Looking at the roster for Arizona Basketball for 2020-21

With Arizona Basketball adding two more recruits for the class of 2020, now is a good time to look at the roster and possible depth chart for next season.

My what a difference a month makes. After things were looking bleak on the recruiting front for the Arizona Basketball team, the Wildcats have turned things around in a major way. Over the past few weeks, Arizona has gained seven commitments and their class is now ranked in the Top 10 nationally.

If you’ve been paying attention to the roster adds, you would have seen that Arizona has added a lot of talent and a lot of depth. Now the question is what are they going to do with it all?

Arizona Wildcats

Well, it’s no secret head coach Sean Miller likes to have a bigger rotation at least initially, so having more players is a good thing for him to find the guys he wants. Especially before he slims down the rotation in the later months of the season.

So as it stands, Arizona will have 13 scholarship players (not including Brandon Williams), and those positions will look something like this for 2020-21:

Guards:

FR – Kerr Kriisa – 6’2” 170 lbs

RS SO – James Akinjo – 6’0” 160 lbs

JR – Jemarl Baker – 6’4” 200 lbs

Grad – Terrell Brown – 6’2” 175 lbs

Wings:

FR – Ben Mathurin – 6’6” 190 lbs

FR – Dalen Terry – 6’6” 190 lbs

FR – Tautvilas Tubelis – 6’6” 190 lbs

Forwards:

FR – Tibet Gorener – 6’8” 195 lbs

FR – Azuolas Tubelis – 6’9” 240 lbs

RS SO – Jordan Brown – 6’11 210 lbs

SR – Ira Lee – 6’7” 240 lbs

Centers:

FR – Daniel Batcho – 6’10” 220 lbs

SO – Christian Koloko – 7’0” 215 lbs

Early on, I feel like Tautvilas and Tibet could be options to redshirt, but we will see what Miller decides in the coming months.

Over the years Miller has shown he values guys who are veterans/ experienced in his system, so look for him to play a lot of his veterans early on.

While things are certainly not finalized yet, I could easily see Miller running a starting line-up of; Akinjo (PG), Baker (SG), Mathurin or Terry (SF), J. Brown or Azuolas (PF) and Koloko or J. Brown (C).

To me, Azuolas could potentially be the best freshman, and leaving him off the floor may prove to be unwise, that’s why I feel Jordan could possibly slide to Center. Also, with the above roster, that is assuming Akinjo is eligible from the start, otherwise I could see Baker or Kriisa starting at point guard.

Now for guys off the bench, again I have to go with experience. To me, Terrell and Ira would be the first off the bench, followed by either Koloko, Batcho, Terry or Mathurin and Kriisa. That puts us at a rotation of about 10-11 players. That’s substantial, even for Miller.

Now if Miller were to decide to go small ball, I could easily see him stick in three guards (Akinjo, Brown and Baker) and then get creative with the post.

Either way, this team will have options next season, and it’s an interesting, yet versatile group. I know we’re all excited to just see how it plays out! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!