Arizona Scoops Up Hassan Adams

The University of Arizona has secured a commitment from one of the top scoring guards in the country, landing 6-4 wing Hassan Adams of Westchester H.S. in Los Angeles, Calif.

Adams cemented his oral commitment by taking a second visit to Tucson this weekend. His latest trip, in which he was accompanied by his mother Connie, was of the unofficial variety. He had visited Arizona officially from Oct. 12-14.

According to Westchester Asst. Coach Marlon Morton, Adams informed him of his intentions on Friday. Word started to leak out on Saturday to various media and internet outlets that Adams had pledged to Lute Olson's Wildcat program.

Adams picked Arizona over UCLA. Those schools were the clear one and two, while Kansas and California finished tied for third in the race to secure Adams' commitment this fall, Morton said.

Adams' first trip was to Kansas (Sept. 7-9), which was followed by official visits to Oregon (Sept. 28-30), Arizona (Oct. 12-14) and California (Oct. 26-28).

Adams was slated to visit UCLA next weekend, from Nov. 9-11, but that trip was scuttled after his verbal commitment to UCLA.

Although California was one of the first schools to identify Adams as a high major talent last year, the Golden Bears could not beat out UCLA or Arizona in the end.

Rivalshoops.com caught up with Coach Morton on Sunday, and he shared his opinions on various aspects of Adams' recruitment:

On Adams' decision to attend Arizona:

"We broke it down on why he chose Arizona over all of the rest of them, and it was basically that he wanted to get away from L.A. He wanted to be his own man and mature. He did not want to have all of that pressure of all of his friends coming up to the school and asking for tickets and stuff like that."

On Adams'outlook on California:

"What happened with Cal was that Hassan liked the juniors and the seniors on the team. He had a lot of respect for the little guard, Shan Tay Legans and the kid out of Chicago. But he was not so sure that he had the same feelings for some of the younger players in the program. Hassan is a kid who really gets after it and he expects certain things from his teammates."

On why Kansas' chances may have taken a downturn with Hassan:

"Cal all along had the first choice of the visit. But if Kansas had told Hassan that they wanted him to come on the 13th [of October, for midnight madness], it might have helped them. A lot of things had to do with who he was going to play with, and when he went on his campus visit, Drew Gooden was not there. And he really wanted to meet Drew Gooden. If I was Kansas, and he were my first choice, I would have brought him in for Midnight Madness. Every coach I talked to said 'Don't let him go to Kansas' Midnight Madness.' So that would have told me, boom, I want to go to their Midnight Madness. He would have went to their Midnight Madness instead of Arizona's."

On what gave Arizona a leg up:

"Gilbert Arenas called and talked to him three or four times. That helped them a lot. He became friends with him. And I know [former Arizona player] Jason Terry, and Jason Terry talked to him."

On how Arizona closed the gap with Cal, edged out another "late" entrant, Kansas, and won the battle:

"Kansas had sent letters, but they did not come at him hard early. Arizona got in there late, but Lute Olson explained the situation about his wife passing. And Hassan understood that. Lute Olson broke it down to him one day. He said that they did not expect Gilbert Arenas to leave. And I think that had a lot to do with it."

On how Adams will fit in at Arizona with a trio of other young guards -- Will Bynum, Salim Stoudamire and Chris Rodgers:

"It does not bother Hassan [the competition]. As long as it is not [Michael] Jordan, he does not care. He is going to work hard enough to earn his minutes. The thing too we looked at is that all of those guys were smaller. They see him playing the two or three position, and he gives them a different look than those other players."