Arizona Basketball: Finding the right recruiting strategy

With the Arizona Basketball team trying to finalize their recruiting class for 2020, that got us thinking, should Arizona change their recruiting strategy?

We’re in the waning months for the Arizona Basketball to finalize their 2020 recruiting class and with just two players committed, not including the incoming transfers, things a looking a little bleak to say the least.

I know really when you look back at the course of the last three years, and it’s been glaringly obvious something needs to change for the Wildcats.

Arizona Wildcats

Granted the 2018-19 season is a hard one to judge, just because of the impact of the false ESPN story, nonetheless, since 2017-18, Arizona is a combined 65-34 with one tournament appearance (granted this year was cut short due to the Corona Virus).

What makes things even more concerning is that Arizona has just two tournament wins in the last five seasons. Certainly not a trend you want to see from one of college basketball’s supposed premier programs.

What’s also interesting, is that during the past five seasons, Arizona’s recruiting classes have been ranked as follows; No. 3, No. 9, No. 3, No. 22 and No. 6 according to 247Sports. The “talent” appears to be there.

I understand guys like Ray Smith didn’t work out because of injury and Brandon Williams is more or less in that same boat, but perhaps Arizona is recruiting too well.

Now I know some are going to be splitting hairs over whether Sean Miller is to blame in regards to  coaching, but hear me out, I think there’s a larger point to be made that not only does the large influx of one-and-done players not workout for Miller and Arizona, but it doesn’t seem to work at a National level with much frequency either.

Just with a bit of research, here’s the past March Madness winners since 2010, and the respective number of one-and-done’s each school had.

2010- Duke (0)
2011- Connecticut (0) *Although Jeremy Lamb was a high impact freshman
2012- Kentucky (3)
2013- Louisville (0)
2014- Connecticut (0)
2015- Duke (3)
2016- Villanova (0)
2017- North Carolina (1) *Tony Bradley left after one season averaging 7.1 pts. and 5.1 rbs.
2018- Villanova (1) *Omari Spellman was 4th on his team in scoring with 10.9 pts.
2019- Virginia (0)

So essentially, 2012 Kentucky and 2015 Duke were virtually the only teams with significant one-and-done talent and still won. The rest of the teams were mostly led by veteran talent.

2017 North Carolina and 2018 Villanova did each have a freshman that left after one season, but both Bradley and Spellman were not the leading scorers of those teams.

In short, the pattern I see is that teams that have veteran talent fair better in going deeper in March. Perhaps Miller and Arizona need to take a look at where things currently stand and start building towards a roster that will stay together more than just one season.

I know it’s easier said than done, because I think the NBA one-and-done rule has not only watered down the NBA product, but the college product as well, too many kids leave too early just trying to get to the next level.

Given those circumstances, I feel it’s much harder to win in 2020 than it was say 15-20 years ago.

I don’t know Miller can fix it, but he needs to figure out a way to do it, or he will keep running into the same problems, with the program acting as like a proverbial revolving door. Development and continuity is going to create a better product on the floor.

Now I’m not saying no one-and-done kid ever again, because if you do have that chance in getting a generational talent, I think it’s worth the effort, however, the Wildcats have no business in bringing in more than one, maybe two in a given season.

Anyways, at Zona Zealots, this is just our feeling. Miller and the Wildcats need to get back to the ways of old, or be doomed to more failures. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!