By Patrick Klein
Arizona Daily Wildcat
The Arizona men's basketball team added its final recruit for the fall signing period yesterday when prep forward/guard Justin Wessel announced he would sign with the Wildcats.
The 6-foot-9-inch, 200-pound Wessel, from Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, called a news conference because of the local media interest in his decision. He had been under pressure to attend Iowa State, said his father, Prairie athletic director Jeffrey Wessel.
Justin Wessel said in a prepared statement that "Arizona runs a top-notch program and was the best place for me academically and athletically. I am proud to call myself an Arizona Wildcat."
While Wessel visited Western Kentucky and had home visits from Iowa, Iowa State, Wisconsin and several other schools, Jeffrey Wessel said his son knew Arizona was the place for him after he returned from his visit to Tucson two weekends ago.
"As soon as he got off the plane, he said, 'I could go back (to Tucson) right now,'" the father said.
Denny Thiessen, Prairie boys basketball head coach, said Arizona had an edge because Wessel's father knew Arizona head coach Lute Olson when Olson was head coach at Iowa from 1975-83. Also, Thiessen, who grew up in Davenport, Iowa, is a longtime friend of Wildcat assistant coach Jim Rosborough, who is from neighboring Moline, Ill.
Those ties made it easier for Wessel to attend school away from home.
"His mom felt comfortable knowing that while he's going away, he'll be with good people we know," Thiessen said.
Wessel, who will not turn 18 until the end of May, will play all positions for Prairie this season, including point guard, Thiessen said. The coach added that Wessel is the team's best three-point shooter.
Because of his age and weight, Wessel's father thinks he likely will spend his first year at Arizona as a redshirt.
"He's just 17, and he's not physically mature yet, so I think he's a likely candidate to redshirt," the father said. "(Indiana men's basketball head coach) Bobby Knight told him his best basketball was ahead of him."
Wessel joins five other recruits in what many have said will be one of the best recruiting classes in the nation next year. The other members include Mike Bibby, a 6-foot-2 point guard from Phoenix's Shadow Mountain High School; Quynn Tebbs, a 6-foot-2 guard from Bingham High School in South Jordan, Utah; Bennett Davison, a 6-foot-7 forward from West Valley Junior College in Saratoga, Calif.; Stephen Jackson, a 6-foot-7 forward from Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va.; and Eugene Edgerson, a 6-foot-8 forward from St. Augustine High School in New Orleans.
Arizona still has one scholarship to use for the spring signing period.
The Arizona coaching staff is prohibited by NCAA rules from commenting on recruits until after they sign a letter of intent. Verbal commitments are non-binding. The fall signing period begins on Nov. 7.