Arizona Wildcats staring at 3 key queries entering murky offseason

Evaluating Arizona's uncertain future

Standing alone in a Taco Bell Arena hallway late Thursday night, after his basketball team was bounced from the NCAA Tournament into an uncertain future, Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke politely declined to answer questions.

“Not at this time,” Heeke said.

There were probably more questions than answers, anyway.

Arizona enters its most uncertain offseason since 2009, when coach Sean Miller took over the program following two seasons of interim coaches who covered for Lute Olson during his year-long leave of absence and subsequent retirement.

The many questions can probably be lumped into three different categories:

1. Does Miller return?

Miller stayed away from the Wildcats for five days while university officials investigated a Feb. 23 ESPN report that he allegedly discussed paying a recruit $100,000. The university issued a statement on March 1 saying it had decided Miller would remain the coach. Miller has forcefully denied doing anything wrong.

Miller is currently under contract through May 31, 2022, a deal that pays him a guaranteed amount of $2.6 million plus bonuses, with $100,000 salary escalators added each fiscal year through 2020-21. He is also fully vested in $4.17 million worth of Western Refining Logistics stock, with payment due in May 2020. He’ll receive another $1.2 million of stock in 2022 if he stays until June 2020.

While Miller was not directly asked after Thursday’s game about his future, he was asked how his emotions have been this season and how they felt at the moment.

“I’m not going to change,” he said in response. “I’m taking things a day at a time. Obviously this is a tough day. And we have to move forward.”

The father of former UA commit Brandon Williams said Miller told him earlier this month that he isn’t going anywhere, but the coach’s future has nonetheless been the subject of speculation. Some believe Miller will be considered at his alma mater, Pitt, which is looking for a coach to replace Kevin Stallings. Miller would owe the UA $500,00 if he leaves for another job. If the UA decides to move on from Miller, its financial obligation would range from nothing (if the coach is fired for cause) to $4.3 million (if it’s not for cause).

2. Can the Wildcats recruit?

The Wildcats were on track to assemble a top-3 recruiting class for 2018 before an FBI investigation led to the Sept. 26 arrest of assistant coach Emanuel “Book” Richardson and the ESPN report led Miller to say he has never paid players.

Arizona lost all three players who had committed for 2018-19: Guard Jahvon Quinerly chose Villanova, forward Shareef O’Neal picked UCLA and Williams has reopened his commitment. O’Neal decommitted a day after ESPN’s report and Williams decommitted a day after Miller denied it, though the Los Angeles product says he’s still considering Arizona.

The UA has just six players lined up for next season, which means Miller will need to scramble this spring — a task made harder by the ongoing federal and internal investigations into the program.

While the pool of top-shelf high school players is shallow by springtime, there are always experienced players available on the grad transfer and junior college markets who can play immediately.

In previous years, Miller has immediately plugged holes with grad transfers Mark Lyons (Xavier) and Mark Tollefsen (San Francisco) and juco transfers Jesse Perry and Kadeem Allen. Allen redshirted in 2014-15 and grew into the Wildcats’ leader by his senior season.

Miller has done this — or something like it — before. Arizona’s 2009 recruiting class blew up before Miller was hired. Highly regarded freshman Jeff Withey transferred to Kansas and juniors Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill turned pro, leaving Miller with a roster that appeared in tatters.

But Miller landed on his feet by retaining senior Nic Wise, who had considered an early pro departure, and by convincing former Xavier commit Kevin Parrom and USC commits Derrick Williams and MoMo Jones to commit to Arizona. Williams and Jones later played starring roles while the Wildcats reached an unexpected appearance in the 2011 Elite Eight.

3. How solid are those six guys about returning?

Asked during the Pac-12 Tournament if he was planning to return to the Wildcats next season, freshman forward Ira Lee appeared surprised.

“Oh yeah. I have no reason to leave,” he said.

That’s a good sign for the Wildcats, as was the following tweet Lee posted and then pinned after their loss to Buffalo on Thursday:

“Breath (sic). Regroup. And get back in the damn gym.”

Lee followed that with emojis that represented “bear down,” too.

Fellow freshmen Emmanuel Akot and Brandon Randolph have also said they plan to return; the fourth freshman, guard Alex Barcello, couldn’t be reached before he left the locker room. Transfers Dylan Smith and Chase Jeter have already used redshirt seasons, meaning they have less freedom to move even if they want to.

Certainly, there will be wide open opportunity on the court. Smith (4.3 points per game) and Randolph (3.7) are in line to be UA’s leading returning scorers next season. Jeter averaged 2.6 points per game at Duke in 2016-17 before he transferred, and could play key minutes next season.

Randolph said he looks forward to being a leader, a scorer and a defender for the Wildcats next season after having gone through a learning experience this season.

“Next year I think will be really great,” Randolph said after Thursday’s loss to Buffalo. “We’ll be mentally prepared for these types of games.”

Akot, who — like Randolph — was a projected pick in the 2019 NBA Draft before this season, said he won’t even test the draft waters.

“Obviously, it wasn’t the year I expected of myself but I’m a hard worker,” Akot said. “I’m gonna try to get better every single year. I just want to win. I’ll do whatever it takes to win.

“I’ll be back. I definitely want to work on my game and try to do the best I can.”