Kim Aiken zigged his way from Eastern Washington to Arizona through Washington State in the offseason, but he never did become a Zag.
It just might have felt that way.
After finishing last season at Eastern Washington — starting a journey that led to a commitment to Arizona, then Washington State and then to Arizona again — Aiken spent a lot of gym time working out with departing Gonzaga standout Corey Kispert.
Not surprisingly, since the Zags’ Kispert hit 44% of his 3-point shots last season en route to becoming the 15th pick in the NBA Draft, a lot of that time was spent behind the arc.
“We just put a lot of hours into the gym when he was in Spokane,” Aiken said.
That was not a surprise to UA coach Tommy Lloyd, who watched Kispert raise his 3-point percentage every season, from 35.1% as a freshman to 37.4% as a sophomore and 43.8% as a junior in 2019-20 before becoming an All-American last season.
“Corey had beautiful shooting techniques,” said UA coach Tommy Lloyd, a shooter himself in his high school and small-college playing days. “He was a natural shooter when we got him and then what he really was over the course of his career was just an incredibly hard worker.
“He was receptive to feedback and becoming an elite shooter. It’s a little bit like a baseball or a golf swing where there’s a real feel to it. The best ones are always kind of tinkering and making adjustments and growing — and Corey was really good at that.”
For Aiken, the workouts with Kispert were both appreciated and illuminating. A 6-foot-7 combo forward who was the Big Sky’s defensive MVP last season, Aiken hit just 30.1% from 3-point range for the Eagles — including a 1-for-7 effort against Arizona at McKale Center early last season.
Twenty miles up the road in Spokane, Kispert ranked 14th overall in Kenpom true shooting percentage — a metric that incorporates two-point, 3-point and free throws — while Gonzaga reached the national championship game.
Aiken watched closely as Kispert did his work.
“It’s just his release and how he goes into every day of shooting,” Aiken said of Kispert. “We got in early, we got in late, and we just continued shooting, shooting, shooting. That’s all.”
The payoff came Saturday. During UA’s Red-Blue Game, Aiken went 4 for 4 from 3-point range while shooting 8 for 10 overall from the field.
But as sophomore wing Dalen Terry reminded everyone during a postgame news conference, the defense did look a little different back in December than it did Saturday.
“They had me guarding him,” Terry said of Arizona’s 70-67 win over Eastern Washington last season. “I was playing the three but they said he was a pick-and-pop wing, or a forward who could shoot.
“I just know that every time he got it, I wouldn’t let him get it off. That’s why he went 1 for 7.”
Terry flashed a grin after that one, of course, knowing how much things have changed since then.
“Now we’re on the same team so it’s crazy,” Terry said. “He was hitting a lot.”
But even though Aiken said he made what “looked like a plethora of 3s” on Saturday, that isn’t the only thing he plans to bring to the Wildcats this season.
In the second half Saturday, Lloyd stacked the Blue team with what might be his entire playing rotation, and Aiken played a key reserve role. Aiken’s defensive credentials and a put-back of a missed free throw in the first half suggest he has other parts to his game, too.
They are all weapons Lloyd didn’t know he’d have until August, after Aiken decommitted from Arizona when UA fired Sean Miller in April, enrolled instead at Washington State — and then left the Cougars when WSU did not admit him to its graduate school despite his 3.48 grade-point average at EWU.
“I’ve known Kim a little bit because Gonzaga and Eastern are 20 minutes apart, and there’s a lot of open gyms and my son would play at the open gyms with Kim,” Lloyd said. “I didn’t really know him until he got here. But he’s a great person and I think he’s a really good player who’s really going to help us. We’re thankful to have him.”
