Gary Parrish

AKRON, Ohio -- It's been a difficult 12 months at Arizona.

Perhaps you've heard.

From Lute Olson's leave of absence to the Kevin O'Neill experiment to the first-round loss in the NCAA tournament to the departure of Josh Pastner to the Emmanuel Negedu release to the ongoing Brandon Jennings saga, there hasn't been much positive coming out of Tucson. It's been bad, almost non-stop. But a good thing happened when Chase Budinger returned to school and a couple of subsequent recruiting scores have given Arizona fans a much-needed reason to be optimistic.

One of the recruits is Mike Moser.

The other is Greg Smith.

Both committed to the Wildcats within the past three weeks and both are here at the LeBron James Skills Academy. So it should come as no surprise that Olson has spent time in the first row under a basket watching his prospects, and though coaches aren't allowed any contact with players at these events don't think for a second that the prospects didn't notice.

"I loved seeing him," Smith said. "He's one of the greatest coaches of all-time. When I saw him a big smile was on my face."

AKRON, Ohio -- Here's Tuesday's Dear Gary ...

Dear Gary: How about a little more on the Jonny Flynn-Chris Paul match-up and how it bodes for next year's Syracuse squad when Flynn is by my count about the No. 4 or 5 option on his own team behind Eric Devendorf, Andy Rautins, Arinze Onuaku and maybe Paul Harris. Did he seriously look like the starting point guard on a team you have picked to finish like 6th or 7th (actually eighth) in its own conference, or were you just way off on your Ridiculously Early Preseason Top 25 (and one)?

-- N.M.

I've always loved Jonny Flynn, dating back to his high school days. Remember the column I wrote last November. He's a tremendous point guard, the kind of point guard I would want on my team. And though I'm not ready to tell you he was better than Paul on Monday night -- Paul and James were both just missing shots in their losses, mostly -- I can tell you Paul himself came away impressed by the Syracuse sophomore.

"Jonny Flynn did a good job as a point guard," Paul said. "He was talking, getting guys involved, competing. He was good."

As for the rest of your note, N.M., I can't imagine any scenario under which Flynn is the "No. 4 or 5 option" at Syracuse, not unless LeBron James and Chris Paul enroll and are joined by Carmelo Anthony. Flynn averaged 15.7 points and 5.3 assists per game last season, lest we forget. Furthermore, I wouldn't get too worked up about me picking Syracuse eighth in the Big East. That says more about the Big East than the Orange, and how much higher could Syracuse really be (at least in preseason projections)? I have seven Big East teams in the top 16, meaning I believe the Big East will be the toughest league we've seen in a while, perhaps ever. So being picked eighth isn't shameful, especially considering how Syracuse finished ninth last season and the eighth-place school was a 22-win Villanova team that went to the Sweet 16.