Tarver Likes Arizona

One of the top sophomores in the West Coast made an imprint on the Les Schwab Invitational. Seth Tarver, an athletic 6-foot-5 swingman from Jesuit High School in Portland, Ore., not only helped his team to the tournament title, but earned all-tourney honors as well. It's his goal to make the Crusaders respected on a national level.

"Potentially we can be really good," said Tarver. "We can be better than 39th

in the country (referring to one national high school poll). But our goal is

just to win state."

Tarver had some impressive outings at the Les Schwab. He led the team in

scoring with 17 against Lake Oswego in the finals, and not only showed nice

range on his jumper, but a bounce in his step in attacking the rim. Tarver's

also a tremendous defender who can handle bigger players down low or quick

players on the perimeter. His fast start this season partly comes from his

great experience this past summer playing with the ICA Panthers AAU program,

working on his conditioning and getting stronger, while refining his outside

shot.

While it's obviously still very early in the process, Tarver has started

hearing from some high-major programs on the West Coast.

"Cal, and I've talked to UCLA a little bit," said Tarver. "I just get a lot of

questionnaires, I'm kind of too young."

However, Tarver certainly isn't too young to have some favorite college

programs - ones he'd like to be hearing more from in the future. "Arizona is my favorite team right now," said Tarver. "I like UCLA too."

Tarver also mentioned an affinity for Stanford and Oregon. Tarver comes from a very athletic family. Father John was a standout running back in the NFL in the 70's, and you're probably most familiar with oldest brother Shon, who starred at UCLA in the early 90's.

But that's not all -- older sister Taryn was a star track athlete at Oregon, current Jesuit senior Zach will be playing football at Oregon State next fall (and is also a reserve forward on the Jesuit basketball team) and current junior Josh starts at point guard for the Crusaders. But with that all said, potentially Seth, the youngest, could turn out to be the best.

Seth is very close to older brother Josh, as only one year separates the two

young men. Josh is currently being recruited by Oregon State, Minnesota, and

Notre Dame among other programs on the West Coast. Would Tarver consider going

to the same school as his brother?

"I would like to," said Tarver. "He and I have been playing together for a

long time ever since we were young. It would be nice, but it doesn't always

happen that way with scholarships though. But if it works out though, yeah."

Be sure to keep a close eye on Seth Tarver and his recruitment over the next

two years.

-- Mike Sullivan contributed to this story