Arizona Basketball 2019-2020

[GatorAZ]

Akinjo-Kriisa
T Brown-Baker
Mathurin-Terry
J Brown-Lee
Koloko-Batcho

*Walton and Gorener still deciding

**Brandon Williams wild card

 

[1Sun]

Hopefully not much longer, but there are other variables in play that may make it challenging to nab him.

Batcho? Just saw it up at wildcatauthority.com.

 

[TJ]

Batcho? Just saw it up at wildcatauthority.com.

Nope. Not him. Didn’t even know we were recruiting Batcho.

 

[1Sun]

Nope. Not him. Didn’t even know we were recruiting Batcho.

Interesting. So we might even be 2 deep at power forward? That would be nice.

 

[Lefty]

Miller is recruiting Moussa Diabate who is a French center. He is a 2021 recruit. He is also good friends with Batcho

 

[GatorAZ]

Miller is recruiting Moussa Diabate who is a French center. He is a 2021 recruit. He is also good friends with Batcho

The upper echelon guys will start coming back around soon. This class is similar to Miller’s first guys like Solomon Hill, Kevin Parrom and Momo Jones (of course that class had D-Will) but the others are multi year kids.

 

[Russ Smith]

Batcho looks ok, fundamentally sound from the highlights. not super explosive but good hands and footwork looks good. We're being told on BRO that both of the recent guys have agents but will likely clear, they might have to sit a few games because they played in leagues with pros but nothing crazy and the NCAA might not even care about that now

 

[TJ]

Akinjo-Kriisa
T Brown-Baker
Mathurin-Terry
J Brown-Lee
Koloko-Batcho

*Walton and Gorener still deciding

**Brandon Williams wild card

There’s more optimism that B-Will will at least give it a go next season

 

[1Sun]

Akinjo-Kriisa
T Brown-Baker
Mathurin-Terry
J Brown-Lee
Koloko-Batcho

*Walton and Gorener still deciding

**Brandon Williams wild card

My understanding is Williams has a degenerative knee condition, and his career is over. Meanwhile, Akinjo isn't eligible until January. Koloko cannot play power forward. Batcho is the only one we have right now.

Baker-Kriisa-T. Brown
Terry
Mathurin
Batcho
J. Brown-Koloko-Lee

With Akinjo being a fourth point guard come January. In all likelihood, Baker and Akinjo get played out of position at the 2, and Terry gets played out of position at the 3.

 

[TJ]

My understanding is Williams has a degenerative knee condition, and his career is over. Meanwhile, Akinjo isn't eligible until January. Koloko cannot play power forward. Batcho is the only one we have right now.

Baker-Kriisa-T. Brown
Terry
Mathurin
Batcho
J. Brown-Koloko-Lee

With Akinjo being a fourth point guard come January. In all likelihood, Baker and Akinjo get played out of position at the 2, and Terry gets played out of position at the 3.

Lee and Brown can play the 4 and I think the coaches are going to give Koloko every chance to earn the starting 5 job

 

[1Sun]

Lee and Brown can play the 4 and I think the coaches are going to give Koloko every chance to earn the starting 5 job

Lee and Brown are not mobile enough defensively to play the 4 (and neither really has the shooting range offensively, either), unless Miller is willing to employ a zone defense, which he never has in the past.

 

[Russ Smith]

Lee and Brown are not mobile enough defensively to play the 4 (and neither really has the shooting range offensively, either), unless Miller is willing to employ a zone defense, which he never has in the past.

Disagree on Brown, he is more mobile than you think. I knew he wasn't a one and done but he is athletic enough to play some 4. He has real nice footwork in the post on offense, in HS they used to call him names like Baby Duncan, but he can face up and shoot. I was furious when UCLA took Shareef over him, I thought they did it because they thought Shareef would get other kids(Josh Christopher) to UCLA but mainly I thought Brown was the better player and I knew he'd be in school at least 2 years. I also thought Shareef was not a kid who would play in the post and with the coaching change that was the exact problem he wanted to be a face up 4 or a 3, Cronin wanted him to be a post. Miller should not have that issue with Brown, he's smart enough to know he can be very good in the post while still getting enough chances to show he can face up and make shots when playing the 4.

You won't be a quick team but with him and Koloko on the floor together rim protection will be very good. brown was only 2 Blocks per 40 as a freshman but I expect he'll be better than that.

 

[1Sun]

Disagree on Brown, he is more mobile than you think. I knew he wasn't a one and done but he is athletic enough to play some 4. He has real nice footwork in the post on offense, in HS they used to call him names like Baby Duncan, but he can face up and shoot. I was furious when UCLA took Shareef over him, I thought they did it because they thought Shareef would get other kids(Josh Christopher) to UCLA but mainly I thought Brown was the better player and I knew he'd be in school at least 2 years. I also thought Shareef was not a kid who would play in the post and with the coaching change that was the exact problem he wanted to be a face up 4 or a 3, Cronin wanted him to be a post. Miller should not have that issue with Brown, he's smart enough to know he can be very good in the post while still getting enough chances to show he can face up and make shots when playing the 4.

You won't be a quick team but with him and Koloko on the floor together rim protection will be very good. brown was only 2 Blocks per 40 as a freshman but I expect he'll be better than that.

