Offensive standout Keanu Nelson of Sabino High School met former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last weekend when he visited Stanford and committed.

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On his recruiting visit to Stanford last weekend, Sabino football standout Keanu Nelson spent 30 minutes chatting with Condoleezza Rice and later attended a sports-law class at which Steve Young and Bill Walton were guest speakers.

How do you beat that?

Later that night, after Stanford beat Arizona State, Nelson was invited into the Cardinal locker room. When coach Jim Harbaugh announced to the team that Nelson had committed to play at Stanford, he was hoisted into the air, given a rousing ovation and then asked to give a speech.

No wonder the versatile back-receiver-returner chose Stanford.

Attending Stanford on an athletic scholarship worked well for the five most high-profile Tucsonans to do so over the last 30 years. Note that all have returned to Tucson.

• Sarah Beeson Andersen, Canyon del Oro, softball player. She became a two-time consensus All-America first baseman and is probably the top player in Stanford history. She earned a pre-med degree, later graduated from med school at Washington University in St. Louis and has returned to Tucson. She is now a research specialist at UMC, mostly with stroke patients.

• Steve Budinger, Catalina, linebacker. After graduating from Stanford with an econ degree, Budinger (defensive MVP of the 1978 Bluebonnet Bowl), has opened his own financial investment firm in Tucson.

• Scott Leber, Salpointe, soccer. After becoming a first-team All-Pac-10 player in 2000, Leber was drafted by the MLS Columbus Crew. He later co-founded Coastal Soccer, a coaching, training and camp organization with more than 45 coaches training 4,000 players a week. He sold that business and then founded I-Soccer, an Internet-based soccer training program. He has returned to Tucson.

• Corey Hill, Sabino, football. A three-year starter at Stanford, at cornerback, Hill helped the Sabercats win the 1992 state title. He graduated from Stanford with a finance degree, worked in financial management at Raytheon and now works in property acquisition for KB Home in Tucson.

• Jon Volpe, Amphi, football. The state champion wrestler gained 1,027 yards as Stanford's starting tailback in 1988 and then rushed for 1,395 yards for the BC Lions and became rookie of the year in the Canadian Football League. He is chairman and CEO of Nova Home Loans here.

UA baseball coach Jerry Kindall quietly recruited third baseman Brad Mills to Arizona from the College of the Sequoias in the summer of 1977. Mills hit a sizzling .435 in 1978, was a second-team All-American and a teammate of Terry Francona, who would become the 1980 NCAA Player of the Year.

Now, after being manager Francona's bench coach for the Boston Red Sox, Mills is the manager of the Houston Astros. Until that announcement Tuesday, Mills might have been more famous for being the 3,509th strikeout victim of Nolan Ryan, which gave Ryan the career strikeout record in 1983. Mills later played two seasons, 1984-85, with the Tucson Toros.

It's fascinating to compare the backgrounds of Francona and Mills. Francona came from big-league timber: His father, Tito, played in 1,719 games with the Orioles, White Sox, Tigers, Indians, Cardinals, Phillies, Braves, Athletics and Brewers. Mills is the son of a farmer; his father, Jim, still works 15 acres of orange trees near Visalia, Calif.

Tucsonans Nate Tyler, Brian Prouty and Josh Wilks excelled at the first stage of PGA Tour Qualifying School last week in California. Tyler, a Sabino grad, shot 69-72-67-68 (12 under) to finish second overall and advance to Stage II this month. Prouty, a Salpointe product, shot 72-67-69-71 to finish eighth overall and easily advance. Wilks, also from Sabino, shot 75-69-70-71 to advance by two strokes. Unfortunately, ex-Rincon/University golfer Michael Thompson failed to advance while shooting 74-75-68-73 in Georgia. … That means five ex-Tucson preps, including earlier qualifiers Matt Rosen and Jake Rogers moved on in the brutally difficult Q-School. … Ex-Wildcat Lorena Ochoa will not be able to attend the UA Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony Friday, as previously hoped. She instead has decided to play in the Mizuno Classic in Japan this week as she attempts to climb from No. 4 to No. 1 on the LPGA money list. … New York Yankees batting coach Kevin Long hopes there won't be a rainout in the World Series, extending it to Friday night. The ex-UA outfielder pledged to be at the Hall of Fame ceremony honoring former Arizona first baseman J.T. Snow that day. … Two Olympic gold medalists, Colleen Lanne, a member of the USA swimming team at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and softball star Tairia Mims Flowers, of the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, will be honored Saturday night at the Salpointe Sports Hall of Fame ceremony. Both have retired from their sports. Also to be inducted is Ray Hornfeck, who went on to be an all-conference defensive back at New Mexico. Hornfeck is an estimator for Qualified Mechanical Contractors in Tucson.

