Khalid Reeves was first, making the trek from Queens to Tucson, Arizona, in 1990. Kevin Parrom followed nearly a decade later.
And now, in back to back years, Arizona has landed two more of the area’s top guards, five-star Brooklyn native Rawle Alkins last spring and top-40 prospect Brandon Randolph of Yonkers this week.
Arizona may not make the cross-country trek often, but the Wildcats have been successful when they do with head coach Sean Miller picking up a verbal commitment from Randolph, one of the nation’s elite shooters.
The Wildcats’ history of landing New Yorkers wasn’t the reason Randolph picked the school, but it didn’t hurt, either.
“They talked about that. They wanted [me] to be part of that history,” said the Yonkers native who attends prep powerhouse The Westtown School in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Randolph had a long list of suitors, 31 scholarship offers in all. Virtually all of them came in the past calendar year, after he shot up to 6-foot-6, and exploded on the AAU circuit with the PSA Cardinals. Aside from Arizona, Syracuse, Wake Forest and Oregon made his final list. But after his visit to Tucson, his mind was made up.
Arizona had his preferred major — accounting and finance — played the kind of up-tempo style he thrives in, and offered the winning pedigree he was looking for, having reached the NCAA Tournament 30 times in the past 32 years. Miller was his lead recruiter, the one calling him and frequently checked in, as opposed to assistants from other schools. He felt a bond for that reason.
“He had a check list of things he was looking for in a school,” his mother, Robin, said. “When we came back from Arizona, he said they had everything on the check list.”
Said Randolph: “I was worried what would be the best place for me to succeed, and I just tried to do what was best for me. Arizona was just the best fit.”
The attraction to Arizona for New Yorkers makes sense: The weather is always warm, and the team often wins. Miller is a fiery coaching star in his prime, and at his side is assistant Emanuel “Book” Richardson, a New York product with endless city ties.
“They’ve had success with recruiting New York kids because they offer a major national program with a passionate group of boosters in a completely different setting,” 247Sports.com national recruiting analyst Andrew Slater said. “Arizona may not have been to a Final Four in fifteen years, but they’ve been a consistent tournament team and a marquee one nationally.”
It’s not just in New York, of course, where Arizona’s recruiting thrives. It has become an elite national recruiting power under Miller and Richardson. Its 2017 class is loaded, led by five-star forward DeAndre Ayton, arguably the top recruit, top 100 guard Alex Barcello, and now Randolph.
And it has done extremely well with New York players, from Reeves, an All-American who led Arizona to the Final Four in 1994 and was a first round NBA draft pick, to Parrom, a Bronx native who played in three NCAA Tournaments and was a key contributor. The next wave is Alkins and Randolph. And if they pan out as expected, it would only make the Wildcats more attractive to future up-and-coming local prospects, whether or not Duke and Kentucky continue to try to recruit in the city.
Consensus top 10 senior Hamidou Diallo from Queens attended Connecticut’s First Night event on Friday, as did Iona Prep sophomore guard Bryce Wills.
Queens forward Nick Richards, a five-star senior recruit, attended Kentucky’s “Big Blue Madness” on Friday. Kentucky assistant Tony Barbee stopped by Archbishop Molloy on Wednesday to see juniors Khalid Moore and Moses Brown and sophomore Cole Anthony.
Rutgers and DePaul both offered South Kent (Conn.) junior guard Anthony Nelson of Harlem a scholarship Wednesday.
Stony Brook landed a verbal commitment from junior forward Anthony Ochefu of The Westtown School Thursday, while New Jersey guard Matt Turner from Blair Academy committed to Santa Clara Monday.
St. John’s will host sophomore Max Lorca, a four-star forward from Northfield Mount Hermon (Mass.), Monday for an unofficial visit. Lorca is visiting Columbia Saturday.