August return could help Christian Koloko, a big man who's desperate to get even bigger

The ability to work out efficiently has been a universal gripe of athletes all over the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, but for Christian Koloko it’s been an even bigger problem.

As a lightly-used Arizona freshman last season, Koloko had only 215 pounds on his 7-foot frame. He knows if he wants to play a bigger role this season, that’s not going to cut it — and hitting his goal of 230-235 pounds just hasn’t been easy this summer.

“At home, I don’t have any equipment,” Koloko said Wednesday in a Zoom call with reporters. “I just have like probably two dumbbells and I have some bands. I’m just trying to work on my body. At school we have all the equipment you need to get bigger … like (a) leg press, and everything that’s cool for big guys.

“I was really frustrated when I realized I couldn’t go back to Tucson to work on my body, because that was my main focus for the summer.”

Fortunately for Koloko and the Wildcats, his wait may nearly be over. Arizona said Wednesday that men’s and women’s basketball players can start returning on Aug. 12, a week after the school’s football newcomers resume re-entry procedures. The return-to-campus plan has been paused for more than a month.

However, Koloko and incoming freshmen wing Tibet Gorener of Turkey may be UA’s only international players who will be able to show up that early, since they’re coming from offseason bases in California. Arizona’s five other international players are still outside the United States, and UA operations director Ryan Reynolds said it will likely be case-by-case when each is able to arrive.

Koloko moved from Cameroon to California before his junior season in high school, and is back living with his sister in the San Fernando Valley this summer. While it’s less than ideal for working out, Koloko said he has some access to a gym and weightlifting equipment via a trainer he worked with during his senior year at Sierra Canyon School.

He also said he’s been receiving some remote advice from UA performance enhancement coach Chris Rounds.

Already, UA coach Sean Miller said last month, Rounds and Koloko have made considerable progress since Koloko first showed up in Tucson a year ago.

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“He gave us more as a freshman than I could have ever predicted,” Miller said. “If you would have seen him as a junior in high school, there’s no way you would have said that he would have played the role at Arizona as a freshman that he did. It’s a real tribute to him and our staff, but also Coach Rounds in his weight room and our conditioning strength program.”

Koloko played only the 11th-most minutes of the Wildcats last season, just 8.3 minutes on average over 28 games, but his presence was often obvious. He blocked 25 shots — swatting away opponents’ shots 12.3% of the time when he was on the floor — and made 48.3% of his own shots on the other end.

Miller said Koloko was a “lot of fun to watch” in practices, too, because he gave the maximum effort, and his energy made him popular among McKale Center fans.

But it didn’t happen right away. Koloko didn’t get into an early season game against Illinois, played only one minute over three Wooden Legacy games and logged just another minute at Baylor. But he did play in all of the Wildcats’ Pac-12 games, his minutes generally increasing while Chase Jeter struggled with injury and rebounding issues.

“The first thing I learned was just be patient,” Koloko said. “Because I wasn’t playing at the beginning of the year so (it was to) just keep working in practice with all the guys. … When my time came, I think I took the opportunity. But I need to get stronger for sure. I know if I get stronger, I can (improve) my game, finish around the basket.”

Not only will Koloko be back in the Wildcats’ weight room next month but, coronavirus permitting, he’ll soon be mixing it up in practice with returning senior Ira Lee, newly eligible transfer Jordan Brown, incoming freshmen Daniel Batcho of France and Azuolas Tubelis of Lithuania.

Already, Koloko has already seen plenty of Lee and Brown. A transfer from Nevada who sat out last season, Brown is expected to challenge for a starting or significant role along with Tubelis.

“We were guarding each other in practices and Jordan is a really good player,” Koloko said. “When he gets the ball in the post, that’s actually a nightmare. Even Ira can tell you when Jordan gets the ball, there’s just not a lot you can do to really stop him.”

Of the new guys, Koloko says already has a pretty good idea of what will happen, too, thanks to the internet.

“I watch a lot of video of those guys,” Koloko says. “I think it’s gonna be like last year. We had five different bigs, all with different games. (Now there’s) me, Ira, Jordan, Azuolas and Daniel. We’re all different so it’s gonna be interesting to see how we complement each other, to see how good we are together.”