Four months after his ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ basketball career ended, point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright flipped the Wildcats another assist.
Jackson-Cartwright said he has been in frequent touch with Cornell forward Stone Gettings, a second-team all-Ivy League pick who told 247 Sports on Monday that he will play for the Wildcats in 2019-20 as a graduate student. Jackson-Cartwright and Gettings played together at Loyola High School in Los Angeles.
Asked by text message if he played any role in Gettings’ decision, Jackson-Cartwright said: “I would like to think so lol. I found ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ was recruiting him, and I right away connected with Stone. We’ve been in contact at least 2-3 times a week since May. He’d call me and ask me questions about the process and ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.â€
Gettings played with Jackson-Cartwright and former UCLA center Thomas Welsh at Loyola High School. But while Welsh and Jackson-Cartwright were then considered elite recruits, Los Angeles-based 247 analyst Josh Gerson said he believed Gettings only had Division I offers from Cornell and Columbia at the time.
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“He was a good Ivy League prospect and then grew a couple of inches after high school,†Gershon said. “Late bloomer who made a big jump in high school.â€
Gettings’ stats are proof. He averaged just 9.5 minutes a game as a freshman in 2015-16 but grew into a starter as a sophomore and broke out last season when he averaged 16.7 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. He also took an average of 4.1 free throws a game and hit them at an 82.5-percent rate.
While it is unclear what sort of frontcourt ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ will have in 2019-20 — Chase Jeter, Ira Lee and Emmanuel Akot could all return — Gettings has potential to become a solid contributor. He told 247 Sports he will graduate from Cornell in December, meaning he could enroll at UA in January and participate in practices during the upcoming Pac-12 season.
“I think he’ll be a great fit for Sean,†Jackson-Cartwright said of UA coach Sean Miller. “We played together at Loyola and he was always a hard worker. His skill set has improved every year since high school. He’s gonna add toughness along with his high IQ and shooting ability.â€
The UA cannot announce Gettings’ decision until he signs scholarship papers, and Gettings could not be reached for comment. But Gettings told 247 Sports that new UA assistant coach Danny Peters did a great job recruiting him, while saying he was “more and more fired up†after every conversation he had with Miller.
“I just felt really confident in everything they are doing at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥,†Gettings said.
If Gettings enrolls at the UA in midseason, he could take the Wildcats’ 13th and final scholarship spot. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ currently has 12 players on scholarship, including former walk-on Jake DesJardins.
Ristic to start pro career with Belgrade
Former UA center Dusan Ristic has agreed to a three-year contract with Belgrade Red Star to begin his professional career, the club announced Monday. Ristic also announced the news on Twitter.
“I’m more than excited to announce that I will start my professional basketball career at the European powerhouse Red Star Belgrade,†Ristic said. “Just like the University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ basketball team, Red Star has an extremely rich history, tradition, and amazing fans. I’m thrilled to continue my career with a high-level team, and to keep representing the University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ worldwide.â€
The 7-foot Serbian played for the Red Star’s developmental clubs before moving to the United States as a high school senior, first joining Kansas’ Sunrise Christian High School and then ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.
Ristic has said his relationship with Red Star was strained when he decided to leave Serbia in high school instead of staying with the club, but said after last season spring that things had improved. Ristic went through the NBA predraft process this spring and played in the Portsmouth Invitational, while also working out for several NBA teams.
Pac-12 announces preliminary schedule
The Wildcats were handed a logistically favorable Pac-12 schedule, according to weekend schedule pairs that were released Monday.
The UA will open at McKale Center during the weekend of Jan. 2-6 by hosting Colorado and Utah and also close at home with ASU during the weekend of March 6. The Cats will play four of their first six conference games at home, while big road trips to Oregon and Los Angeles will be spaced a month apart.
Games can be played anytime between Wednesday and Sunday during a particular week, and exact dates and times for Pac-12 games won’t be announced until late summer or early fall.
Because of the Pac-12’s unbalanced schedule, the Wildcats will not travel to Washington and Washington State, and won’t host USC or UCLA.
Phoenix area awarded 2024 Final Four
The NCAA opted to rotate the Final Four back to Glendale and the University of Phoenix Stadium in 2024, after the 2017 version was held there. The Final Four previously hadn’t been held in the West since 1995 and, as it turned out, both Oregon and Gonzaga made the 2017 event. Gonzaga lost to North Carolina in the title game. The NCAA also announced that Houston (2023), San Antonio (2025) and Indianapolis (2026) were assigned future Final Fours.
“We are thrilled for the cities of Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio and Indianapolis,†said Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, in a statement. “All those cities have hosted the event with overwhelming success in recent years, and yet all of them approached the bid process with an unassuming energy. We look forward to bringing the NCAA’s marquee championship back to those locations.â€
Other Final Fours have already been announced: Minneapolis in 2019, Atlanta in 2020, Indianapolis in 2021 and New Orleans in 2022.