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Arizona Wildcats basketball: Local forward earns UA scholarship Home-grown Shumpert to play for Wildcats

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Former Santa Rita forward Darnell Shumpert has accepted a last-minute basketball scholarship offer from Arizona and will join the Wildcats for this season.

Shumpert, a 6-foot-7, 195 swing forward, jumped on college recruiters' radar after a standout senior season in high school. He said he was offered a chance to walk on to the Wildcats last season by then-interim head coach Kevin O'Neill, but turned it down.

Then, while deciding whether to hold out for a better offer by attending a prep school or taking an offer from Alabama-Birmingham or George Washington this fall, Shumpert was offered a scholarship on Tuesday from UA coach Lute Olson.

Quickly, he accepted.

"Everybody was telling me I could go anywhere I wanted after a year of prep school," Shumpert said. "But I loved Arizona so bad it was just great when they offered me. It's always been my dream to play for them."

Shumpert, who said he was in the process of enrolling and getting scholarship papers filed today, said he is not sure if the offer is a four-year commitment from Arizona. He will be taking the last remaining scholarship for the 2008-09 season.

The Wildcats already had a full complement of 13 players scheduled for 2009-10, but are expected to lose Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill to professional basketball and therefore seek an additional player or two.