Arizona basketball recruiting: Rawle Alkins heads to Tucson for official visit, Wildcats appear to be favorites

Arizona is hosting five-star guard Rawle Alkins this weekend for an official visit. It's the second time he's been on campus in a matter of weeks.

Not even a month ago, Arizona Wildcats fans hadn't even heard of the name Rawle Alkins.

Part of that is due to him playing on the East Coast and the other was that he wasn't considered a plausible target for Sean Miller. Granted, a month ago, few people thought Arizona had a chance with Kobi Simmons.

Look how that turned out.

Arizona official ✈️

— Rawle Alkins (@Iam_RawleAlkins) February 11, 2016

Now, Alkins is on campus for the second time in weeks and potentially on his way to being the newest Arizona Wildcat, with 247Sports' Crystal Ball trending heavily towards UA.

Arizona now has a majority of the predictions in the #CrystalBall for Rawle Alkins. https://t.co/v0Ciglgwkv

— Jerry Meyer (@jerrymeyer247) February 12, 2016

If you want to see how fast this recruitment changed, Arizona didn't have a favorable prediction before February 10th. It's literally gone from zero to basically 60 in two days. (Side note: His percent towards UofA went up five percent just while I wrote this. That's good right?)

The last two days for Rawle Alkins on @247Sports. https://t.co/4qpZWLnpiL #arizonawildcats #RichGetRicher http://pic.twitter.com/T3SOu0GR1r

— Alec Sills-Trausch (@UofAlec) February 12, 2016

Who do we have to thank for all this?

Obviously the answer is Sean Miller and the staff but it's also Kobi Simmons, who committed in the middle of January and immediately started recruiting Alkins to join him in.

I wrote this in my January 25th recruiting update:

Alkins told ZagsBlog that when Simmons committed, he also reached out to the New York product in hopes he would want to play with him at Arizona.

"So before he committed, he texted me, he was like, 'Are you ready?' So I mean he's pretty cool. I played a lot with him over the summer, USA Basketball, adidas Nations, all of that stuff."

Alkins continued, "I think [Simmons] is going to probably be the primary ball-handler, though, if I end up going there. They're talking about getting Josh Jackson, too, so if they get [Simmons], Josh Jackson, me and imagine if Allonzo Trier stays another year, so who knows? ... Imagine that lineup."

Thursday, Simmons was at it again, tweeting this:

Arizona How this backcourt look?? ⚪️ Lets get it done!! #Beardown ⬇️ http://pic.twitter.com/lZaP1RJvPI

— Shoogs (@JordanKobi) February 12, 2016

Alkins will take in Friday night's Arizona-UCLA game which will be shown on ESPN. There's a possibility he'll be at the USC game on Sunday evening (though I'm unsure about that one so don't hold me to it).

While he's in town, Tucson will be at its absolute finest - weather wise.

It's Always Sunny In Arizona
Boy this winter is tough #BearDown
What do you think @RobGronkowski? http://pic.twitter.com/5T13kB6YQ7

— Matt Dudek (@AZ_Matty_D) February 12, 2016

Additionally, if you didn't know, the 2017 Final Four is taking place in Glendale, Arizona - a quick, two-hour drive from Tucson. Now let us not jump basketball seasons but playing in your backyard with a loaded roster would be quite spectacular.

Sean Miller doesn't lose many recruits when they visit the campus once, which means the full press will be on to get a commitment from him before he boards his flight back to the other coast.

Stay tuned, it's just getting interesting. But in the meantime, here are some of Alkins' highlights:

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