The 6-foot-8-inch Chase Budinger will play immediately for the UA next season as a freshman, and he's versatile enough to fill a variety of positions. He is averaging 33.1 points a game in high school this year.

North County Times 2005

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Arizona-bound basketball recruit Chase Budinger broke the San Diego-area high school scoring record on Friday, pushing his career total to 2,635 points.

Until a year ago, the San Diego record (2,549) belonged to Tony Clark, recruited by Lute Olson in 1990. Clark left the UA after a semester, unable to get enough playing time on a veteran front line that included Chris Mills, Deron Johnson, Sean Rooks and Brian Williams.

Clark finished at San Diego State where he was useful but not a star. He has since earned $18.5 million, hitting 221 home runs, playing first base for the Tigers, Red Sox, Mets, Yankees and now Diamondbacks.

Could this be another Clark, a scoring machine and nothing else? No way. Budinger will find no such logjam of veteran talent in front of him next season. He could immediately be the UA's leading player, or close to it, in a group with Marcus Williams and Jawann McClellan.

At 6 feet 8 inches, Budinger is averaging 33.1 points for La Costa Canyon High School. He can play virtually any position except center. His shooting range is in the Sean Elliott category. Budinger's coach, Dave Cassaw, told reporters Friday "when all the college coaches were recruiting him, the comment they made time and time again was how unselfish he is."

Short stuff

● Before he bids for the White Sox center field job at spring training, Tucsonan Brian Anderson is flying to Washington D.C. today. He will be part of the White Sox's World Series championship contingent that will meet the president on Monday at the White House. … Former UA recruit Ndudi Ebi finally got back into action this week. He signed with Fort Worth of the NBDL, which had already played 31 games. Will Bynum scored 34 points for Roanoke in his last NBDL game. He is averaging a team-high 24.5 in 19 games. … Former UA assistant football coaches Scott Pelluer and Steve Axman, who lost their jobs in the series of coaching mishaps at Washington, are competing for an opening on the Washington State staff. Pelluer is a Cougar alumnus. … UA volleyball coach Dave Rubio is about to lose long-time assistant coach Charita Stubbs, who seems to be the top choice to be named head coach at North Carolina State this week. Talk about a rebuilding job: The Wolfpack was 1-21 in ACC games, finishing with a 12-game losing streak last season. At Arizona for 14 seasons, 10 as a coach, Stubbs was a key part of Rubio's program as a player and coach. She twice played on Sweet 16 teams in the mid-90s.

● A delegation of Tucson Conquistadores met with Accenture WGC Match Play officials last week, exchanging ideas on how the 2007 match-play tournament will be operated in Tucson. The Conquistadores for 40 years have operated the PGA Tour's Tucson stop on an intensive year-round basis. But the Accenture people do the day-to-day work at the tournament, making the Conquistadores' future role unclear. It's more of an annual corporate convention for Accenture, a made-for-TV event starring Tiger Woods. No official announcement on the event's move to Tucson has been made. … It was old-home week for Oregon State and Oregon student basketball managers at McKale Center last week. UO team manager Scott Marian and OSU student hoops manager Steven Sethney were teammates on Catalina Foothills High School basketball teams before leaving town for the Northwest. Marion attended the UA's summer camps several times before becoming a four-year starter for the Falcons. … The final qualifier for four berths in the Chrysler Classic of Tucson will be played in two parts, a change in the PGA Tour's qualifying structure. The first will be held Thursday at the Randolph Golf Complex, with approximately 144 players competing for roughly 50 spots. That group of 50 will then advance to final qualifying Feb. 20. Both sets of qualifying require a $200 payment. Getting into a PGA Tour event has never been more difficult.

● Shawntinice Polk's jersey No. 00 will be retired at Saturday's Arizona-Stanford game at McKale Center, 2 p.m. It's a good move by UA athletic director Jim Livengood, putting her jersey on display with those of Steve Kerr, Mike Bibby, Sean Elliott and Jason Gardner. … Craig McMillan, the first of Lute Olson's prep All-America basketball recruits, began his junior college coaching career with seasons of 30-3, 24-8 and 28-6 at Santa Rosa (Calif.) College. Last week, however, McMillan dismissed five players from his team for what he termed "disciplinary reasons." SRJC then lost five of six games. … Trying to get a fix on the status of UA senior pitcher Alicia Hollowell, who pitched her 14th and 15th career no-hitters this weekend? The three-time All-American was the third player overall chosen in the PFX Tour draft last week. The PFX Tour, founded by U.S. Olympic softball stars Dot Richardson and Lisa Fernandez, is a start-up barnstorming-type organization that is unlikely to conflict with the National Pro Fastpitch and the Arizona Heat season. The PFX Tour has nine weekend stops this year, from May through October, but none in NPF cities.