After impressively winning back-to-back boys 1-A basketball state championships at St. Gregory's, coach Paul Baranowski is leaving the school. He will move to La Jolla, Calif., to operate a community/fitness center. Baranowski, who was 35-1 at St. Greg's last year and 67-4 over the last two seasons, obviously will be missed. … UA swimming coach Frank Busch has been selected to coach the USA men's team in the "Duel in the Pool" competition next month against a group of European Olympic swimmers. Normally, that's a good week in itself. But by Friday, Busch had received recruiting commitments from nine blue-chip high school seniors in one of his most successful recruiting years. On Nov. 12, Busch expects to sign prep All-Americans from Ohio, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Florida and Arkansas. His latest commitment came from Krissie Brandenburg of Cincinnati, whose high school butterfly times draw comparisons to the ex-Ohio prep Mary T. Meagher, the greatest female butterflier in history. … Ironwood Ridge senior Scott Filbert, defending state wrestling champion at 125 pounds, has accepted a scholarship to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Filbert was 47-3 last year and ranked No. 24 nationally. He declined an offer from Missouri, among others, to wrestle at Army. … Sabino grad Lucas Reed is emerging as a top tight end in the Mountain West Conference. The New Mexico Lobo freshman caught his first career touchdown pass last week against UNLV and caught 11 passes in the first half of the Lobos' season. … And how about Salpointe grad Alex Johnson winning his first college golf tournament last week? The Pacific junior shot 9-under par for three rounds, 66-68-73, to win the Cullum Invitational near Los Angeles. Impressive. It was a UOP record for under-par scores.

After winning the International League batting title this summer, Tucsonan Jordan Brown is again tearing it up, this time in the Venezuelan Winter League. Brown, an outfielder in the Cleveland Indians system, hit .375 over his last 10 games for Caracas. Brown will return to Tucson on Dec. 5-6 to hold a camp for players 8-17. Oakland A's pitcher John Meloan will assist Brown with the camp. Their UA teammate Trevor Crowe of the Cleveland Indians will be an instructor. Information: brownmeloanazcamp@ yahoo.com. … Arizona's homecoming game against Wazzu kicks off at 1:30 p.m., on Saturday. Perfect. Just like real football. It will be telecast live on KWBA Channel 58 and delayed at 8:30 on Fox Sports Arizona. … Nick Foles has passed for 1,399 yards in basically four games. Why does that excite UA fans? It's more yardage already than Arizona's leading passers in 12 of the school's 30 Pac-10 seasons. Foles' completion percentage, .723, is the highest in school history. Only Willie Tuitama, at .649 and .624 and Keith Smith at .684 and .606, exceeded 60 percent in a season. … After batting down two passes at or behind scrimmage, returning one for a score, some UCLA defensive players last week were quoted as saying they had figured out Arizona's plays by "reading hand signals'' from the UA bench. But Sonny Dykes' offense somehow produced 95 rushing yards from wideouts. If indeed the Wildcats were tipping plays, the Bruins were slow learners. I trust that Dykes and play-transmitter Dave Nichol will adapt without any problem.

With two words – "we're deep" — UA sophomore guard Brendon Lavender last week put the new era of Wildcat basketball into context.

The Wildcats are not deep in the sense of having someone like Will Bynum or Michael Dickerson sitting on the bench.

But at the start of the Sean Miller years, it indeed appears Arizona has 10 varsity-ready players. None are stars. But this should be a resourceful, exciting team with a lot of moving parts.

Arizona will indeed be deep if Lavender develops into a capable Pac-10 player, and if Jamelle Horne grows into his basketball body.

My guess is that the development of Lavender and Horne will be the key to Miller's first Arizona team. If they are good, Arizona will be good. If not, wait 'til next year.