VarsityXtra

Former Mesa High forward Blondy Baruti has committed to play college basketball at Tulsa, Mesa coach Shane Burcar said.

Baruti performed well in the AAU tournaments this summer, and while still raw, he has the potential to become a solid collegiate player.

Baruti averaged 9.9 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.6 blocks per game in 15 games for the Jackrabbits last season.

He didn’t play the second half of the year after recruiting allegations surfaced. The Mesa High basketball program was put on probation for one year for recruiting Baruti and was ineligible for last year’s postseason.

Scottsdale Notre Dame football coach Scot Bemis was surprised when offensive lineman Blair Tushaus narrowed down his list of college choices to Arizona State and Brigham Young.

Not at seeing ASU, the hometown school.

But a player from a private Catholic school possibly committing to BYU, a university owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

That caught Bemis off guard.

“The BYU one was kind of a shocker for us, but he really liked them,” Bemis said.

Tushaus has interest because he is a friend of Issaquah (Skyline) Wash. quarterback Jake Heaps, who committed to Brigham Young in June.

Heaps is rated the No. 1 quarterback in the country by Scout.com, and would like an athletic center to join him in Provo.

“He’s really after Blair,” Bemis said.

Bemis said Tushaus will likely choose between the Sun Devils and the Cougars in the next few weeks.

Add Paradise Valley to the growing list of teams implementing at least some form of the spread offense to its arsenal. The Trojans will alternate between that formation and their traditional Wing-T look this year.

Coach Donnie Yantis said the the spread offense makes quarterback Kevin Spain - a Hawaii commit - much more dangerous. The decision was made almost solely because of what Spain brings to the table.

“We have a quarterback that is very, very talented,” Yantis said. “We’ve never had a kid like this kid. If something were to happen to Kevin, we’d probably be back to the Wing-T.”

Yantis and his staff picked the brain of former Glendale Community College coach Joe Kersting, who used the spread to win the junior college national title in 2005.

Yantis seemed excited by the possibilities it brings, and lamented waiting a year to do so. The Trojans gave a big scare to Scottsdale Saguaro in the regular season last year, but were knocked out of the 4A-I state tournament by Tucson Canyon del Oro in the quarterfinals.

“If we would have done this last year, we might have been a better football team,” Yantis said.

The Paradise Valley football team has a ton of talent returning from last year’s squad, enough to make them one of the early favorites in 4A-II.

But coach Donnie Yantis was really worried about replacing his kicker. Danny Compton manned the position for the past three years and is now at Air Force.

Yantis said he held an open tryout for all his players this summer to find a replacement. And he found out there might not be much of a dropoff after all.

Turns out, running back/linebacker Jake Brown, one of the most important players on the team, can boot a 50-yard field goal.

“As a coach you feel like an idiot,” Yantis said. “We were clueless about it. He’s not as good as Danny, but strength-wise he definitely has a stronger leg.”

Brown was a kicker on the freshman team three years ago, but hadn’t tried it since. Yantis said Brown routinely puts kickoffs into the end zone.

“I played soccer for awhile,” Brown said. “That’s probably where I got it from.”

Brown said he’s been working on his kicking for a couple of hours each Saturday. Compton has helped him out on a few occasions, and Brown said he’s becoming more confident as the repetitions increase.

His technique is improving, which makes the kicks more accurate.

“If (the games started) now, I’d be nervous,” Brown said. “But once the season starts I should be good to go.”

It won’t diminish his other duties. Brown will still be a starter on both offense and defense.

“The kid’s going to be tired,” Yantis said.

Former Scottsdale Horizon right-hander Tim Alderson and former Scottsdale Coronado catcher Lou Marson were both traded on Wednesday.

Alderson, ranked the fourth-best prospect in the San Francisco organization by Baseball America, went to the Pirates for three-time All-Star second baseman Freddy Sanchez. Alderson is 7-2 with a 3.65 ERA in between two minor league stops.

He was progressing well through the minors, and it says a lot that Pittsburgh would trade its star second basemen for just one prospect.

