BOISE, Idaho β The Arizona Wildcats have six players left on their tentative 2018-19 roster, with freshmen Emmanuel Akot, Brandon Randolph and Ira Lee all saying theyβre planning to come back.Β
So thatβs a start.
But after their stunning 89-68 loss to Buffalo in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, there are many more questions about the future of the program.
Like, does Sean Miller return? And if he does, can he find enough quality grad transfer/juco/high school talent left this spring to piece together a competitive roster?
Do questions from the federal investigation still hover over the team, and for how long?
Who knows?
But Randolph was encouraged, at least.
βNext year I think will be really great,β he said. βWeβll be mentally prepared for these types of games.β
Randolph said he looked forward to being a leader, a scorer and a defender for the Wildcats next season after having gone through a learning experience this season.
Akot said he wonβt even test the NBA Draft this season while he gets back to work at UA.
βObviously, it wasnβt the year I expected of myself but Iβm a hard worker,β Akot said. βIβm gonna try to get better every single year. I just want to win. Iβll do whatever it takes to win.
"Iβll be back. I definitely want to work on my game and try to do the best I can.β
Lee said during the Pac-12 Tournament last week that he had no reason to leave and expected to return, and his pinned tweet after Thursday's game indicates he's serious about the offseason.
Breath. Regroup. And get back in the damn gym. π»β¬οΈ
β Ira Lee (@iramandoesit) March 16, 2018
BTW, I couldn't reach Alex Barcello or Dylan Smith to ask them about their futures before they left the locker room, but Smith and Chase Jeter have already burned their redshirt seasons, making it tough to transfer even if they wanted to.
A look at the entire Arizona roster for 2018-19 as of now is one indication UA has some work to do ahead:
Dylan Smith, G, Jr.
Brandon Randolph, G, So.
Alex Barcello, G, So.
Emmanuel Akot, F, So.
Ira Lee, F, So.
Chase Jeter, F, Jr.
Head coach: Sean Miller
Assistant coach: Mark Phelps
Acting assistant coach: Austin Carroll
Buffalo coach Nate Oats and his players spoke confidently all week, so it was no surprise that they also did after the game Thursday.
βThen the more you looked at them, the more beatable they looked because they weren't that deep,β Oats said.
"We play fast. We had great guard play. I thought we could guard their guards. They had one ball handler. I thought we could do a pretty good job.β
Oats said Arizona had done an βunbelievableβ job of playing through controversy this season, but noticed that βnobody puts any kind of ball pressure on them.β
So he did.
βI thought they'd come out and see if they can get the ball to the two 7-footers with the guards having to handle pressure all night,β Oats said. βAnd they got it to them enough, but not enough to beat us. So if you look, (Deandre) Ayton had 14 and (Dusan) Ristic had 16. They were 312th in the country in percentage of points from 3. We wanted to make them shoot a lot of 3s. We're fortunate that they shot 2-for-18. And some of that was due to us and some they just missed.β
Miller gave Buffalo a lot of credit for its disruptive play on both sides of the ball, noting that the Bullsβ four and five men were pulling out for 3s, hurting Arizona in the same way that UCLA and center Thomas Welsh did in a Bruin win at McKale and an overtime game in the Pac-12 Tournament.
Miller said he wasnβt going to change in his emotions after what happened.
βI'm taking things a day at a time,β he said. βObviously this is a tough day. And we have to move forward. My thoughts are more with our players right now. It's not easy to win the Pac-12 Tournament in the regular season, overcome a lot, get here to the tournament finally and not play well and get beat like we got beat. But that's part of sports.β
Hereβs transcripts of the podium interviews from Miller and Arizona players, and from Oats and Buffalo players. (Our stories mostly include comments from interviews in the open locker room session after the game).
Yahoo's Jeff Eisenberg says the Pac-12's collective effort might have been the worst year ever for a power conference.
Our full coverage is attached to this post and all over our Wildcats page, along with the box score and final UA season stats.
Thanks for reading along this season. It will likely be an extremely busy offseason, too, so please stick around...Β
