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Arizona gave Matt Brase more than a 50 percent raise to become an assistant basketball coach on Nov. 7, while basketball operations director Dewey Pennell will be paid $32,072 over only the five-month season.

Brase, a former UA walk-on player who is the grandson of former UA coach Lute Olson, made $38,719 last season as a basketball administrative aide. He will now be paid $65,000, according to UA records obtained by the Star via a public-records request.

Dewey Pennell, a former longtime high school coach who is the father of UA interim head coach Russ Pennell, will be paid $32,072 for the five months he will serve as a coordinator of basketball operations.

Russ Pennell was raised from $150,000 to $500,000 when he took over for Olson last month. UA athletic director Jim Livengood said Pennell would be paid a prorated amount of the new salary from his appointment on Oct. 24 through next June 30, but declined additional comment on it.

While other UA coach salaries extend through the end of the fiscal year in June, Livengood said Dewey Pennell's deal expires at the end of the basketball season.

Technically, Arizona has raised the $20 million needed to cover the cost of its "Phase Two" athletics improvement project — the Richard Jefferson practice gym, new diving pool and gymnastics upgrades.

But most of that money is coming in over five-year periods, while Jefferson has a separate multiyear plan for his pledge. So the UA actually put down only $1 million on the project and is financing the $19 million balance, according to senior associate AD Scott Mackenzie, so it also needs to pay some pretty hefty interest charges.

Meanwhile, a new promenade area was constructed in front of Jefferson Gym for a cost of $1.5 million, for aesthetics as well as drainage reasons.

"We do have a ways to go," Mackenzie said. "We're going to be working on this for a while."

Three major donations are anchoring the UA's efforts: pledges of $3.5 million from Jefferson, $2.5 million from David and Edith Lowell and $1 million from Coleman and Jeannie Davis.

Steve Kozachik, UA facilities director, said the Jefferson Gym is nearly finished, except for some graphics to the walls and other minor touches. The Lowell pledge prompted a memorial outside the gym for three 1942 UA football players who were killed while serving in World War II.

The mother of former freshman center Jeff Withey said her son still does not know if an appeal to get out of his letter of intent will be successful.

Debbie Withey declined to comment in detail but said her son has filed to receive the right to talk with other schools about transferring. Without a release from that restriction, which was denied by Livengood, Withey will not be eligible for financial aid next season if he does talk with other schools.

Withey also can apply for a waiver getting him the full four years of eligibility back. Without a release, he must sit out next season under NCAA transfer rules and have only three full years to play.

Instead of waiting to see whom Arizona would hire next spring, Top 75 recruit Mike Moser said he decided he should take UCLA's offer immediately. if he didn't sign this week, he would not have been eligible until spring, when his possibilities might have been different.

"Exactly," Moser said Thursday. "I felt like I was finishing off a great class."

Moser said he initially didn't spend much time looking into UCLA but did after UA coach Lute Olson retired last month. Moser took official visits to the UA and UCLA in recent weeks, then made his decision at the end of the fall signing period.

"Arizona was a good fit at the time, really," Moser said. "Toward the end, (UCLA coach Ben) Howland came down a lot to see me. He's a great coach. It just felt right."

Two of UA's three original 2009 commitments — Moser and guard Abdul Gaddy (Washington) have now signed elsewhere — while forward Solomon Hill opted to wait until the spring.