SAN JOSE, Calif. — The biggest star on Arizona’s roster, a 7-footer with size and personality, Lauri Markkanen flew under the radar on a sullen Thursday night.
Arizona was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament, and in all likelihood, it was the Finnish freshman’s last game in an Arizona uniform. It shouldn’t be a matter of if, only a matter of when he leaves for the NBA.
A 7-footer with a shot like that?
But Markkanen hid in the corner of Arizona’s locker room, head down, silence all around, as the media stampede poured through the locker room doors. Markkanen positioned himself a few lockers to the right of Allonzo Trier, who missed Arizona’s final shot attempt of the season.
Markkanen slumped into his chair, his legs practically tripping reporters angling to ask Trier about his late-game decision making.
This is a player who was declared a first-round pick before he ever stepped on the floor, and despite a late-season slump, scouts have been swooning for a big man with Markkanen’s range of skills all season, cultivating in an all-around performance in a second round win against Saint Mary’s.
So of course, the question had to be asked. It always is for Arizona’s presumed one-and-done talents.
In so many words, … you gone?
In the last few years, Aaron Gordon, Stanley Johnson and Trier all said “no comment.” Trier came back, the other two did not.
“I’m not answering that,” Markkanen said. “I just need to take my mind off this right now.”
He was asked the question four more times throughout Arizona’s post-game availability, and always said the same thing.
Not right now.
“I’m not commenting on that,” he said.
Markkanen attempted a 3-pointer at the 11:12 mark of the second half. It missed.
It was his last shot of the game, of the season, and probably, of his Arizona career.
He finished with nine points, and only scored two in the second half.
This is Arizona’s best scorer, and Xavier wouldn’t even let him get the ball.
“Of course I was looking for the shot, but Xavier did a really good job taking my shot away,” Markkanen said. “I think my teammates were in better position to have the ball so I made the passes.”
Markkanen has never been one to show frustration. He never wavered through a late-season slump, and he bounced back just in time for the postseason.
His teammates were frustrated for him.
“Of course it was” frustrating, center Dusan Ristic said. “He’s one of our main weapons and they did a great job of defending him the last 10 minutes of the game.”
Added Trier: “We got it to him one time in the post, we swing baseline and then he got under the basket where he couldn’t shoot it so he had throw it far out. So he tried. Just, I guess, it was the way the game was working.”
If this was his last game, it’s not how Markkanen wanted it to go. But all he wanted to talk about after was his teammates. When Trier put his jersey over his face at the end of the game, Markkanen was one of the first teammates to greet him, to prod him up.
It was a bad ending, but not a bad season. Markkanen was an All-Conference selection, an All-Freshman selection and one of the best offensive performers of the Sean Miller era.
“I’m disappointed,” Markkanen said. “It’s sad that this ended right now. We had the chance to go a lot further but I’m proud of these guys. They played their hearts out. That’s sports.”
As the locker room cleared out, Markkanen reached for his large, red, Nike shoes and put them in his drawstring Arizona backpack, his Arizona jersey crumpled on the floor next to an open Powerade bottle.
A spill would leave a stain.
The bottle didn’t budge, Markkanen put the jersey in his bag, and leaned back in his chair.
For 30 seconds, he stared into space, listening to Trier talk about how he “just wants to be great.”
The Xavier loss will be a stain on Markkanen’s college resume.
But boy, was it a good resume.
“This time,” he said, “it didn’t work out.”
