No longer Point Guard U? Recruiting under Sean Miller has seemingly focused on 5-star front court players. But the addition of Lorenzo Romar to the coaching staff may bring a renewed focus on point guards.
Under the direction of Lute Olson, Arizona basketball enjoyed a steady stream of top-tier point guards. So many in fact that the program earned the nickname Point Guard U. Highly coveted recruits and future NBA point guards like Damon Stoudamire, Mike Bibby, and Jerryd Bayless were the cornerstones of many of Olson’s teams. Steve Kerr was listed as a guard but brought the ball up the court as well. The nickname was well-deserved.
Since Sean Miller inherited the program in 2009, we’ve seen a shift in recruiting away from point guards toward front court players. It’s open to debate whether that change is intentional. But the shift is obvious to any Wildcats fan who follows recruiting efforts. Big name centers and power forwards such as Kaleb Tarczewski (No. 8, 2012), Aaron Gordon (No. 3, 2013), DeAndre Ayton (No. 4, 2017) have been the crown jewels in Miller’s recruiting classes.
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To quantify the strength of Miller’s front court recruits, we used the 247 Sports recruiting database to average the ranking of incoming big men. While these rankings aren’t always a reliable method of evaluating success, they’re a good starting point for a numeric analysis.
If we restrict the data to only include overall Top 50 players, the average ranking of Miller’s big men is 19. The highest ranked of these is Aaron Gordon at No. 3. It’s interesting to note that Lauri Markkanen dragged the average down, 247 Sports ranked Markkanen as only the 39th best prospect in the 2016 class.
By contrast, Miller’s haul of highly ranked point guards has been relatively light. If we calculate the same statistic for point guards under Miller, the average ranking is 30. Miller’s highest ranked point guard was Josiah Turner at No. 11 in 2011. Multiple suspensions later, Turner left the team after just one season at Arizona.
The point of this is not to disparage Arizona point guards under Miller. A former floor general himself at Pitt, Miller received very little attention out of high school but went on to have a great four-year career for the Panthers. It’s safe to say he knows how to get the most out of a point guard.
Look no further than T.J. McConnell, arguably one of the most successful players in program history. Once not considered good enough to play for a NCAA Division I team, McConnell is now set to begin his third season in the NBA.
But perhaps another shift is on the horizon.
To the delight of Arizona fans, Lorenzo Romar joined Miller’s staff in April 2017 after leading the University of Washington program for 15 years. In his time at Washington, Romar pulled in players like Tony Wroten (No.11, 2011) and Markelle Fultz (No. 5, 2016). His point guards had an impressive average ranking of 13. If Miller has a knack for recruiting big men, Romar has it for guards.
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Since Romar arrived, point guards Brandon Williams (No. 39, 2018) and Jahvon Quinerly (No. 16, 2018) have both committed to Arizona. Freshman Alex Barcello is said to be a prolific point guard, and we look forward to finding out. While it’s difficult to say these commitments can be attributed solely to Romar’s recruiting talents, his presence certainly doesn’t hurt. This could be the beginning of another recruiting shift; this time back to the proud legacy of Point Guard U.