Arizona Basketball 2020-2021

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TJ

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So it WAS one of the names I listed. Good on you to keep it secret. I am excited by this prospect.

With us also taking his brother, does that mean Brandon Williams is gone?
The name had to be kept under wraps because someone leaked it in social media, which tipped off his professional team that he was considering playing college ball. That likely meant that they were going to up his salary to play there. Would’ve been embarrassing to lose a high ticket recruit because someone got sloppy on the Internet. As for Brandon Williams, likely spells the end, but that seems to have been the thought process for sometime now
 

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If the team underperforms under Miller again, he just might end up being the next head coach...

Murphy is just a recruiter albeit a great one. I hope Miller is open to suggestions from Terry regarding the offense but I have my doubts. I don’t think a guy who made over $100m in the NBA grinds it out as an assistant if he doesn’t have major aspirations.
 

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Murphy is just a recruiter albeit a great one. I hope Miller is open to suggestions from Terry regarding the offense but I have my doubts. I don’t think a guy who made over $100m in the NBA grinds it out as an assistant if he doesn’t have major aspirations.

It seems Miller has been just a recruiter for quite some time as well, and he is now losing his touch there, relying increasingly on the likes of Murphy and likely now Jason Terry to win recruiting battles to make up for the ones Miller is now losing. Plus I can't see Murphy having the negative in-game impact that Miller has had of late. Just putting it out there...
 
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Murphy’s not going to be the next Arizona coach when Sean leaves.
 

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Miller has certainly devolved as a game coach, I don’t see a coach who couldn’t hack it against the likes of Portland State as the answer.

That said... yet another outstanding recruiting class, good for Miller. I really hope it is an improvement over the “stumbling into the tourney trajectory” our recent squads have displayed.
 

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There is no way Murphy would be the next permanent head coach at the UofA.
 
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Miller has certainly devolved as a game coach, I don’t see a coach who couldn’t hack it against the likes of Portland State as the answer.

That said... yet another outstanding recruiting class, good for Miller. I really hope it is an improvement over the “stumbling into the tourney trajectory” our recent squads have displayed.
Think Miller finally realized that he can’t force-feed the packline defense onto OADs and needs to actually create chemistry and continuity amongst his team. That’s what made him successful at Xavier and the first half of his tenure at Arizona.
 

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Do they have four euros in this class? That’s the most I can recall from any college much less Arizona.
 

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So an obvious question, are any of these kids in the US already and if not, will there be any sort of issue with bringing in that many kids from overseas with quarantines and the like? I guess they're assuming if there's a season it will start late enough it won't matter.

Pretty interesting class, makes St Mary's look like a homegrown program by comparison
 

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So an obvious question, are any of these kids in the US already and if not, will there be any sort of issue with bringing in that many kids from overseas with quarantines and the like? I guess they're assuming if there's a season it will start late enough it won't matter.

Pretty interesting class, makes St Mary's look like a homegrown program by comparison
Maybe Miller is taking a page out of Mark Few's book with the success Gonzaga has had with its import factory.
 

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Maybe Miller is taking a page out of Mark Few's book with the success Gonzaga has had with its import factory.

From one extreme to another. Miller is clearly desperate. No American team in NCAA basketball history has been this dependent on foreign recruits, not even Gonzaga.

Meanwhile, Miller's lack of success in the past in developing foreign recruits (Natyazhko, Akot, Ristic, etc.) doesn't bode particularly well here.

Still, it's better than no recruits at all. I just think Sean Miller's time here has long ago passed.
 
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From one extreme to another. Miller is clearly desperate. No American team in NCAA basketball history has been this dependent on foreign recruits, not even Gonzaga.

Meanwhile, Miller's lack of success in the past in developing foreign recruits (Natyazhko, Akot, Ristic, etc.) doesn't bode particularly well here.

Still, it's better than no recruits at all. I just think Sean Miller's time here has long ago passed.

How is he desperate? People have been asking for a change in Miller's recruiting pattern for years from stocking up on OADs to recruiting glue guys who've played in professional ball already (Lithuania is no joke). He's doing exactly that. Getting players who'll buy into his defensive philosophy is what made him successful at Xavier and the early part of his tenure at Arizona. From my vantage point, he's adapting and going back to his roots.

BTW - can't blame Miller for Natyazhko or Akot. Kyryl was a complete stiff in college and was outplayed by others. Akot was a crappy teammate and resistant to coaching, which is why he failed at Arizona. Doesn't help that he spent most of his time whining to his former AAU coach because Miller made him work hard. A dude who quit on his brothers in the middle of the season doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt. He's a POS, as far as I'm concerned.

Not sure where you got that from Ristic. Dude became one of the best offensive players in the conference as he got older through the program. His trajectory was always to play overseas after college.
 
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So an obvious question, are any of these kids in the US already and if not, will there be any sort of issue with bringing in that many kids from overseas with quarantines and the like? I guess they're assuming if there's a season it will start late enough it won't matter.

Pretty interesting class, makes St Mary's look like a homegrown program by comparison

It's a concern, but I think they find a way to get it done.
 

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It's a concern, but I think they find a way to get it done.


I suspect for transfers they're going to make it easy this year, just not sure with foreign kids but it can't be too hard to get them tested and quarantined or whatever is required.

Definitely more of a St Mary's or Gonzaga approach but seems closer to St Mary's in terms of the sheer number of foreign kids in the class.
 

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How is he desperate? People have been asking for a change in Miller's recruiting pattern for years from stocking up on OADs to recruiting glue guys who've played in professional ball already (Lithuania is no joke). He's doing exactly that. Getting players who'll buy into his defensive philosophy is what made him successful at Xavier and the early part of his tenure at Arizona. From my vantage point, he's adapting and going back to his roots.

BTW - can't blame Miller for Natyazhko or Akot. Kyryl was a complete stiff in college and was outplayed by others. Akot was a crappy teammate and resistant to coaching, which is why he failed at Arizona. Doesn't help that he spent most of his time whining to his former AAU coach because Miller made him work hard. A dude who quit on his brothers in the middle of the season doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt. He's a POS, as far as I'm concerned.

Not sure where you got that from Ristic. Dude became one of the best offensive players in the conference as he got older through the program. His trajectory was always to play overseas after college.

Because instead of simply changing his recruiting pattern, he has completely trashed his original approach and gone almost exclusively to foreign recruits, something no other coach has ever done before. It's one thing to change to bring in more glue guys to compliment the OADs. It's another to abandon the OADs altogether and build a team exclusively of glue guys and no stars. Yes, he has gone back to his approach at Xavier, which might work at the mid-major level, but is likely to fail at the high-major level. I applaud him for at least trying something different, but this extreme of a shift this quickly reeks of desperation, in my opinion.

In terms of Ristic, he was projected immediately as a second round NBA draft pick when he arrived at Arizona, and was projected to be a lottery pick with development over the course of a year or two. In the end, he wasn't anywhere close to getting drafted or to playing in the NBA. He actually got worse over time.
 

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I’m done overhyping teenagers after Nico and Green but I like this kid:

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I’m done overhyping teenagers after Nico and Green but I like this kid:

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Lower release point but mechanically very much like Klay Thompson. And he has the Austin Rivers footwork on a couple of those he clearly walks gathering his feet but man when his feet are set it goes in.
 

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