Around the League: May 31

Men’s Basketball
Jason Maikis, Daily Bruin reporter

Recruiting classes around the Pac-12 are being finalized as the final players make their decisions.

Washington, Arizona and USC basketball have all bagged top-20 recruits, according to ESPN’s rankings. Oregon also has multiple consensus top-100 recruits, and UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. rounds out the list of top incoming Pac-12 freshmen.

Washington added a top player to its rotation as well with a recent commitment from in-state forward Jaden McDaniels. This adds on to the star-studded class that already includes center Isaiah Stewart from La Lumiere School.

Sean Miller, the Wildcats’ coach, and his staff’s ongoing trouble with the FBI has not hindered Arizona’s recruiting standing in the Pac-12. They landed two top-10 backcourt players – point guard Nico Mannion and shooting guard Josh Green.

Five-star center Isaiah Mobley from Temecula, California, will be a Trojan and will be coached by his father Eric Mobley, an assistant on Andy Enfield’s staff.

Another of Mobley’s sons, Evan Mobley, is the No. 1 ranked recruit for 2020 according to ESPN.

Oregon’s top recruit, C.J. Walker, is another top-ranked player headed west this upcoming season. The power forward from Florida marks Oregon’s third straight season securing a five-star recruit, following Bol Bol and Troy Brown Jr., respectively.

There are also some notable non-commits among the elite high school players. Texas native R.J. Hampton recently decided he would forego college and play overseas in New Zealand next season.

LaMelo Ball also failed to commit to a school for his college career. The youngest son of Lavar Ball and brother of former UCLA point guard Lonzo Ball hasn’t officially been recruited or offered by any school since his stint playing in Lithuania.

Ball previously said that both Kansas and USC were recruiting him.

Track and Field
Jared Tay, Daily Bruin reporter

The track and field NCAA championships are less than a week away.

Pac-12 schools traveled to Sacramento to participate in the NCAA west regional – the qualifying competition to the 2019 NCAA championship to be held in Austin, Texas, beginning Wednesday.

Oregon, the highest ranked team in the conference, had 30 athletes qualify for the championships. In men’s 110-meter hurdles, the Ducks had two athletes qualify. Eric Edwards Jr. finished as the second-fastest qualifier with a time of 13.60 seconds, just one-tenth of a second behind his personal best. Jessica Hull, the 2018 NCAA champion in the women’s 1,500-meter, also qualified for Austin with a time of 4:09.90 – her season best.

Stanford advanced 14 athletes to next week’s national championships. Grant Fisher, who was the 2017 champion in the men’s 5,000-meter, finished in 13:45.64. He is one of two athletes in that event who qualified for the Cardinal. In the women’s 5,000m, Fiona O’Keefe set a personal best with a time of 15:31.45, finishing second overall.

UCLA earned five of its qualifying spots in the shot-put. Redshirt senior thrower Dotun Ogundeji was one of four athletes to reach 20 meters, tallying a 20.00-meter throw exactly. Junior distance runner Robert Brandt finished second overall in the men’s 10-kilometer, with a time of 29:00.43.

The championships kick off Wednesday with the decathlon events scheduled first.