bm's early misdirection that he has only seen ml "for the last year and a half"...that's ok, anybody who has ever seen me putt on the 2nd green at sfgc, the 9th at cypress point or the 5th at augusta national knows that shocky1 can be easily fooled

so monty sr needs to spend at least 2 weeks this summer in the beautiful northwest watching and showing love for current 2014 cal commit pg ahmaad rorie...winning championships isn't going to happen with him on the sofa all summer watching swell pbs specials like "the day in the life of a shoemaker on the amalfi coast" so he should make the washington trip fun and take wife sarah up to tacoma for a summer holiday...watch as many of ahmaad's games as possible during the 2 weeks and in the mornings play chamber's bay in tacoma, a future us open site, along with sahalee and seattle golf club

ahmaad-perfect cal fit
-3.8 hs gpa
-25 ppg as a soph including 33 ppg in the state tnt
-switching high schools this year from 2a clover hill to lincoln

decuire is from seattle so he needs to spend a different 2 weeks too in tacoma watching ahmaad...travis should also make arrangements to become the key note speaker at the lincoln hs sports banquet nite

other summer priority is for the entire staff including gottlieb and monty jr
to see every soldiers game for 2015 pf ivan rabb, 6'9" from bod, #3 ranked player in 2015 class

rabb already has july offers from the bears and arizona...signifcant recruiting advantage for cal is that his grandfather is a huge bears fan...rabb will be eventually offered by every major program in the country, now is the time to build quality relationships with everyone in the rabb family

monty sr needs to connect with bod, hardy nickerson head fb coach can help if necessary, to ensure he is the keynote speaker at the next bod athletic banquet...monty has a great sense of humor (sarcastic) but he can also come across as arrogant if one doesn't "get" him so it is important he get get off to the right foot with ivan the terrible and his family

sure hope the bod hs bb schedule is taped to monty's blackboard

continuing to win games won't hurt either...

go beers

---

Great post Shocky. Keep working on that putt.

tom, hate to be the one to break the bad news to you but oktoberfest is over already

travis decuire thanks you

please drive & drink responsibly

go beers

Shocky1;842006650 said:

---

tom, hate to be the one to break the bad news to you but oktoberfest is over already

travis decuire thanks you

please drive & drink responsibly

go beers

---

Smith, Smyth; Jorgenson, Jorgensen - what's the difference?
Make it work. At least it'll get the door cracked open before the mistake is realized. By then you're sitting in the living room talking about the great program Mike Montgomery has out in California.

What can I say, it was early, I couldn't sleep.

you make a good point...

ap, gavin schilling is the final piece of the puzzle and yes there is serious competition

he will make his visits after the findlay season (has only visited minnesota on an official) and then sign this april

gavin is fluent in german, french and english and very interested in international business...the bears need to secure an official visit and have him tour the #1 ranked undergrad b-school in the usa, the haas biz school, preferably with alex morgan in body paint or lederhosen (with no undershirt)

the key to schilling's recruitment will be his dad, who lives in germany...he arranged for gavin to attend an elite bb development hs as a soph in germany (gavin grew up in germany until age 8 when he moved to chicago)

therefore monty sr & monty jr need to roadtrip again (just like their successful recruiting trip to singer's family in florida) and take the red eye on wednesday march 6th after the 8:00 pm final season game with stanford from sfo to munich/berlin...then they need to meet with gavin's dad and answer all of his questions in person at the hof brau...they can be back by march 9th, plenty of time to start gameplanning for the pac 12 bb tnt in lv...hopefully gavin will attend the tnt in person

hopefully then schilling will official to cal in late march and sign in april wit da bears

Shocky1;842006728 said:

---

ap, gavin schilling is the final piece of the puzzle and yes there is serious competition

he will make his visits after the findlay season (has only visited minnesota on an official) and then sign this april

gavin is fluent in german, french and english and very interested in international business...the bears need to secure an official visit and have him tour the #1 ranked undergrad b-school in the usa, the haas biz school, preferably with alex morgan in body paint or lederhosen (with no undershirt)

the key to schilling's recruitment will be his dad, who lives in germany...he arranged for gavin to attend an elite bb development hs as a soph in germany (gavin grew up in germany until age 8 when he moved to chicago)

therefore monty sr & monty jr need to roadtrip again (just like their successful recruiting trip to singer's family in florida) and take the red eye on wednesday march 6th after the 8:00 pm final season game with stanford from sfo to munich/berlin...then they need to meet with gavin's dad and answer all of his questions in person at the hof brau...they can be back by march 9th, plenty of time to start gameplanning for the pac 12 bb tnt in lv...hopefully gavin will attend the tnt in person

hopefully then schilling will official to cal in late march and sign in april wit da bears

---

conversation at the haas b-school:

morgan: do you have any other questions about the haas biz school or about life as a cal student athlete or anything else?

gavin: uh.....what's your #?

morgan: is the paint fading a bit?

gavin: uh...what's your #?

all american jabari bird throws down 23 pts and 5 dunks is 22 minutes (more than a point per minute offensive production) in salesian's 89-77 win over deer valley (ml-dnp groin injury) last night

dad carl is looking forward to watching jb in a bear's uniform no doubt!

Shocky - great posts and thanks.

