Gary Parrish

Here's Thursday's Dear Gary ...

Dear Gary: I'm not sure you need to admit you were wrong. Arizona without (Chase) Budinger could have been in some trouble, and as far as I'm aware, you haven't been proven wrong that they wouldn't have been. No way to know that Budinger was coming back. Everything being tossed around -- and believe me I've checked every article I could find for the past month -- indicated he was gone. I don't agree with you completely on the future direction of the program but I do think that your concerns are warranted. Either way, it's nice knowing that you won't let pride get in the way of changing your opinion.

-- Chris

Glad you saw that acknowledgment (in the comments section of a Monday blog), Chris.

The other Arizona fans must've missed it because there has been no shortage of emails telling me how Arizona is back and Lute Olson has things headed in the right direction and I am an idiot, so on and so forth. Either way, I was indeed wrong about Budinger and the possibility of him returning to college. I thought there was no chance barring an injuryand that was incorrect, and though I love telling people when I was right I also have no problem ever admitting when I'm wrong, and I plan to always be that way unless I reach a point when I'm wrong all the time and can no longer keep up.

So yeah, on Budinger, I was wrong.

By extension, that makes me wrong about Arizona in 2008-09 because a possibly poor team just improved drastically, same way West Virginia would be way better off had Joe Alexander returned to college, same way Texas would be way better off had D.J. Augustin returned to college. That said, I'm still not sold on the theory that everything is back to being great with Arizona as a program. Too much has happened in the past year to remove concern on a larger scale, regardless of Budinger's decision. But in the short term, of course, I think Arizona will be good this season. I'll have the Wildcats in the Top 25 (and one), guaranteed, and I'll have Budinger as a solid contender for Pac-10 Player of the Year -- though Arizona State's James Harden, UCLA's Darren Collison and Jrue Holiday, USC's DeMar DeRozan and Arizona's Brandon Jennings are also reasonable possibilities for that honor.

Here's Wednesday's Dear Gary ...

Dear Gary: I understand CBS is doing a documentary on Emmanuel Negedu. Do you know any details?

-- Tony

It's not a documentary as much as it's a Day in the Life type thing. It should be up later today here on CBSSports.com, and I figure this is as good a time as any to explain what's going on and how this all happened.

Emmanuel, as you probably know, attended Brewster Academy, which is also the alma mater of Hollywood producer Griffin Guess. Small world, huh? Anyway, Griffin was invited back to campus this past January to speak to students, and so he and his wife Marisa Miller -- yes, she's that Marisa Miller, the supermodel -- traveled to Brewster and while there attended a basketball game, at which time they met Emmanuel.

Long story short, Griffin became interested in Emmanuel's story.

He kept up with how things were going.

And when the story took a strange turn with the release from Arizona and the recruiting battle between Tennessee, Memphis, Indiana and Georgia Tech, Griffin decided to invite Emmanuel to California to film some stuff and make his announcement from there. So that's what's been going on this week. While you are living whatever life you live, Emmanuel Negedu is kicking it in Santa Cruz with a Hollywood producer and a supermodel (who happened to top Maxim's Hot 100 list this year, case you didn't know), and it's times like these when I really wish I was Emmanuel Negedu.

Or better yet, Griffin Guess.

In all seriousness, check back later today.

The Negedu stuff should be up then with something bigger later in the week.