What might the Wildcats look like this season? Sean Miller offers six insights

Sean Miller will deploy 10 new players this season, and the Arizona coach couldn’t evaluate or even meet half of them in person until they showed up on campus a month ago.

That’s 2020 for you, of course.

Yet Miller indicated the new Wildcats have been pretty much what he’s expected so far, thanks in part to associate head coach Jack Murphy’s pre-pandemic scouting trips to Europe and the virtual tools that are now available.

“I think the story of so-and-so was supposed to be 7-foot and he comes here and he’s 6-5, those days of kind of ended just simply because the world’s a smaller place,” Miller said. “There’s social media, Zoom calls, just so much more access to video.

“It’s not as if all of them have entered here sight unseen. Because of FIBA and the competition they played against, you were really able to be very sure, as much as you can be, even though you couldn’t see them in person.”

So Estonian freshman Kerr Kriisa really is a sweet-shooting and hardworking combo guard. Lithuanian freshman Azuolas Tubelis really is the guy ESPN called the best European prospect to choose the U.S. college route this season, a skilled power forward whose twin brother, Tautvilas, might be a long-term prospect.

Parisian freshman Daniel Batcho really is a sturdy yet mobile big man. And Terrell Brown, a grad transfer from Seattle U, really is a crafty scorer who can also play point guard.

Then there’s the other newcomers Miller already was able to get to know firsthand before this summer: Georgetown transfer James Akinjo, who transferred to Arizona in January; Jordan Brown, a Nevada transfer who was one of the Wildcats’ best practice players last season; Tibet Gorener, a tall Turkish wing who played high school ball in Orange County, and two long, athletic wing forwards with considerable upside: Dalen Terry of Phoenix and Bennedict Mathurin of Montreal.

In a recent interview with the Star and Blue Ribbon Yearbook, Miller discussed what he’s seen in his new players during the Wildcats’ limited workouts so far this fall:

1. Everybody might be the point guard in a redefined three-guard offense.

The Wildcats deployed three guards — Nico Mannion, Josh Green and Dylan Smith — last season, but Mannion was usually the only one handling the ball (with Jemarl Baker in reserve).

But this season, all three guards on the floor at any one time could be sharing point-guard duties. Akinjo, Baker, Kriisa and Terrell Brown all have significant ballhandling experience, while Mathurin and Terry give the UA the option to add a bigger wing on the perimeter (and both have also played the point, too.)

“I think we’re gonna have three guards on the court at the same time and I don’t really look at that as necessarily a bad thing or a weakness,” Miller said. “I mean, Oregon would be a great example (of succeeding with) a three-guard lineup, and when you do that you have more ballhandling and passing on the court. We have to be able to adapt and utilize that.”

2. Miller said evaluating Akinjo was similar to doing so with Duquesne transfer T.J. McConnell, considering the competition and numbers they put up.

McConnell was the 2011 Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year. Akinjo was the Big East Freshman of the Year in 2018-19, when he averaged 13.2 points and 5.2 assists per game for the Hoyas.

“With the perimeter players in the Atlantic 10 when T.J. left, you had a great sense of what he could do, and if you think about what he did at Arizona, they were very similar things,” Miller said. “With James, it’s important for everybody to recognize he was the Big East Freshman of the Year, who he played against, and who the coaches were in that conference. We have a good feel for what he can do.

“And (what) you don’t know until these guys are here is who they are every day. James has academically done a phenomenal job. He’s really taken care of business in every single class that he’s taken. … and when you start to watch him, you could tell he was in great shape.

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“And he’s hungry. It’s been a while since he played. Here’s the thing about him: He’s a killer on the court. He’s fearless.”

3. Kriisa also has a fearless streak, a strong work ethic and a smooth shot that just might remind longtime Arizona fans of his namesake.

“Kerr is an exceptional shooter,” Miller said. “Just drillwise, watching him shoot the ball, he has a beautiful shot.

“Steve Kerr will enjoy watching him play because he has a spirit about him that, when he’s in the gym and he’s playing, you know he’s here. He’s been enthusiastic. He’s got a great way about him as a teammate. We’re really, really excited about him.”

4. Since the Wildcats have yet to hold contract drills, Arizona coaches haven’t been able to evaluate the slashing ability of wings such as Terrell Brown, Mathurin and Terry. But Brown’s rise from a lightly recruited junior college player to Seattle U walk on to all-WAC player says a lot about him.

“Scoring 20 points per game, and playing for a really, really good coach in Seattle (Jim Hayford), I think those two things speak for themselves,” Miller said. “I don’t think he came to Arizona to score 20 a game but to have a role and be a player that really helps our team. Having been through long seasons and at different schools, I think (his experience is) really healthy for the development of our younger players.

“He’s also a real stand-up guy. I love him off the court. I probably know him off the court probably better than on the court, just how he handles himself, how he handled himself this spring. He’s somebody that we want to have as part of our program.”

5. The fact that Mathurin and Terry both just turned 18 over the summer is another indication it’s hard to estimate what they’ll do this season.

“They’re two of the youngest people that we’ve ever had in our program,” Miller said. “For their overall development and career that’s a really good thing, because you can’t really judge those two guys on their starting point. I think where they’ll be three months from today could be in a different stratosphere just because they have such a high ceiling based on their youth and their talent.

“Dalen is almost 6-7, and he’s got really long arms. His wingspan is over 7 feet. He’s kind of almost like Rondae (Hollis-Jefferson) in terms of his size. He’s much thinner than Rondae, but he’s a big kid. I think the next couple of months, his body will keep getting bigger and stronger. Same for Benn. We’re not only counting on those guys to help our team this year, but I think they’re both a big part of our future.”

6. Miller said this season will be a “huge year of development” for Gorener, with a need to gain strength and weight, while post players Azuolas Tubelis and Batcho are more physically ready.

Miller said Batcho is rugged and best suited to play center for now but also mobile enough to step away into midrange, while the left-handed Tubelis is a capable face-up player who is adept at driving the ball.

Together with the hard nose of Jordan Brown, the experience of senior Ira Lee and the shot-swatting upside of 7-foot sophomore Christian Koloko, Miller won’t ever have to put a fourth perimeter player on the floor if he doesn’t want to.

“Daniel is 6-10, 240 and he’s got really wide shoulders and long arms. We have a lot to work with there. And then Azuolas is probably the most experienced newcomer — him and Kerr — in playing big games. He’s advanced physically.

“It’s a puzzle that I wish I had more answers about who can do what. But what I definitely know is that with the physical ability, the depth, the size, we can play two big physical guys that can complement each other with those three guards.”