Arizona Wildcats vs. Montana Grizzlies men's college basketball
Arizona center Chase Jeter gives EmmanuelΒ AkotΒ (24) a playful shove afterΒ AkotΒ blocked a shot during the second half against Montana at McKale Center on Dec. 19, 2018.
 Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star

Arizona coach Sean Miller confirmed Tuesday that sophomore forward Emmanuel Akot has quit the Wildcats, saying he told the coaching staff on Sunday after they returned from their Bay Area sweep of Cal and Stanford.

Miller said Akot will stay in school and plans to transfer at the end of the spring semester. He did not take questions about Akot's motivation or the timing of the move, which leaves UA with just three post players at midseason.

Akot could not be reached for comment.

β€œWe will continue to support Emman this spring while he’s here academically as a student,” Miller said. β€œHe’s an outstanding student, currently in good academic standing, and we want to ensure that when he transfers that that remains the same for him.

β€œEmman is a great young man and I wish him continued success and more success on his journey ahead. If you’d like to ask me questions about our team, the guys who are here, I’d be more than happy to answer but that’s my statement as it applies to Emmanuel making his decision.”

Senior point guard Justin Coleman, who was brought to UA’s weekly news conference, said Akot told the team his reasons for transferring, but said the team would keep them private.

β€œEmman, that’s my guy,” Coleman said. β€œHe’s still our brother. We still reach out to him as one and I’ve also been through the transferring process as well. So losing Emman we wish him the best. We still gonna support him the best way we can because he’s still family. We just come to practice and get better every day as we did before. Nothing changes.

β€œHe kind of talked to us as a group and told us why he wanted to leave. … But we also told him we still loved him as one. He still is a part of us as he would be so we told him we gonna encourage him throughout the process.”

MORE: Emmanuel Akot's departure means Wildcats will lean on Ira Lee, Ryan Luther in the post

Akot started 11 of 17 games for the Wildcats, averaging 3.8 points, 2.8 rebounds in 19.3 minutes per game. He appeared in danger of losing minutes or possibly his starting role with the emergence of sophomore Ira Lee, who made several key plays down the stretch at Stanford on Wednesday.

If Akot leaves in good academic standing at the end of the spring semester, he will only cost UA one demerit in the Academic Progress Rating, which measures both retention and academic eligibility from semester to semester.

Arizona also lost Belgian wing Omar Thielemans in October, though Thielemans finished up the fall semester academically before transferring to Wright State.

Miller said he would look to Lee and Luther to take more minutes without Akot around, possibly starting Luther on Thursday against Oregon, while guard Dylan Smith would also fill a "jack of all trades" role that could include emergency stints at power forward.

"I think we’ll move Ryan Luther into the starting lineup though we still have a couple of days before the game," Miller said. "Ira Lee could potentially be that guy. Dylan Smith also could be that guy.

"Ira Lee has played some outstanding basketball. He was headed in that direction before we went to the Bay area and he continued to deliver and play really good in the Bay. We’re playing him about 15 minutes a game and right now he’s earned more minutes. So playing with Chase Jeter β€” not just for him β€” is something that we were moving towards anyway and I feel like that will happen more and more.

"What that addresses for us is more rebounding, the ability to get second shots, and defensively when a shot goes up having our two best defensive rebounders per minute play in the game at the same time which we’ve not done a lot this year."

Miller said that when Luther has played well, generally Arizona has been at its best this season. Luther's best game was probably against Iowa State, when had 12 points and eight rebounds against Iowa State in Maui, and that game has been Arizona's biggest win so far.

Luther also had 10 points, hitting 4 of 5 free throws, at UConn and had 10 points and three rebounds at Stanford.

"Headed down the stretch of his college career, I hope that this additional opportunity can bolster his play," Miller said. "So you have Ira and then you have Ryan. The one thing that we want to make sure that we don’t lose is quickness defensively at that spot where we can switch pick-and-rolls. There’s so many today."

That's where Smith may come into play at power forward.

"A lot of teams in the Pac-12 play with a smaller group and that four position is really a small forward and sometimes even a guard. Oregon does that," Miller said. "We’ve experimented with Dylan Smith being in that role already big moments at Stanford and even at Cal we played him at that role.

"What’s deceiving about Dylan is for our guards he’s not only our best defensive player but he’s also our best defensive rebounder. And with Ira Lee and him able to play more minutes, I think that’s something that can go quietly our direction is our ability to rebound the ball. But these are our circumstances. ... (It's giving) Ira Lee a bigger opportunity and Ryan Luther more of an opportunity, more of the same. And certainly Dylan being able to be that jack-of-all-trades guy where we can count on him at the end of games, against Utah for example, Dylan was somebody we really, really trust so that’s kind of what we're doing."

Photos: Emmanuel Akot's career as an Arizona Wildcats

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Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at 573-4146 or bpascoe@tucson.com. On Twitter @brucepascoe