Marson went to the Indians in the Cliff Lee deal. Marson hit .235 with a double in 17 at-bats with the Phillies this year, and was batting .294 in Triple-A.

Cleveland catcher Victor Martinez is reportedly on the trade market. If he’s dealt, Marson would figure to get a shot at playing time with the big league club.

Former Arizona shortstop Jason Donald and two other prospects went to Cleveland in the deal for Lee.

Football and basketball players aren’t the only ones who can raise their profile during summer.

Desert Mountain wrestler Shane McGough went to North Dakota last week and finished in 5th place at 125 pounds in the Freestyle Junior Nationals to become the first All-American wrestler in school history.

In the process, McGough became the fourth student-athlete in Desert Mountain history to be an All-American (regardless of sport), joining a few Wolves swimmers from earlier this decade. The senior-to-be has lost six matches in his high school career, two since his freshman year.

He and Ryan Finch (Safford) at 112 pounds were the only Arizona representatives to be All-Americans in the junior freestyle.

McGough didn’t stop there. The two-time 5A state champion (he finished runner-up as a freshman) spent his summer at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., the University of Iowa with former Olympic gold medal-winner Dan Gable and with the Oklahoma Junior National Team.

Mesa High boys basketball forward Blondy Baruti is transferring to a prep school in Mississippi for the upcoming school year.

The 6-foot-10 senior from the Congo was the subject of a recruiting violation at Mesa last year which forced the team to forfeit 10 wins and made them ineligible for the postseason.

He averaged 9.9 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.6 blocks in 15 games for the Jackrabbits.

Baruti was impressive in front of dozens of college coaches on Monday at the Desert Duel, an elite AAU tournament hosted by Gilbert Mesquite.

Baruti said he has been offered scholarships by several Division I colleges, but doesn’t have a favorite.

He will attend New Horizon Prep in Jackson, Miss. this year and live on campus.

Phoenix Brophy right-hander Trent Stevenson, a seventh-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in last month’s MLB amateur draft, has signed on to play professionally, according to Baseball America and MLB.com.

Stevenson went 7-2 with a 3.91 ERA last season for the Broncos, but was chosen more on potential than past results. He is relatively new to pitching, but scouts like his frame, and his fastball has hit 93 mph.

Stevenson signed for a reported $350,000.

Phoenix Arcadia will interview candidates for its vacant boys basketball coaching position next week, and hopes to select a candidate within days after that, athletic director Logan Fox said.

The Titans have to replace Scott Lovely, who was hired as the boys basketball coach at Gilbert Highland this summer. Lovely replaced Mark Carlino, who moved to Indiana with his son, Matt, the Tribune’s Boys Basketball Player of the Year last season as a sophomore.

Arcadia went 17-7 last year and lost to Tucson Santa Rita in the second round of the 4A-II state tournament. The Titans lost their top three scorers to graduation.

The Sept. 25 football game between Glendale Cactus and Scottsdale Saguaro is back on after the Cobras unsuccessfully tried to drop the contest.

There were worries that the Sabercats would have trouble finding a 10th game this season (although a sister school was more than willing to fill in), but that point is now moot. Both teams now have full slates.

Saguaro has won 33 straight games, seven away from tying Mesa Mountain View for the longest streak among 4A and 5A teams, but still 30 away from 3A Lakeside Blue Ridge’s 63-game mark.

The Sabercats are in line to tie Mountain View’s record on Oct. 16 in a home game against Cave Creek Cactus Shadows. The record would be broken the next Friday at Tempe McClintock.

Before that, though, Saguaro will face a three-week stretch against Peoria, Glendale Cactus and Tucson Canyon del Oro.

If the Sabercats make it through that maze, they’ll have a good chance of setting the record.

My early guess is that it won’t happen. Peoria and Glendale Cactus lost a lot of talent, and those games are winnable for a Saguaro team that is also rebuilding.

But Canyon del Oro, in Tucson? A win there would be just as impressive as the title-game blowout of Scottsdale Chaparral last December.