With the Wildcats starting their Pac-12 Conference slate of games, freshman Christian Koloko is a key to Arizona’s overall toughness.
The Wildcats are currently 11-3 (1-0) and ranked No. 24 in the country, and behind the teams’ success, has been the stellar play of their freshmen. However, overlooked in that group has been the play of true freshman, Christian Koloko.
The freshman with perhaps the longest way to go coming in, Christian has nonetheless been a pleasant surprise, showing tremendous upside in the games he’s appeared in.
Arizona Wildcats
If you haven’t paid close enough attention, he has been seldom used so far, currently averaging just 7.4 minutes per game in just the 10 games that he’s played in.
In those 10 games, Koloko is averaging just 2.5 points to go with 2.4 rebounds per game. Granted those stats are nothing to write home about, you can see that the talent is there, and there’s a lot of things to like about him thus far.
This past Saturday as Koloko finished with eight points, six rebounds and two blocks in 11 minutes played, he showed another element to his game, which is perhaps something that could be a key to Arizona’s success moving forward… toughness.
Despite standing a slender 7-feet tall and 215-pounds, Koloko plays with a bit of tenacity, and you can see that the raw potential is there. At this point, I think he just needs more reps.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t by any means us justifying that he should be playing more than Zeke Nnaji or even Chase Jeter, but what we are saying is that by him playing more, he could continue to develop, meanwhile giving the Cats a bit more tenacity and toughness down low.
Plus, I’d go so far to saying I think he has huge upside to the point that three-to-four years down the road, assuming he’s still here and is continuing to develop, I feel he can become an NBA-caliber player.
Anyways, at Zona Zealots, that’s just what we feel about Christian. We feel he has a lot of upside and could provide the Wildcats with additional toughness and grit! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!