For coaches in California, a trip to visit a high school recruit might involve some time sitting in traffic.
For ASU men's basketball coach Rob Evans, it's time sitting on the tarmac, waiting for takeoff.
Currently, the Sun Devils only have one player from the state of Arizona on their roster - senior guard Kenny Crandall of Mesa Mountain View. But the lack of homegrown talent on ASU's roster apparently isn't the result of poor recruiting, but an absence of quality players.
In all of college basketball, only two players from Arizona, Channing Frye (St. Mary's) of UA and Stanford's Matt Haryasz (Page), are making meaningful contributions to their teams at the collegiate level.
In the past 16 years, just two Arizona players, Chad Prewitt (ASU) and Mike Bibby (UA), made the All-Pac-10 team, compared to 54 from California over the same stretch of time.
"Year-in and year-out, there aren't a lot of Pac-10 players that come out of [Arizona]," Evans said. "If there are, I want to be in the mix, and want to get them."
When Evans first came to ASU in 1998, he wanted to use a set of local players to revitalize a program that many felt was starting to fight its way back into contention. In came local products such as Prewitt, Tommy Smith and Donnell Knight.
In the following years, other locals such as Tanner Shell, Todd Heap, Jonathon Howard and Dewy DeWitt made contributions.
"We have to do a great job of (finding) the kids that are good enough players in the city, and in the state," Evans said.
Arizona's recruiting class this season is considered fairly weak by many recruiting services. Only one player, Mesa High School's Lee Cummard, has gotten any attention. Earlier this year, Cummard, who is considered one of the best shooting guards in the West, picked BYU over ASU. The 6-foot-6 Cummard is expected to play one season for the Cougars, and then go on a mission for his church.
The state's talent pool gets better next year, however, when Deer Valley's Lawrence Hill and Chandler High's Joey Shaw - who are already receiving national attention - will be in their senior season.
Without the wealth of talent in Arizona, Evans has had to expand his search to other states. Currently, four players on the roster are from California, and three are from Texas. The two high school seniors ASU signed in the most recent recruiting period, Tim Pierce and Craig Austin, are both from California.
Even before Evans took over the reins of the program, the top players in the state elected to go with Tucson over Tempe. Frye and current NBA players such as Bibby (Shadow Mountain) and Richard Jefferson (Moon Valley) used the Wildcats' established program as a springboard to move on to the next level - something UA head coach Lute Olsen is expecting Frye to eventually do.
"We've had really good success with the guys we've gotten from there," Olsen said. "I don't think we've been hurt at all in the Phoenix area if there is someone we feel can play at Arizona."
Evans knows that his neighbors to the south, who are perennial contenders at the national level, will present the toughest challenge in recruiting locally.
"They're tough to handle, but we have to continue to battle them and fight," Evans said. "If [Bibby, Jefferson or Frye] were to come out now, we would have a better shot at them than we had back then. If we get them or not - you don't know.
"Nobody ever felt we'd get Ike Diogu either."
Reach the reporter at jeffrey.hoodzow@asu.edu.