● The two leading receiver recruits of the John Mackovic years, Biren Ealy and Mike Jefferson, will play next season at Houston and Montana State, respectively. MSU coach Mike Kramer said of Jefferson on signing day: "Michael has knock-your-socks-off speed and good size. He ran a 4.41 (40-yard dash) for our staff. I expect him to grab a starting job." Production? Jefferson caught a mere four passes for Arizona last year, perhaps the No. 1 disappointment on the club. … Before hiring Dennis Erickson as its second-time-around football coach, Idaho interviewed UA running backs coach Kasey Dunn. The Vandals would be wise to keep an eye on Dunn inasmuch as Erickson's typical stay in a coaching job is two or three seasons. Dunn would be a perfect fit at Idaho; he played for the Vandals from 1989 to '91 and coached there in 1995. His wife, Janelle, is from the Moscow, Idaho, area.

● The D'backs will televise (on Fox Sports Arizona) their three most high-profile spring training games: March 14 vs. the White Sox at TEP, March 26 against the Cubs in Phoenix and March 31 against the Yankees at Chase Field. … Lauren Westerman, a Mountain View High grad, was selected Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference women's basketball player of the week for the third time this season. Westerman, a senior center, had 56 points and 19 rebounds in two games for Colorado State-Pueblo. She earlier played two seasons at Grand Canyon College. … To get a fix on the Pac-10's fall from college basketball grace, ESPN's GameDay program debuted from its first Western school Saturday — Gonzaga. It passed on the UCLA-Washington game of Pac-10 contenders. … Former Salpointe Catholic and UA pitching standout Mike Crawford, now the pitching coach at Cochise College, came home last week to sign prospect Chris Griffith, a senior left-hander from Salpointe. Cochise went 43-13 in the regular season last year, and then eliminated Pima in the ACCAC playoffs. The Apaches are 3-1 to start this season with three Tucsonans on the roster.

● Tucsonan Dominic Johnson, a UA and Amphi High grad, is embarking on a comeback in the pole vault that could get him back in the Olympics (he was in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, representing his native country, St. Lucia.) Johnson cleared 18 feet 1/2-half inch last week and is a likely addition to St. Lucia's team in next month's Commonwealth Games in Australia. He is meanwhile working in the real-estate business in Tucson. … Sunnyside High grad Eric Larkin, now an assistant wrestling coach at ASU, was a three-time Pac-10 Wrestler of the Year for the Sun Devils. Still competitive, hopeful he can make the 2008 Beijing Olympics for Team USA, Larkin is ranked No. 5 in the U.S. Last week he finished second overall at the Olympic Training Center at 149 pounds, beating No. 1 ranked Chris Bono in the tournament. … In his college baseball debut at Santa Clara, Sean O'Neill, a freshman left-hander from Salpointe, was named the club's No. 1 starter. In two starts, O'Neill has given up 10 hits and two earned runs in 13 innings.

Tomita soars

● In his improbable comeback from a series of shoulder surgeries to world-class gymnastics status, Tucsonan Yewki Tomita last week made his most bold move toward the 2008 Olympics.

He finished No. 2 overall at the USA Winter Cup/Team Selection meet in Las Vegas. Tomita won the high-bar competition and was second in parallel bars. On Friday, he was told he will be part of the six-man USA team in the World Cup series that begins next month in Lyon, France. the series leads to the world championships in October at Arhus, Denmark.

My two cents

This has been a year to forget for the Pima College athletic department. The football program failed and play was suspended at midseason.

Now, the Aztec men's basketball team is 3-19. And the women's team lost 112-19 — yes, 112-19! — at Central Arizona College last week, falling to 1-21 for the year.

It is all a direct fallout of PCC's mandate to cease out-of-area recruiting. A little recruiting help might assist in ending the total embarrassment and loss of the school's once-proud athletic identity.