On the day McDonald’s All-American Jordan Brown committed to play for Nevada, the wife of Wolf Pack coach Eric Musselman produced a video of the coach’s unbridled reaction.
Musselman jumped off the sofa, grabbed his young daughter by the hand and raced down the hallway shouting “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!”
Brown, a 6-foot-11-inch center, followed his May 2018 commitment by saying “we can shock people and make an NCAA championship run.”
Nevada opened Brown’s freshman season ranked No. 7 in the AP poll. The Wolf Pack had designs on joining Gonzaga and Oregon as the West’s leading basketball programs.
Musselman’s “Yes!” soon became a no.
Nevada was a first-round loser in the 2019 NCAA Tournament, Brown averaged 3.0 points and 2.1 rebounds per game while mostly sitting on the bench, and Musselman left Reno to become the head coach at Arkansas.
Brown transferred to Arizona in June 2019.
If you’ve followed college basketball for a decade or two, you know how fragile the game has become. Given the growing transient nature of players and coaches lining up for (a) more money and (b) more playing time, what took place at Nevada and to Jordan Brown between May 2018 and May 2019 should be a cautionary tale.
Don’t be too quick to make any assumptions.
Brown was by far the best player on the floor Friday afternoon when Arizona opened the season by beating Grambling State 74-55. Brown scored 19 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. He displayed a potent, rim-level left-handed shot and looked every part of rough and tough.
“Jordan was outstanding,” UA coach Sean Miller said on his radio program. “To get 15 rebounds in any college game is quite a feat.”
As a first impression, with the exception of Deandre Ayton, Brown looked to be the most talented big man at Arizona since Derrick Williams in 2011.
But remember this: Grambling State is Grambling State. As recently as 2013 the Tigers went 0-28, the worst record in Division I basketball the last decade. Each of Miller’s 11 previous opening games has had a significant misleading component.
2009-10: Against NAU, junior forward Jamelle Horne had a 14-point, 11-rebound performance. Over the remainder of his career, 67 games, Horne had just two double-doubles.
2010-11: Against Idaho State, freshman guard Jordin Mayes played 17 minutes and looked like a potential starter. By his senior season, he averaged 5.7 minutes per game.
2011-12: Against Valparaiso, freshman big man Angelo Chol played 23 minutes. McKale Center fans adored him. Before transferring to San Diego State a year later, Chol averaged 2.4 points for Arizona.
2012-13: Against Charleston Southern, freshman Grant Jerrett was a Game 1 starter over Brandon Ashley. Jerrett left the program after one season, starting just one more game.
2013-14: Against Cal Poly, freshman Aaron Gordon led Arizona in scoring. Over the final 36 games, Gordon was Arizona’s leading scorer just four times.
2014-15: Against Mount St. Mary’s, sophomore Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, a future NBA starter, was not a starter for the Wildcats.
2015-16: Against Pacific, touted freshman Alonzo Trier shot 1 for 10 in his college debut.
2016-17: Against No. 12 Michigan State in Hawaii, Arizona won on a last-ticks shot. It was hailed as a win for the decade. The Spartans went 20-15 and were not invited to the NCAA Tournament.
2017-18: Against NAU, Trier scored 32 points. He never matched or surpassed that total again.
2018-19: Against Houston Baptist, freshman Brandon Randolph scored a career-high 25 points. He never scored as many as 25 again. In his last game at Arizona, he scored two points.
2019-20: Against NAU, senior transfer Stone Gettings swished three 3-pointers. He only made 12 more 3s the rest of the season.
On opening night in college basketball, some things are not as they appear.
“We did a lot of sub-par things,” Miller said Friday. “We have to be patient. I’m thrilled we’re 1-0. I know we have to get a lot better.”
Count me among those who believe Brown’s Arizona debut is the real thing. He has the look of an all-conference player. And junior point guard James Akinjo exhibited why he was the 2019 Big East Freshman of the Year. He rushed a few 3-pointers, as did the Wildcats — they shot 7 of 25 from 3-point distance, which won’t work at any time for any team — but after a truncated offseason that’s to be expected.
There were no team-bonding summer workouts. No Red- Blue Game from which to make personnel judgments. No exhibition games against a Division III team like Chico State. This was to be the weekend the Wildcats played in a multi-team event either in Brooklyn, New York, or, as later hoped, at McKale.
That’s life in college basketball, 2020.
Arizona’s scheduled Nov. 16 game against Loyola Marymount was canceled as virtually every team in college basketball scrambled for opponents.
LMU replaced its game at McKale Center by scheduling a doubleheader at Minnesota, of all places, this weekend.
You adjust and move on the best you can.
For better or worse, the Wildcats are running out of rehearsals. Saturday’s game against UTEP was canceled because of a positive test in the Miners’ program. The Pac-12 opener arrives in a hurry; a veteran Colorado team is scheduled to play at McKale on Wednesday.
Ready or not.
