Over 4 seasons as an Arizona Wildcats walk-on, Jordan Mains has seen it all

Four years after turning away from a mid-major college basketball career, Jordan Mains is starting to think about that route again.

If so, he’ll do it as a different sort of player and person. Mains’ experience at Arizona ensured that much.

Over his four-season journey with the Wildcats, the walk-on forward from Scottsdale has seen just about everything: two injuries, a COVID-shortened freshman season, a COVID-altered sophomore season, a school-imposed NCAA Tournament ban, a coaching change, a Pac-12 title and No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed — and, this year, another top-10 season so far.

Meanwhile, Mains was accepted into the Eller College of Management and is now finishing up a finance degree, with hopes to work in sports management or for the front office of a pro team.

“It’s been a ride for sure,” Mains said. “A lot of ups and a lot of downs ... but I’m really, really blessed here. I’ve made a lot of good friendships with a lot of good people, and I’m just grateful for the time being here.”

Mains is scheduled to suit up for the final time at McKale Center on Saturday when Arizona will host ASU, although playing in the “COVID year” of 2020-21 will give Mains an extra year of eligibility for 2023-24 if he wants it.

Mains said he’s thinking about going to a program where he can play regularly for a final season. The way UA coach Tommy Lloyd described it, that shouldn’t be a problem.

“Jordan is a Division I player who can be playing for a lot of teams,” Lloyd said on his radio show earlier this week. “Unfortunately, he’s maybe a tick below being able to play for us. But there have been times this year I’ve thought about, ‘You know, if I need ... because he gives effort and energy. He’s kind of fearless, and he’s got great instincts.

“So I’m telling him, if he decides to move on and go somewhere else, he could be playing real minutes at other schools for sure.”

Following Mannion

Actually, other Division I schools already believed Mains could play for them years ago. As a standout teammate of Nico Mannion’s at Pinnacle High School, Mains received five scholarship offers to mid-major programs. But he missed his senior season with a right knee injury and said he began to think of other options.

One of them was to enroll at the same place Mannion was headed as Arizona’s top class-of-2019 recruit. But since Mains still wouldn’t be healthy enough to play right away, he joined the Wildcats as a manager in the fall of 2019 before suiting up in spring semester.

He played in two games later in the 2019-20 season before COVID hit, ending the Wildcats’ season before they had a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament.

The COVID effects were even more profound the next season: In 2020-21, players took near-daily COVID tests, ate meals separately from one another and played in front of lifeless cardboard cutouts.

“Every game kind of felt like a scrimmage, just because there were no fans, and I had to wear a mask during practices,” Mains said. “That was just a year like no one has experienced before.”

For Arizona, it was even more unusual: In late December, just as the Wildcats started looking like an NCAA Tournament contender by beating Colorado to move to 7-1, the school announced a self-imposed postseason tournament ban because of its then-pending NCAA infractions case.

At nearly the same time, Mains suffered a stress fracture to his right foot that would keep him from returning until the Pac-12 Tournament. But the Wildcats were not allowed to play in that either; conference rules wouldn’t let them because of their NCAA Tournament ineligibility.

Then, a full six weeks after that season, Arizona fired coach Sean Miller, the sort of move that can normally flood the transfer portal with players. But Mains said he never gave much thought to leaving.

“Not really,” he said. “I knew U of A would hire the best potential candidate, and they did with with Coach Lloyd. I never really had any doubt.”

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Mains said Lloyd met with him and fellow walk-on Grant Weitman about a week after he was hired in the middle of April 2021, telling them both how much he valued walk-ons. Both remain with the Wildcats today.

As it turned out, Mains’ junior season in 2021-22, the first one with Lloyd in charge, exceeded expectations. Everyone else’s expectations, that is.

‘Super fun’

Even though that 2020-21 Arizona team was largely out of the public eye because of the postseason ban and COVID restrictions, Mains saw better things coming in 2021-22. The development was happening with guys such as Bennedict Mathurin, Christian Koloko, Dalen Terry, Azuolas Tubelis and Kerr Kriisa.

“I knew we could do something special,” Mains said. “I knew the talent that we had. It was just a matter of time before people recognized it.”

It didn’t take long. The Wildcats won their first 11 games under Lloyd last season, riding a new up-tempo system into a Pac-12 championship and No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed. Mains played during the first game of the season, an 81-52 win over NAU and brother Nik Mains, then played a total of 14 more.

“It all kind of ties together,” Mains said. “The success of the program was obviously making it more fun to play games, and behind the scenes, how everyone got along and the enjoyment that we had, in practice or in games — it was super fun to be around the guys. And obviously being able to play in 15 games, that was super fun.”

Sometimes, even the practices have been fun, too. As a 6-6 forward, Mains is often tasked with mimicking an upcoming opponent’s forward during scout-team work. Among his favorite players to “be:” UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez.

“Lot of sets for him,” Mains said, smiling. “It’s kind of fun to just do whatever I want and have a free game.”

At the same time, it’s also a task Mains takes seriously. UCLA’s success is often a function of how well Jaquez can exploit mismatches with his 6-7 size and versatility.

“it’s really critical that our guys get to read how he plays the game,” Mains said.

Mains has proved so valuable to the UA scout team that he’s one of only three walk-ons who make the trip to Pac-12 road games — along with junior guard Grant Weitman and grad transfer Matt Lang — since conference rules allow only 15 players to travel.

Although grad transfers Courtney Ramey and Cedric Henderson are older, Mains also serves as the team’s longest-tenured Wildcat. Nobody else has been in a Wildcat uniform since 2019-20.

“Everyone loves Jordan,” Weitman said. “He’s definitely the vet of the team.”

Mains has made seven appearances so far this season, scoring against Nicholls and Utah Tech in November while pulling down a pair of rebounds against Oregon State at home earlier this month.

But as much as anything this season, he’s collecting memories.

“It’s different just being my last year,” Mains said. “I’ve been trying to take it in more, enjoy everything a little bit more than I probably did in the past few years.”