Wildcats' seniors reflect on wild ride while staying focused on ultimate goal

The Arizona Wildcats are doing Senior Day in a contemporary way that might be difficult to match.

Let’s do the numbers.

Before they face Oregon on Saturday in their regular-season finale, the No. 6-ranked Wildcats will have five seniors run through the Senior Day ceremony, one of whom has already had a Senior Day. Forward Keshad Johnson went through one last season, at San Diego State, where he graduated from.

The four other seniors could all return to Arizona, thanks to their extra “COVID” eligibility season. They could play for another college. Or they could leave for the NBA.

Then there’s the non-seniors. Sophomore point guard Kylan Boswell is rated No. 65 on ESPN’s latest list of NBA Draft prospects, suggesting he’s ready to at least test the draft process, while sophomore Jaden Bradley is a former McDonald’s All-American who happens to be the highest-rated Wildcat in per-possession efficiency. Freshman KJ Lewis has also appeared on NBA mock lists as a high-upside prospect.

So all that means seven of UA’s eight-player rotation could be gone after this season. Or just Johnson, the Wildcats’ only fifth-year senior.

Who knows?

Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd says he hasn’t spoken yet to his seniors about where they’ll be next season because “we’re so focused on the now,” which is pretty much what guard Caleb Love said Friday.

“I’ve been focused on winning the championship,” Love said.

There are also factors that could change the players’ minds after the season anyway, usually related to their own personal intersection of NIL offers and NBA stock.

Rated just a spot below Johnson at No. 41 in ESPN’s list, Larsson appears to have the most reason of the Wildcats’ fourth-year seniors to jump in the draft, appearing on many second-round mock drafts with his intriguing upside as a big, versatile point guard prospect.

Love has notably increased his shooting efficiency and his NBA draft stock as a result, shooting 36.3% from 3-point range at Arizona after hitting only 29.9% at North Carolina last season, and he appears likely to be named Pac-12 Player of the Year if the Wildcats win the conference. There may not be much left for him to prove.

Ballo will be making his decision at a time when the NBA’s preference for more versatile big men and the promise of NIL offers recently have drawn elite college bigs such as Zach Edey (Purdue) and Oscar Tshiewbe (Kentucky) and Drew Timme (Gonzaga) back to school.

Then there’s Grant Weitman, a former standout at Salpointe Catholic High School whose grandfather was a close friend of former UA coach Lute Olson, but could opt to transfer for a fifth year where he could play more regularly.

“I’m not sure yet,” Weitman said. “Not sure.”

What is certain is that all five seniors added pieces to their lives and games from the time spent in Arizona. They expounded on it during a group interview Friday at McKale like this:

Love: “The culture. The culture here is second to none, what coach Lloyd has done with this team as far as building us and bringing us together. When went to Israel, our foreign trip (last August), I think that really brought us together and we really got to know each other personally. From there, we’ve just been close and tight.”

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Johnson: “The diversity. The diversity on this team is kind of wild. You know everybody’s from different places but we all gel together well, whether ibetween us building together from scratch, or the alumni is coming in and talking to us, just educating us on what they went through and what Arizona and Tucson mean to them. Overall it’s the authenticity of just Arizona basketball, Arizona sports in general. You know what the Block A means.”

Larsson: “I think three years from when you’re 19-20 years old is probably of some of the most impactful years in your life. It’s just shaped us as men for the future in how you act and carry yourself and how you treat other. And Arizona and the guys I play with have taken my love for basketball to a whole ’nother level. So I’m forever grateful.”

Ballo: “Honestly, when I left Gonzaga, I didn’t know much like about basketball that much but when I came here, I see the fans, I see how the city was behind us. That also took my basketball to another level and the coaching staff was helping me take care of myself as a person and as a basketball player. That helped me a lot. I’m grateful for the city. I’m grateful for Arizona basketball.”

Weitman: “Obviously being from Tucson, it was a dream of mine to come here and be able to do it. It’s crazy. It’s coming to an end. Time flew by really fast, but I’ve loved every minute of being here. … and obviously, it’s nice being here when you have your closest friends on the team. So that’s something that I probably never would have expected.”

In Weitman’s case, only playing time might draw him away elsewhere for a final season of college basketball, something Lloyd expressed no problem with.

“To be honest with you, the conversations Grant and I have had is he has one year to play, and he wants to go play somewhere next year,” Lloyd said earlier this week on his radio show. “He’s a really good player and helps us in practice so much. He’s physical. He’s aggressive. He’s gotten to a point where he can make shots. He takes pride making hard shots and get our guys all frustrated.

“It’s been great to watch him kind of grow up as a young man in my three years here. I have a ton of fun being around him.”

Weitman has spent this season mostly mimicking the shooting guard of an opposing team. He said it was especially fun to “be” Ducks guard Jermaine Cousinard this week — though Lloyd’s past history suggests Weitman will also get to start Saturday’s game.

During Lloyd’s first season at UA in 2021-22, he started Justin Kier over Kerr Kriisa at point guard while last season he went with walk-ons Matt Lang and Jordan Mains over Kriisa and Azuolas Tubelis. (However, UA did go on to lose that game by one point to ASU, so it’s not certain if Lloyd will change his mind this time.)

In any case, Lloyd says it’s been great to watch Weitman “grow up as a young man” in his three years — Weitman is actually the only UA player remaining from the Sean Miller era that ended after the 2020-21 season — while Lloyd also indicated Larsson, Ballo, Love and Johnson are more than adopted sons who began their college careers elsewhere.

After all, Lloyd calls his veterans a “modern day” group of seniors — one guy (Weitman) he inherited, who happens to be local, and four guys he recruited but only for their second schools. Of those four transfers, two others transferred in for his first year (Ballo and Larsson), and two others dropped in this season to make big impacts (Love and Johnson).

After Arizona beat ASU 85-67 on Wednesday in Tempe, Lloyd discussed how this all meshes together in his mind by telling a story about a social event that he attended with Pac-12 analyst Bill Walton.

“He said something that really resonated with me,” Lloyd said. “Someone came up and introduced himself and said, ‘Bill, I want you to meet my stepdaughter,’ And Bill stopped and he said, `Excuse me. You mean your daughter.’ So whether I recruited guys or not, I coached them and they’re part of Arizona basketball. I love those guys like they’re my own.”

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Photos: Arizona scraps out an 85-67 win on the road at Arizona State, Pac 12 basketball