Friday, October 09, 2009

Arizona Continues To Load Up On Recruits

Sean Miller has always been very good at recruiting, and he's continued that at Arizona. He brought in a big boost for the upcoming season by taking Kevin Parrom, a recruit that had previously planned on joining Miller at Xavier. He has continued working his Xavier recruits for his 2010 class, grabbing combo forward Rod Odom. Miller has now taken it to another level, collecting elite swing man Daniel Bejerano, who had just recently decommitted from Texas.

This recruiting success makes Arizona look like they're in very good shape for a Tournament bid... in 2011. Nic Wise will be the only graduate, and they're unlikely to lose anybody early to the NBA Draft. The big time recruiting class that Miller is putting together will more than make up for the loss of Wise. The question is, can they continue their streak of 25 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances - the longest active, and only two short of the all-time record.

The way things are looking for 2009-10, Arizona might actually have too much talent at small forward. Jamelle Horne got 29 minutes per game last year at the position, but is now joined by a slew of freshmen: Kevin Parrom, Solomon Hill and Derrick Williams. Jamelle Horne is an athletic freak, but he's more well known nationally for some completely boneheaded decisions he's made on the court. Don't be too surprised to see Parrom steal a starting position. The question is whether any of these four players has developed enough muscle to play power forward, or is capable of playing shooting guard. It would serve Arizona better if one could play power forward, because the team's backcourt is in much better condition than its frontcourt.

The starting backcourt from last season returns: Nic Wise and Kyle Fogg. The first guard off the bench will probably be Garland Jenkins. Lamont Jones is a decent recruit, and sophomore Brandon Lavender is a decent prospect as well. I've never really understood what Fogg brings to the table, but he's an all-around decent player. Wise is a quality point guard: he won't win any big awards, but he's good enough to handle the ball for a Tournament team.

The frontcourt is much more of a question mark with the departure of Jordan Hill. The only returner with playing experience over 6'6" is Alex Jacobson, who played all of 7 minutes per game last year. Kyryl Natyazhko is a highly touted 6'10" recruit, but he seems to be a little bit more of a prospect than an immediate contributor.

Expect to see a lot of smaller lineups from Arizona this coming season. A lineup of Wise, Fogg, Parrom, Horne and Natyazhko is probably the best they can do, and that's probably what Sean Miller will go with as much as he can. But Miller was well known for depending on a big bench and a big rotation at Xavier. Expect him to have a solid 9-10 player rotation by 2010 or 2011. But they're looking really quite thin for the coming season. Miller's going to have to focus on conditioning this fall, because he's going to have to squeeze a lot of minutes out of his guys.

Can Arizona get its 26th straight Tournament appearance? They can, although only time can tell. One thing we can say fairly confidently, however, is that if Arizona does get their 26th straight they'll be in excellent shape for number 27. Within a year or two, Arizona is going to be loaded.

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