The men’s basketball recruiters inside McKale Center might well be called the Arizona Globetrotters at this point.
The Wildcats have lined up more scholarship players (seven) from outside the United States than inside (six) for next season. That counts returning Cameroonian center Christian Koloko, plus incoming Canadian wing Benn Mathurin and five overseas signees after Lithuanian twins Azuolas and Tautvilas Tubelis signed with the Wildcats last week.
“This marks the sixth international player joining Arizona’s roster in 2020, something I’ve never seen in my nearly 20 years in the business,” ESPN draft analyst Jonathan Givony tweeted after the Tubelis signings. “Some very good players coming to Tucson from all over the globe.”
Of their languages, all speak English but also three converse in French, albeit in much different dialects (Koloko, French forward Daniel Batcho and Mathurin, a Montreal native), while guard Kerr Kriisa speaks his native Estonian plus a little Russian and Lithuanian, which is the native tongue of the Tubelis twins. Meanwhile, Turkish wing Tibet Gorener spoke more English than his native tongue last season at Orange (Calif.) Lutheran.
All together, if you count Gorener’s home country as being in both Asia and Europe, the Wildcats can claim players from four different continents: North America, Europe, Asia and Africa.
But while Givony called it a “total change of direction and strategy by Sean Miller and his staff,” there’s also evidence that the Wildcats’ top recruiting priorities have not changed.
That is, like just about everyone else, they are still heavily involved in chasing top American players, preferably those from the West Coast.
Daniel Batcho, right, is still sorting out issues in his home country of France before he can join his teammates.
With the 2020 class, that meant chasing after Top 40 guys like Ziaire Williams (who chose Stanford), Caleb Love (North Carolina), D.J. Steward (Duke), Adam Miller (Illinois) and Devin Askew (Kentucky).
Among 2021 players, Arizona appears significantly in the hunt for top 50 players Paolo Banchero (of Seattle), Payton Watson (Long Beach, Calif.), Nolan Hickman (Sammamish, Wash.) and DaRon Holmes (Goodyear) and others.
In 2020, Arizona wound up getting only one American target, Phoenix wing Dalen Terry, but key transfers and international prospects should keep the Wildcats competitive in the Pac-12 race next season.
In Eurobasket’s listing of the top non-U.S.-based players born in 2002, Tubelis rated No. 4, while French big man Daniel Batcho was 37 and Gorener 45. Kriisa ranks No. 18 among players born in 2001.
Collectively, the Wildcats’ group of newcomers moved up to No. 5 in 247 Sports’ rankings of 2020 recruiting classes. While that ranking does factor in the large volume of players, it does not count the also-significant additions of transfers James Akinjo (Georgetown) and Terrell Brown (Seattle U).
In other words, when the Wildcats can’t land those top American high school players, they’ll find another way to get it done.
“I think it’s pretty much a constant that they’re going to recruit at a high level under Sean Miller,” 247 analyst Josh Gershon said. “They’ve always found a way to do it. They’ve always been creative whether it comes to high school players, transfers, grad transfers, some junior college players and international players.”
Gershon said the Wildcats’ odds of getting top American players were difficult in 2020 because several of the West’s top prospects — onetime UA targets Jalen Green, MarJon Beauchamp and Daishen Nix — all elected to skip college entirely. Another West Coast five-star player, Los Angeles guard Josh Christopher, became an automatic no-go once ASU signed his older brother (and eventually Josh, of course).
Canadian wing Benn Mathurin will play for the Wildcats this fall.
Of course, there’s a particular off-court factor, too: Their involvement in a still-ongoing NCAA investigation, which could result in a notice of allegations in the coming months and a conclusion perhaps sometime in 2021.
The investigation may have scared off some UA targets who feared potential sanctions in 2020-21, though Gershon said Arizona faced an even tougher recruiting climate in the spring of 2018, when the federal investigation into college basketball was ongoing and ESPN published a report in February 2018 report saying Miller discussed a pay-for-play scheme.
The Wildcats had just six players entering April 2018 and, while they filled up the roster that spring, went just 17-15 the following season.
“That was probably as tumultuous a situation as you could recruit to, if you think about the days after that ESPN report, and what the likelihood felt at that point that Sean had only a day or two left,” Gershon said. “Imagine recruiting to your program two months later, trying to rebuild a class. It felt impossible to be able to recruit.
“So as far as their recruiting situation goes, I think the worst has passed. The feeling of unknown about the future, I don’t think, is as prevalent today. Not even close when it comes to recruiting.”
Maybe that’s why the Wildcats are still getting in the doors of many 2021 five-star players, while the hire of new assistant coach Jason Terry may have already helped.
Terry is a godfather of Terrell Brown, while his strong hometown roots in Seattle may be helping with 2021 Seattle prospects Banchero and Hickman. The Wildcats barged notably into Banchero’s top six last month when he hadn’t previously had them listed among his top nine.
So even while it may look like a new direction for the Wildcats, the future may be pointing the same way it always was.
“If you look at the strategy in ’21, they’re pretty much basically defaulting back to the building blocks of the program,” Gershon said, “which is recruiting the West.”
