Alex Jacobson, center, who will be coming to the UA in 2007-08, says his game needs work but that his confidence has improved.

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Alex Jacobson spent his last minutes this weekend at McKale Center sprawled out on a chair, mired in foul trouble, pondering the first losing tournament exit his SoCal All-Stars team has made all season.

"It was really weird," Jacobson said after a double-overtime loss to Houston Hoops in the quarterfinals of the Arizona Cactus Classic AAU tournament.

Jacobson expects much more the next time he hits the McKale Center floor. A 7-foot, 230-pound junior at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., who has verbally committed to the UA, Jacobson says he hopes to be a muscle-bound 275 by the time he puts on a Wildcat uniform in 2007.

He also expects to possess considerably more skills.

"I still have a long way to go," Jacobson said. "But I have improved my confidence."

SoCal All-Stars coach Joedy Gardner, who has watched Jacobson improve consistently since he was in eighth grade, said Jacobson is on track to become a contributor at Arizona within two years.

Gardner said Jacobson might be better off taking a redshirt season, either in his first or second season at the UA, but that he will be eventually there.

"He's still got about two years," Gardner said. Arizona "is the right program for him. It's perfect. They're very good at working with big guys.

"If you look at it, he's got another year of high school, a redshirt year and he's got three summers. That's what (UA coaches) are banking on. He can run, he's got a great attitude, very coachable, and he's a great kid."

It was difficult to judge how ready Jacobson was during the Cactus Classic, where he did not become one of the 21 players named to the all-tournament team. Perimeter players often took over and it didn't help that Jacobson ran into foul trouble several times, either

"It is" perimeter-oriented, Gardner said. "The players on this team just have to be more confident to get the ball to him. We do get it inside."

Mostly, when the SoCal All-Stars go inside, they go to Kevin Love, a 6-9 center from Oregon who is one of the top five juniors in the country.

But Love stayed home over the weekend to attend his prom, and though he wanted to fly down to play Sunday, Cactus Classic rules did not permit championship-round use of a player who had not entered at least one pool-play game.

So without Love, and with Jacobson stuck in foul trouble, the All-Stars lost in double overtime to Houston Hoops, who also edged the Las Vegas Prospects in the semifinals before Pump N' Run elite beat them 67-48 in the championship game.

Hoops forward Gary Johnson, one of the UA's top remaining targets in the 2007 class, had 15 points and six rebounds. Tournament MVP James Harden had 20 points and seven rebounds for Pump N' Run.

Johnson, Hoops guard Jai Lucas and committed UA recruit Jamelle Horne were all named to the 21-man all-tournament team.

Among those on hand Sunday were former NBA coach John Lucas, father of Jai Lucas, and incoming UA freshman guard Nic Wise, whose father, Greg, coached the Hoops team.