By
Keith Carmona
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wh 6-10 forward wore UA hat at press conference
en Rick Rickert walked into his press conference wearing an Arizona hat Monday afternoon, all seemd well for the future of UA basketball.
But between the time he sat down and inked him name on a piece of paper with Minnesota letterhead, something went terribley wrong.
After giving Arizona an oral commitment two weeks ago, the 6-foot-10 forward/center from Duluth, Minn. signed a letter of intent to play for Minnesota, beginning next fall.
"I really wanted to go to school at Arizona," Rickert told the Duluth Budgeteer News. "They have a great program - nothing but pluses - but the thing that turned me around was my relationship with my best friend and my cousin."
Rickert was supposed to sign his letter of intent to play for the Wildcats at a press conference last Wednesday, but sent his father to tell everyone gathered, that his final decision had not yet been reached.
"We've had a lot of contact with him throughout the process and it seemed like he wanted to be a Wildcat from the start," UA assistant coach Josh Pastner said. "Now that it's all said and done, I think that the family pressure and pressure from his friends pushed him towards going to Minnesota."
Even after Rickert had orally committed to Arizona, UM head coach Dan Monson vowed to not give up on recruiting him until a letter of intent was signed.
"We've been recruiting him harder than I have ever recruited a kid," Monson said.
In an unofficial recruiting trip to help influence his decision, Rickert attended Minnesota's exhibition game against the Yugoslavian Selects.
"I didn't feel confident, but I felt very good after Saturday beacause you can't measure the reception that people gave him on Saturday," Monson said."He had to know at that point that this is a unique situation and that he would have an opportunity to play here at Minnesota."
Throughout the recruiting process, Monson told Rickert that he would have an immediate opportunity to play at Minnesota while he may not if he chose Arizona.
"(Senior center) Loren (Woods) will be graduated next year and there is certainly the possibility of losing (junior forwards ) Mike Wright and Richard (Jefferson) to the draft, so I can’t see how there was a question about playing time," Pastner said. "If those three front line guys are all gone, Rick was going to be in a great position early in his career at Arizona. But that's all speculation now."
Pastner added that while this does put a damper on the Wildcats' 2001 recruiting class, there is a spring signing period that Arizona can take advantage of.
"One player is not going to make or break a program," Pastner said. "There are good players out there still and we’re just going to have to find someone else that wants to play for us. It just amazes me how Rick can turn down one of the top three basketball programs in the nation."
