Super Mario?

The nation's top junior point guard, Alaskan Mario Chalmers, has opted to attend Kansas rather than Arizona.

John Schuster of Cat Tracks notes the significance of Arizona's loss:

Since the onset of Chalmers’ recruitment, Arizona was considered the team to beat. Well, after a visit to Kansas last weekend, the team to beat got taken to the cleaners. Chalmers selected KU over the UA at a press conference in Alaska. While not the end of the world, it’s a significant blow to Arizona, which had targeted Chalmers as its focus recruit for the class of 05.

While Jason King of the Kansas City Star suggests last week might have been the greatest recruiting week in Kansas history:

Chalmers' decision put the cherry on top of a week in which KU signed two highly touted high school seniors (Alex Galindo and C.J. Giles) while getting oral pledges from two of the country's top juniors (Chalmers and Micah Downs).

The fact that Kansas was able to bring in four new players - and good ones, at that - in five days has led some to label this as the greatest recruiting week in school history. As he walked off the golf course Friday, Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins did his best to encapsulate all that has transpired. "This is unbelievable, it's big time," Perkins said. "I'm so proud of Bill and his staff. What's happened these past four or five days ... you don't see something like this very often. It's pretty special."

Chalmers is easily the jewel of Kansas' four-player recruiting haul. Along with labeling him as the top point guard, rivals.com has Chalmers ranked as the No. 8 overall prospect in the class of 2005.