A look at Arizona Wildcats’ top scoring recruiting/signing classes

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Brandon Ashley has 804 points in his three-year Arizona career (ESPN screen shot)

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Kaleb Tarczewski

According to the Arizona record book, 448 players have scored in the history of the Wildcat basketball program that spans 111 seasons.

Of those players, 74 have achieved at least 800 career points. Arizona juniors Kaleb Tarczewski and Brandon Ashley are among that 16.5 percent of Wildcats who have scored that much.

After Sunday’s win at Washington State, Tarczewski, who has 805 career points, is tied at No. 72 on the school scoring charts with Bill Davis (1966-68). Ashley is at No. 74 with with 804.

They have a reasonable chance to join the 900-point club by season’s end. That club presently has only 59 players or 13.2 percent of those who have scored wearing the Arizona uniform.

With both potentially foregoing their senior seasons for professional basketball, they probably won’t join the 1,000-point club, an elite group that comprises 49 players (upper 10.9 percent).

Brandon Ashley

Breaking it down further to recruiting/signing classes — Tarczewski and Ashley are part of the Class of 2012 — the frontcourt duo comprises one of 21 groups that have multiple members with at least 800 career points. Note: I write “recruiting/signing classes” because some transfers who were not part of a recruiting class, such as Brian Williams and Chris Mills, were prolific scorers for Arizona.

Only 15 classes have multiple players with at least 900 points. The number dwindles to 13 at the 1,000-point mark.

The most impressive scoring recruiting class was Fred Snowden’s first in 1972. Four players had at least 891 points by the end of their Arizona career — Al Fleming (1,765), Coniel Norman (1,194), Jim Rappis (953) and Eric Money (891). Norman and Money only played two seasons before declaring hardship for the NBA.

Lute Olson attracted three signing groups with at least three players who finished with more than 800 points. Those groups:

Class of 1988 — Sean Rooks (1,497), Matt Othick (1,055) and Brian Williams (829).

Class of 1999 — Jason Gardner (1,984), Luke Walton (1,179) and Gilbert Arenas (1,105).

Class of 2006 — Chase Budinger (1,697), Nic Wise (1,285) and Jordan Hill (1,208).

In case you’re wondering, Gabe York, who was also a part of the Class of 2012, cracked the 500-point mark Sunday and is at 505 for his career. If he returns, as expected, next year, he has a shot to reach the 800-point plateau.

That means Tarczewski, Ashley and York can become one of only five recruiting/signing groups in the history of Arizona’s program that has at least three members with 800 or more career points.

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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He has also written articles for Bleacher Report and Lindy’s College Sports.