Tarczewski Picks Arizona
Arizona already had the nation’s top ranked recruiting class to date and as one of two schools still in the hunt for the nation’s best available center and sixth ranked overall prospect Kaleb Tarczewski, there was potential to put together one of the best recruiting classes college basketball has seen in recent years.
Potential turned into reality early Monday afternoon when Tarczewski committed to head coach Sean Miller, choosing Arizona over a Kansas program that has been considered the frontrunner in his recruitment for over two years.
Tarczewski took official visits to both schools in recent weeks, traveling to Kansas for their midnight madness style celebration “Late Night at the Phog” and the opening weekend of practice before spending the next weekend on Arizona’s campus.
Following those visits, Tarczewski took this past weekend to meet with his parents, who had already planned to be on St. Mark’s campus for parent’s weekend, and finalize his decision.
“It was a very long road,” Tarczewski said. “Both schools were wonderful programs with great histories and coaching staffs, and I was so fortunate to have the options I did.”
“Everything just felt right at Arizona,” he continued, “from the coaches, to the current players, to the incoming recruits.”
What makes Tarczewski special isn’t just his powerful seven-foot frame or ability to run the floor, it’s his humility and desire to improve. He’s refreshing in this day and age because he’s a considerate and articulate young man, who actually shies away from media attention and the glitz and glamour of the recruiting process.
Instead, he’s happy just to be in the gym working on his game, and grateful to those who have helped him go from a relative unknown three years ago to one of the nation’s preeminent big men.
“I still have a long way to go as a player, but I’ve had a ton of help along the way,” Tarczewski said. “Without people like T.J. Gassnola, Jay Murphy, Dave Lubick, and John Carroll, I wouldn’t be in this position.”
It’s that incredibly rare combination that makes him such a tremendous long term prospect – a tremendous blend of physical tools, a sincere desire to continue to improve, and a rapid learning curve. And so while he has already asserted himself as one of the premier prospects in the class of 2012, that’s really only just beginning to scratch the surface of his potential.
That’s a journey that will play out in the coming years at the University of Arizona where he’ll team with fourth ranked Brandon Ashley (Oakland, CA/Findley Prep), ninth ranked Grant Jerrett (La Verne, CA/La Verne Lutheran), and thirty-sixth ranked Gabe York (Orange, CA/Orange Lutheran) to form one of the premier recruiting classes college basketball has seen in recent years.
Kaleb Tarczewski