Wildcats' roster turnover continues with soft-spoken Jordan Brown's departure

Over his two years at Arizona, Jordan Brown was known for working hard, keeping his head down, and not saying a whole lot

When he did speak, he said the kinds of things coaches hope to hear.

“It’s not really too big a deal starting or coming off the bench,” Brown said on Jan. 14 at Oregon State, where he was moved out of the starting lineup for the first time last season. “I’m out there doing what I love.”

Brown’s actions — especially his appearance Monday in the NCAA transfer portal — might have said more. Brown’s departure will cost the Wildcats their most experienced player, the 2020-21 Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year, and their only McDonald’s All-American. Brown played in the prestigious high school all-star game in 2018, then spent his freshman season at Nevada battling for playing time in a veteran frontcourt. Brown redshirted during the 2019-20 season while practicing against Zeke Nnaji, then earned the sixth man honor last season.

Then-coach Sean Miller said last spring that Brown would be a double-figure scorer. He started acting like it in the preseason, collecting UA’s gold jerseys for overall practice production during the first two weeks.

Brown opened the season with 19 points and 15 rebounds against Grambling, had another double-double against NAU on Dec. 7 and started the Wildcats’ first 12 games. But he shifted from power forward to center when emerging talent Azuolas Tubelis broke into the starting lineup and was out of the starting lineup altogether on Jan. 14, when Miller instead turned to the rim-protecting Christian Koloko at center.

Despite what he said about not starting, Brown’s performance against the Beavers suggested he was pretty motivated coming off the bench. Brown scored a career-high 25 points on 10 for 12 shooting over 21 minutes against a team that eventually reached the Elite Eight.

Brown spoke up again five weeks later: Against USC and expected NBA lottery pick Evan Mobley, Brown had 19 points and 12 rebounds to help the Wildcats record their biggest win of the season, 82-72 over the Trojans.

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Tubelis added 16 points and 15 rebounds to help deal with Mobley and his brother Isaiah, and the two UA post players also helped compensate for the fact that Koloko committed a technical foul and fouled out after less than 11 minutes.

“If you think about Christian having foul trouble and playing 10 minutes and fouling out, somebody really had to step up,” Miller said after the USC game. “I thought it was like a one-two punch — it was Jordan Brown and Azuolas who did a great job inside.”

But Brown scored in single digits for eight of the Wildcats’ final nine games, finished the season with five points and three rebounds over 16 minutes in a loss at Oregon, and wound up averaging 9.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game..

How well Brown might have fit in first-year UA coach Tommy Lloyd’s more uptempo offense will never be known. His move will allow him to pursue a more featured role elsewhere, since Koloko and Tubelis both remain on the Wildcats’ 2021-22 roster; Lloyd is also bringing transfer Oumar Ballo, a 7-footer who he first recruited to Gonzaga.

While both Miller and Lloyd have been believed to be interested in a hybrid forward, with former UNLV signee Arthur Kalama on their radar, the Wildcats as of now have only three total post players for two spots. Tubelis, Koloko and Ballo remain but Brown, Ira Lee (George Washington) and Daniel Batcho (undecided) have all announced they are transferring.

Overall, eight of Arizona’s 13 scholarship players from last season have entered the transfer portal. One of them, guard Kerr Kriisa, opted to return and has committed to play for the Wildcats next season as a sophomore.

However, four of Arizona’s six returners — Kriisa, Bennedict Mathurin, Tubelis and Koloko — started the team’s season finale. Lloyd also now has up to five scholarships to offer for next season, with still plenty of talent to choose from. More than 1,500 players had entered the transfer portal as of Monday.