Thanks for the update about Mr. Bird.

kameron rooks, a 7 ft & 265 lb c from san diego is down to 4 schools

kr has already tripped to washington and asu and will visit arizona on dec 14th

his dad sean played for lute, then a dozen years in the nba and is currently a player development assistant for the phx suns (which is a huge plus for the bears as nba front office staff and coaches are aware of monty's development of post players)

kameron has indicated he would like to visit cal in dec and then make a final decision...both travis and monty jr have done a good job with his recruitment

kr is a smart kid with a 3.5 hs gpa & also made the san diego union tribune 2011 all academic team...he has publicly acknowledged that cal is in a different academic realm than the huskies, sun devils and wildcats

rooks biggest challenge down the road will be to relentlessly work 100% in college to transform his body into a sleeker, much better conditioned athletic version...cal's $150m high performance center will be a key recruiting tool for the bears to facilitate this necessary transformation

while the wildcats would seem to have an advantage because of his dad's collegiate playing days in tuscon, rooks has stated that the style of play (the wildcats frentic tempo might not be a good fit for kr) will play into the decision along with academics and future teammates

rooks would be a solid big man addition to the current class of elite student athletes and deadly shooting law firm of bird (3.00+ gpa), matthews (3.55 gpa) and singer (3.4 gpa) to combine forces in 2013 with obama, cobb salad, solo, doc kravish, t-wall, captain kerk and uc bearens for a championship run

univeristy of california, berkeley=#1 ranked public university in the world

Funny but true story.

When Phil Matthews was the coach at USF, the university supplied him with a house on one of the terraces between the USF campus and Lone Mountain.

Lo and behold, he winds up living right behind my folks.

According to my dad, Phil Matthews was a real drill sergeant, type A personality, including getting after his kids.

I don't suspect laziness will be a trait of the younger Matthews.

pdxoski;842022401 said:

---

Funny but true story.

When Phil Matthews was the coach at USF, the university supplied him with a house on one of the terraces between the USF campus and Lone Mountain.

Lo and behold, he winds up living right behind my folks.

According to my dad, Phil Matthews was a real drill sergeant, type A personality, including getting after his kids.

I don't suspect laziness will be a trait of the younger Matthews.

---

good stuff...3.55 hs gpa suggests phil expects his kids to be well rounded high performers

jordan exploded for 29 pts last night in santa monica's 70-36 win over torrance in his season opener

Shocky1;842022405 said:

---

good stuff...3.55 hs gpa suggests phil expects his kids to be well rounded high performers

jordan exploded for 29 pts last night in santa monica's 70-36 win over torrance in his season opener

---

Shocky, I have a question that the GPA mention brings up. When you are talking about many students in high school and GPA it is a fixed number over the courses they have taken. But if they are on a track where there math studies are Algebra 1, Geometry, Alg II, as compared to a Cal tracking student who does most of those courses in Jr. High and starts with Alg II/Trig, pre calculus, calculus, stat, what does that GPA mean with regards to performance at Cal. As good as it is, may still be a problem.

I am only aware of this because we have grandchildren in high school right now, and the course difference between the UC/private school tracking kids and those who are not going that route is tremendous. A 3.0 to 3.5 means a lot less when you have a 5.0 scale top.

What I don't know how to read is can these students perform academically at Cal or is there too much of a chasm? It sounds good, but is it really?

Shocky1;842022176 said:

---

kameron rooks, a 7 ft & 265 lb c from san diego is down to 4 schools

kr has already tripped to washington and asu and will visit arizona on dec 14th

his dad sean played for lute, then a dozen years in the nba and is currently a player development assistant for the phx suns (which is a huge plus for the bears as nba front office staff and coaches are aware of monty's development of post players)

kameron has indicated he would like to visit cal in dec and then make a final decision...both travis and monty jr have done a good job with his recruitment

kr is a smart kid with a 3.5 hs gpa & also made the san diego union tribune 2011 all academic team...he has publicly acknowledged that cal is in a different academic realm than the huskies, sun devils and wildcats

rooks biggest challenge down the road will be to relentlessly work 100% in college to transform his body into a sleeker, much better conditioned athletic version...cal's $150m high performance center will be a key recruiting tool for the bears to facilitate this necessary transformation

while the wildcats would seem to have an advantage because of his dad's collegiate playing days in tuscon, rooks has stated that the style of play (the wildcats frentic tempo might not be a good fit for kr) will play into the decision along with academics and future teammates

rooks would be a solid big man addition to the current class of elite student athletes and deadly shooting law firm of bird (3.00+ gpa), matthews (3.55 gpa) and singer (3.4 gpa) to combine forces in 2013 with obama, cobb salad, solo, doc kravish, t-wall and captain kerk for a championship run

univeristy of california, berkeley=#1 ranked public university in the world

---

Arizona sent me an acceptance letter with two grammatical errors on it. If the kid is smart, he knows where to go. Sounds like Cal would be a great fit.

bearsandgiants;842022488 said:

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Arizona sent me an acceptance letter with two grammatical errors on it. If the kid is smart, he knows where to go. Sounds like Cal would be a great fit.

---

that becuze s miller be gone when 2012 be dun

sm don't know x's & o's, missed ncaa 2 out of 3 year, embarzzzing

no wonder lute want sm gone, tired of red & blue loosing

sm=nit coach, only 1 nba baller in 3 year mean no $$$
sm=nit coach, most 12-pac transfars in 3 year>>>>adios

sm+d williams=winning
sm-d williams=loosing

k rooks ain't stoopid

++++tuscon smell bad

odonto, you bring up some good pts re: the potential for grade inflation, etc. with gpas

check out the sept 30th post on this thread which details the 2013 cal bears gpas

we should be proud that our mens basketball team at the #1 ranked public university in the world fields a terrific collection of student athletes that are among the top 1% of bcs schools, only duke and stanford rival our players scholastic abilities

a few of these bears will play professionally but most will be highly successful in business, medicine, etc. in the future, not only financially but also in their ability to raise educated children in their future families

a mind is terrible thing to waste

go bears

Shocky- thanks for the posts. You really make think about Arizona and give valuable insights into the inner workings of the Wash- I mean Arizona athletic program.

kameron rooks will kofficially visit kal on kecember 8-9 including the unlv game

no krispy kreme for kameron