Not much was made of Miles Simon‘s signature on national letter-of-intent day in October of 1993, especially on his home turf in Southern California.
That’s because it was the same day Tiger Woods of Anaheim Western High School announced he would attend Stanford, and because UCLA signed its top recruiting class since the John Wooden days.
Simon was ranked No. 41 nationally by Bob Gibbons of All-Star Sports, then the top recruiting service in the nation. California-based Super Prep magazine ranked Simon No. 11 in the West, below the UCLA recruiting coup of No. 2 Omm’a Givens, No. 4 J.R. Henderson, No. 6 Toby Bailey and two spots ahead of his prep rival, No. 13 Kris Johnson.
Simon wasn’t even the top prospect being recruited by Arizona. On July 1, 1993, the first day coaches could phone high school recruits, the UA first called Huntington Beach two-sport star Tony Gonzalez, hopeful he would commit to Arizona as a football/basketball player. (He ultimately chose Cal).
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But Simon’s college career exceeded all of those except Woods. Simon was named Most Outstanding Player of the 1997 Final Four, and earned first-team Associated Press All-America honors in 1998.
Simon’s No. 34 jersey will be put on display for posterity at Friday’s Red and Blue Game at McKale Center, the fifth such Wildcat so honored.
Simon chose Arizona over Oklahoma State and USC — Jim Harrick did not recruit him at UCLA – and committed to Lute Olson before he had ever been to Tucson. His recruiting class included Donnell Harris, Kelvin Eafon and Michael Dickerson.
Gibbons’ All-Star Sports ranked it only No. 14 in the nation; in retrospect, Simon and Dickerson alone likely comprised a top-5 class.
Simon’s weekend in Tucson will coincide with the 20th reunion of Arizona’s 1997 national championship team. Simon turns 41 next month. The “youngest” of the group who played extensively at the Final Four, Jason Terry, is 39, entering his 18th NBA season, at Milwaukee.
Arizona’s annual Red-Blue Game might not be the best tipoff event in the country, but it’s close. Kansas drew in excess of 16,000 on Oct. 1 for its “Late Night at the Phog” celebration, and tickets for Duke’s “Countdown to Craziness” are now going for as much as $238 online. At Kentucky, students camped out for two days to get tickets to Friday’s “Big Blue Madness.”
But with Simon returning this week, combined with an unusually important recruiting push by Sean Miller, the Red and Blue Game ranks with any.
Tickets? They were all sold more than a month ago.