Lack of quickness is a real problem defensively in a system that refuses to employ a zone defense.

 

[Russ Smith]

Lack of quickness is a real problem defensively in a system that refuses to employ a zone defense.

Yeah I think he's more athletic than you think. Is he an athletic 4 no, would he struggle guarding 4's like say Chris Smith who plays more like a 3, yes, but then Smith couldn't guard him on the block either. I saw Jordan play as a freshman in HS when he was 6'8" until he changed schools for his senior year. He is certainly not young Chris Webber athletically, but he can play some 4.

Really odd, UCLA could have had him but chose Shareef after he left Arizona. then Brown goes to Nevada, Shareef gets sick and never plays for Alford at UCLA. Then Alford goes to Nevada, and Brown transfers to ARizona and Shareef leaves UCLA. So Arizona ends up with Brown with 2 years of college coaching as a RS soph and UCLA ends up with neither. That said I think if UCLA had taken Brown out of HS, he'd have turned pro after his 2nd year.

 

[GatorAZ]

After Chase Jeter I just have to see it before I mark these transfers down as contributors. I’m very interested in Batcho because seems like he knows what he’s doing in the post but he’s below-the-rim like Sabonis. If he’s not ready the frontcourt could be a detriment.

 

[Russ Smith]

After Chase Jeter I just have to see it before I mark these transfers down as contributors. I’m very interested in Batcho because seems like he knows what he’s doing in the post but he’s below-the-rim like Sabonis. If he’s not ready the frontcourt could be a detriment.

Not saying Brown is a lottery pick, but he's better than he showed at Nevada. That was a very old experienced team it was tough for a true freshman to get into the rotation.

He came a long way his last year in HS, if you read the old scouting reports on him the knock was he didn't seem to be progressing much, didn't get stronger, didn't seem to be developing. his family decided that was largely competition level, in HS he was a big fish in a small pond, so they put him at a better AAU program and then at Prolific Prep. I never got why people were saying 1 and done in HS, he's good but he's not particularly long for his size(not long arms) and he was young for his class and clearly still developing. Nevada had 8 guys on that roster that year that had scored in double figures and a head coach who doesn't play freshmen, he much prefers transfers. Not saying he was their best player and should have started just that his lack of PT was as much about Musselman as anything, he doesn't play his bench much and doesn't play freshmen at all.

I'm assuming a year at Arizona has him much stronger and more explosive.

he's got things to work on, had no left hand in HS, was considered a weak defender, that's something he got much better at with Prolific Prep the competition really helped him. But his primary issue has always been just not that strong so in that sense Arizona is perfect for him with Rounds.

 

[1Sun]

Walton has reportedly eliminated Arizona and is choosing between North Carolina and Minnesota. Two scholarships available and no present takers. Ugh.

 

[TJ]

Walton would've been the lowest ranked prospect in our recruiting class. The Turkish kid looks like an interesting prospect. Certainly not an impact player year one, but is a good shooter and can develop.

The other Euro prospect would be much better, though

 

[1Sun]

Walton would've been the lowest ranked prospect in our recruiting class. The Turkish kid looks like an interesting prospect. Certainly not an impact player year one, but is a good shooter and can develop.

The other Euro prospect would be much better, though

Well, we have at least two scholarships to fill, three if Brandon Williams' degenerative knee condition is career-ending. Who fills those? Pretty sad when we are not even in the final two for a mid-level recruit that was considered a shoo-in for us for months. (Though, BTW, Walton is rated higher than Mathurin. Don't know about his rating relative to Kriisa or Batcho, as their ranking hasn't been determined yet.)

 

[TJ]

Well, we have at least two scholarships to fill, three if Brandon Williams' degenerative knee condition is career-ending. Who fills those? Pretty sad when we are not even in the final two for a mid-level recruit that was considered a shoo-in for us for months.

Recruiting is weird this year. Duke and several other powerhouses have zero Top-10 recruits; whereas, historically downtrodden programs like ASU, OkState, and Stanford each have one. For Kriisa, who’s a better prospect than Walton, we beat our Gonzaga and Oregon. It’s not sad to lose
Walton. In fact, his wishy-washy approach to the recruitment surfaces many character questions

I think B-Will gives it a go and Miller leaves one open scholarship in the event of a late surprise

 

[1Sun]

Recruiting is weird this year. Duke and several other powerhouses have zero Top-10 recruits; whereas, historically downtrodden programs like ASU, OkState, and Stanford each have one. For Kriisa, who’s a better prospect than Walton, we beat our Gonzaga and Oregon. It’s not sad to lose
Walton. In fact, his wishy-washy approach to the recruitment surfaces many character questions

I think B-Will gives it a go and Miller leaves one open scholarship in the event of a late surprise

Late surprise? The college academic year (in some form or another) is only 4 months away. What exactly do you mean by "late surprise", and when would that occur? Have you ever heard of a college program holding a scholarship into the academic year for that scholarship?

 

[GatorAZ]

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Shooter.

 

[TJ]

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Shooter.

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[TJ]

I like this pick up. No expectations to do anything year one. He's a shooter whose game is still developing.

Now we wait to see what Euro #2 wants to do....

 

[Lefty]

This class is now looking good. I would say a top-3 in the conference.