With Mark Lyons having just one season of eligibility and Duquesne transfer T.J. McConnell having two beginning with the 2013-14 campaign, Arizona needed to land a point guard in the 2014 class.
Sean Miller and his staff struck quickly, as they received a verbal commitment from 5-8 point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright on Sunday (subscription required) as reported by Josh Gershon of scout.com.
Jackson-Cartwright currently plays at Loyola High School in Los Angeles, and older brother Miles Cartwright is currently a guard at Penn. The Cubs went 22-7 this season, going 10-2 in the Mission League, and reached the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division IAA championships.
Jackson-Cartwright also received offers from schools such as UCLA, Colorado, Arizona State, UNLV and San Diego State.
Some may look at Jackson-Cartwright’s height and wonder if he’s capable of competing at an elite level, but he’s got the skills needed to run the show for the Wildcats. A very good distributor, Jackson-Cartwright will be a good distributor for a program that has two outstanding wings in its 2013 class (McDonald’s All-American Rondae Jefferson and Elliott Pitts).
After this season Arizona will have just two point guards in the program: McConnell and reserve Jordin Mayes, who will be a senior next season. Arizona also has walk-on Jacob Hazzard and freshman Gabe York, with York being an undersized two-guard as opposed to a point guard.
In theory the Wildcats would have McConnell running the show in 2014-15, which would allow Jackson-Cartwright to become more acclimated to the college game from a physical standpoint.
Jackson-Cartwright is the second verbal commitment in the 2014 class for Arizona, which also holds a verbal from 6-2 guard Eric Cooper Jr.
Raphielle also writes for the NBE Basketball Report and can be followed on Twitter at @raphiellej.