Arizona coach Sean Miller said Tuesday that guard Devonaire Doutrive might play Thursday against San Jose State after missing the Wildcats' exhibition and first two regular-season games because of an indefinite suspension.
Doutrive has been practicing with the Wildcats during his suspension, though it wasn't until Tuesday that Miller indicated that he was potentially close to returning.
"Devonaire is really in the same place," Miller said. "We'll know more over the next couple days. There is a chance that he could play against San Jose State. I'm not going to commit to that right now. But I think there's a chance that he could. There's also a chance that we could be in the same place as we approach game day, so I'll know more of the next couple of days."
Doutrive won the team's gold jersey twice in practice last month and Miller indicated he would have been a starter if active. Instead, Miller has started senior Dylan Smith at shooting guard.
Possibly in part because more and more top prospects such as four-star Chicago guard Adam Miller say they're committing after the fall signing period, so as to keep their options open in case rosters or situations change drastically in the spring, the Wildcats may only get one signature (Dalen Terry) during the fall period that begins Wednesday.
"We've seen the trend a couple years ago," Miller said. "I don't think that has anything to do with us here at Arizona, it's just it's a changing landscape with a lot of the nation's best players and people. They're not signing early, they're committing and sticking with their commitment. I don't really have a thought one way or the other on that but I would say that nationally you hear that more and more often than you once did."
It is possible Adam Miller is waiting to see how Arizona's NCAA situation plays out -- and/or whether Illinois point guard Ayo Dosunmo leaves for the NBA -- but in any case, Sean Miller says Arizona will likely wind up with "in and around" five new players by the spring recruiting period.
Last year "we actually signed five (high school players); Terry (Armstrong) elected to go and play in Australia, but we also then added a number of others," Miller said. "When you bring an eight or nine, it's tough to kind of follow that up and get five and you're now you're signing 14 or 15 people in a 10 to 12 month window.
"But we'll get there, it'll play itself out and I'm comfortable with where we are. And we're hard at work, I'll tell you that. It's not like we're just sitting here coaching this year's team. I mean, there's always that dual approach of your recruiting and your coaching, and it will all work itself out."
Things could actually get more complicated with Adam Miller, too. He tweeted Tuesday morning that he received an offer from Michigan and then tweeted (and subsequently deleted) a mention that he would visit the Wolverines this weekend.
Michigan has offered γ½οΈ
— Adam AceWolf Miller (@AceWolf44) November 12, 2019
Made available for comment for the first time since the NCAA approved his waiver request to play right away this season, Kentucky transfer guard Jemarl Baker expressed considerable thanks that it worked.
"I just want to thank the NCAA first off, and thank Kentucky as well thank Coach Cal and everybody that helped in the process," Baker said. "I'm just excited to be here and excited to be eligible to play."
It appears that Baker's knee issues at Kentucky and related issues were central to his request and Calipari expressed support for Baker and Arizona, suggesting he might have also done so privately with the NCAA. But Baker declined to discuss specifics of his request, saying he was just excited to be playing.
Baker found out he had been cleared just before the Wildcats played Chico State in an exhibition game on Nov. 1.
"I was ecstatic," Baker said. "It was a great day for me. I'm very blessed to be able to play, and I'm just ready to continue to try to win.
"Coaches called me in the office. I went in there and didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if it was even about the waiver or anything like that, so I just went in there and they told me I was eligible and I was really excited. Talked to coach Miller for a little bit and then talked to my parents right after."
The fact that the Pac-12 was a collective 18-1 (17-0 if you take out the Colorado-ASU game in China) in nonconference play last week didn't come as a big surprise to Miller.
"If you would have asked me late in the summer, early fall, I would have told you that I think the Pac-12 this season will be deeper and better," Miller said. "We have some really good coaches in our conference, maybe the best group of coaches that that we've ever had since I've been here. That's not taking it away from any of the coaches that were once here and are no longer, but I'm saying more that one through 12, not just a few, but every program seems to have somebody (good) in charge of it.
"A couple of the new hires, those guys come from winning backgrounds and they're excellent at what they do. You can already see it. And I think we have some veterans that are returning, and a good group of newcomers. I look at the newcomers at Oregon and Washington and there's a couple guys that are going to play in the NBA next year that are on their teams."
Speaking of Millers, check out how Arch fielded a question about "load management" if you haven't seen it already.
Archβs mumbling is all of us.. pic.twitter.com/FQasKXokRA
— Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) November 12, 2019
