Just over a week after Dalen Terry joined former fellow Arizona wing Bennedict Mathurin permanently in the NBA Draft pool, the Wildcats have rebuilt their perimeter.
Veteran Texas guard Courtney Ramey announced Friday he committed to Arizona, choosing the Wildcats over West Virginia, a day after Campbell wing Cedric Henderson picked the Wildcats over Texas Tech, NC State, South Carolina and Chattanooga.
Arizona announced the official signings of both players on social media Friday.
Ramey is expected to start off the ball for the Wildcats next season, or at least play a major reserve role, while also backing up returning starter Kerr Kriisa at point guard. Henderson, meanwhile, is a bigger wing whose cutting and shooting abilities are expected to help him carve out a significant role in coach Tommy Lloyd’s offensive system.
With the starting lineup for his second season as the Wildcats’ head coach, Lloyd could start Kriisa, Ramey and rising junior Pelle Larsson on the perimeter, with Henderson, rising sophomore Adama Bal and possibly incoming freshman Filip Borovicanin playing reserve roles.
But in the end, all of them will likely be mixed and matched to some degree.
“I’m not coach, so I couldn’t tell you what exactly he sees,” Henderson said Friday in a telephone interview. “But I think it’d be a good squad. Between Kerr, Courtney, me and Pelle as your wing guys and Bal as the younger wing, I think that’s a great rotation. Then you have those bigs and Pelle can slide to the four if need be.”
Overall, the Wildcats’ two recent commitments all but ensure the Wildcats will have a full rotation next season, and a roster capable of attracting Top-25 preseason votes, then competing for another Pac-12 title and NCAA Tournament run.
The Wildcats now have 11 scholarship players on hand for 2022-23, including a potential frontcourt rotation that includes all-league forward Azuolas Tubelis, returning center Oumar Ballo and incoming freshmen Henri Veesaar and Dylan Anderson.
It is possible Arizona might add one more player — the Wildcats have been pursuing forwards such as Illinois’ Jacob Grandison and WSU’s Efe Abogidi — but UA is also believed to be comfortable with the roster as it stands now.
Given Terry’s decision to stay in the draft, Ramey might be as key as any of the Wildcats’ 2022 acquisitions.
He is expected to help as a secondary ballhandler and serve as a defensive presence while bringing the sort of toughness Lloyd said the team needed after Arizona struggled against TCU and then lost to Houston in the NCAA Tournament.
While Ramey did not make the Big 12’s all-defensive team last season, the Austin American-Statesman said his “on-ball defense was suffocating at times,” noting that Big 12 Player of the Year Ochai Agbaji of Kansas had just 19 points in two games against the Longhorns.
“Ramey was all over him in both games, talking smack the whole time,” wrote the American-Statesman’s Brian Davis.
A 6-foot-3-inch, 185-pound guard from St. Louis, Ramey has already played four full seasons at Texas, starting since the midway point of his freshman season in 2018-19.
His best season at Texas came as a junior then-coach Shaka Smart in 2020-21, when he averaged 12.2 points and 3.2 assists per game while shooting 41.4% from 3-point range. Last season, he averaged 9.4 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.6 rebounds per game while shooting 35% from 3-point range under new coach Chris Beard.
New Wildcat Courtney Ramey brings ballhandling ability and toughness, two traits the UA may need following departure of Dalen Terry.
While the American-Statesman said Ramey nearly quit the team in the early season — Ramey played two games off the bench in late December — both Beard and Smart have spoken highly of him.
“Good thing about Ramey, he’s a tough guy,” Beard said after Texas drilled Incarnate Word 78-33 on Dec. 28, according to the American-Statesman. “Ramey doesn’t hold grudges. Ramey just competes, man. There’s not a lot of loafing in Ramey. .. He was a competitor before I got here, and I’m just trying to get the most out of him.”
Ramey stuck around all of last season, starting all 22 games in the new calendar year, but announced on March 31 that he would both test the NBA Draft and enter the transfer portal, thanking his family, fans and coaches for the opportunity with the Longhorns while making it clear he likely would not return to Texas.
Since then, Ramey posted to Instagram a thank you video to Texas on April 1, a photo of himself in Texas graduation gear on May 20 and work-out photos from Las Vegas on May 23.
“What I been through, I can’t change,” Ramey posted from Las Vegas. “I thank God that I grew…”
On Friday, Ramey posted a graphic of himself in an Arizona uniform, saying “ain’t no limits to the things I can do. #beardown.” His father, Terrell, thanked the schools that recruited Courtney in a Twitter post.
“What a blessing that we are so thankful for,” Terrell Ramey said. “I’m excited for my kid who handled this process with a high level of patience.”
Ramey has not been known to have taken any visits this spring but considered Arizona and West Virginia while also drawing interest from Houston, Purdue, Duke and Louisville. Evanmiya.com named Ramey the 31st best transfer overall this spring.
