Opinion: James Akinjo will give Arizona Basketball extra toughness

With James Akinjo expected to be the starting point guard next season for Arizona Basketball, he will bring much needed toughness to the Cats!

*Warning, incoming hot take* Boiled into the shortcomings of Arizona Basketball the past few years has been a lack of toughness, luckily incoming transfer James Akinjo will bring that!

Since coming to Tucson, Sean Miller put his stamp on Arizona. A program already perceived to be one of the best in the nation, there wasn’t really anything for him to build on per se, except implement his system and build his culture.

Arizona Wildcats

Under Miller, Arizona saw results relatively quickly. However, it may have perhaps been a brand of Arizona Basketball that we hadn’t typically seen during the Lute Olson years.

A team/ program once predicated on having a stellar offense, instead the Wildcats have typically been one of nations’ better defensive teams under Miller.

But as the past few seasons have passed, things have been a bit amiss. As the results have certainly decreased, so has the teams’ defensive success. However to me and in my personal opinion, so has Arizona’s toughness.

Now with that said, let me back up a little bit. When Miller first came here, and maybe this is a perception thing, but one thing that I found particularly refreshing was that Miller brought in a toughness that was seemingly lacking (Look no further than his comments after the Xavier-Cincinnati brawl in 2011).

In the past few years, it seems as if that grittiness and that toughness has been absent. To me, it’s been even more apparent that that toughness has been absent at point guard since TJ McConnell graduated.

Maybe it’s in part a maturity thing, and this is by no means a slight to the talented Nico Mannion, but TJ brought a certain toughness that Nico couldn’t seemingly provide last season, and I think that is in part due to maturity and experience.

So with the addition of James Akinjo (he will be a redshirt sophomore), I feel he’s going to be a much needed toughness and maturity to the Wildcats.

To me, he reminds me a bit of Mark Lyons (2012-13), and that isn’t a bad thing by any means. Having a player with that kind of toughness and skill will be invaluable for a team that looks to perhaps return to the early Miller years!

Just look what he did versus Duke this past season!

Anyways, this is just how we feel, and we are certainly excited for James to finally suit up! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!