After just two years at Arizona, 21-year-old center Christian Koloko is already the most veteran Wildcat.
Maybe not the oldest — that distinction belongs to 23-year-old Georgia transfer Justin Kier — but no player has been around the program longer than Koloko has.
Which means no player has seen more change.
“It’s a little bit weird,” Koloko said.
When Koloko arrived in Tucson two summers ago, his practice mates in the post included leading scorer Zeke Nnaji, former Duke player Chase Jeter, Cornell grad transfer Stone Gettings, high-motor forward Ira Lee and then-redshirting Nevada transfer Jordan Brown.
All those guys are long gone. Nnaji ran off to the NBA after one season and, after Lithuanian freshman Azuolas Tubelis quickly emerged from the post group last season, Brown (Louisiana-Lafayette) and Lee (George Washington) transferred last spring.
Coach Sean Miller was fired in April — and suddenly Koloko wondered where his future would be, too.
“When the coach who recruits you is leaving, you start thinking about ‘What’s my future?” Koloko said. “I started thinking about it and I had three meetings with Coach Tommy, and he convinced me to stay.”
Koloko has met with new coach Tommy Lloyd multiple times on and off the court since Lloyd’s mid-April arrival. UA’s decision to fire Miller five weeks after its season ended — and when Lloyd became available because Gonzaga’s season ended — compressed the amount of time its players had to consider transferring.
“Just by talking to him about the way he wants us to play and his approach, the way he sees basketball, he’s a teacher,” Koloko said of Lloyd. “He loves teaching the game, and that’s something you want from a coach. You want someone who wants to teach you and wants you to get better. I knew by staying it was going to be a good thing for me.
“We had two weeks to get to know each other and we had some workouts together. During those two weeks, I think i saw enough from him that I knew he was someone I could trust. I decided I’d stay at Arizona.”.
Christian Koloko averaged 1.3 blocks per game last season.
Koloko has already established himself as a rim protector defensively, and it’s possible Lloyd’s more fluid offensive style could also bring out more of his game on the other end of the court.
That was another pitch that convinced Koloko to stay.
“The way he wants us to play, he wants us to move the ball, he wants us to run the floor,” Koloko said. “He wants me to be a rim runner, basically all the time, to be always moving and be more involved in the possessions. It’s a little bit different from what we had last year, but I think that’s something that will help me and help the team also.”
After the Wildcats’ spring workouts, Koloko went back to his home base in Los Angeles to work out on his own. He said he was much better off than in the 2020 offseason, when Koloko struggled to find an open gym or any equipment to work with because of California’s strict COVID-19 restrictions.
Koloko also worked out briefly in Tucson with sophomore Benn Mathurin before the sophomore wing left to join the Canadian senior and U19 teams. Koloko has yet to face 7-foot Gonzaga transfer Oumar Ballo, who has spent most of the summer in his native Mali and playing for his national U19 team in Latvia.
For Koloko, who streamed some of the FIBA U19 World Cup games to watch his teammates, that’s OK.
Koloko said he had a chance to at least get to know newcomers such as Kier, freshman wing Shane Nowell, and Utah transfer Pelle Larsson. Koloko has yet to meet transfer forward Kim Aiken Jr., but he played against him last December when the Wildcats edged Eastern Washington.
Christian Koloko's offensive game could evolve under Tommy Lloyd, who's likely to bring a more free-wheeling attack to Tucson in his first season as the Wildcats' coach.
“I think from just spending time with those guys, I think we’re gonna be pretty good,” Koloko said. “They want to learn. They want our team to be good and they’re good guys. They love to work and they love to get better. That’s the kind of team you want to be part of and this is the kind of team we have this year. I’m really excited to see what’s going to happen when we’re all together.”
