Arizona coach comes to town

University of Arizona women’s basketball coach Joan Bonvicini has been at the school 17 seasons and became the 18th women’s coach in NCAA history to record 600 career wins last season, so why was she in the Inland Valley on Wednesday?

No, it wasn’t for recruiting purposes. It was to watch a player she’d already recruited.

I ran into Bonvicini after the Colony-Chaffey girls basketball game. She was in town to watch Colony’s Amani Butler, who signed with Arizona last fall. She told me she wanted to see how Butler’s game was progressing this season, and was able to watch  Butler against the No. 2 team in the league (and No. 3 in the division), Chaffey.

Butler had 28 points, seven rebounds and seven steals in the game. I wonder if that’s standard procedure for coaches to watch players they already have a signed letter of intent. It makes sense to do it if you can, you don’t want any surprises when the player shows up in the fall. It seems obvious that Butler is an important part of Bonvicini’s future plans for her to make the trip to Ontario, a day before hosting a conference game against Oregon.