Arizona Basketball not in preseason Top 25 this year

With the Arizona Basketball team potentially returning to action soon, unfortunately the Wildcats are not in the preseason Top 25 this year.

It was an outcome we likely expected for the Arizona Basketball team this off-season, as our Wildcats will unfortunately not be entering the 2020-21 season in the preseason Top 25.

Making news via social media on Thursday, was the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Preseason Top 25 list, and just missing the cut was Arizona.

Arizona Wildcats

Interestingly enough however, ASU came in at No. 24, while Oregon ranked No. 12 and UCLA is No. 16.

I know not being in the Top 25 is not typically the standard for Arizona Basketball, however, it is a result that shouldn’t be the least bit shocking.

As you may recall, the Wildcats lost their entire starting five from last season, and will virtually break in a brand new roster.

While some teams can recover from that, and we’ve certainly done so in the past, Arizona did seem to change up their recruiting strategy a bit this off-season.

The Wildcats seemed to take less of those ‘one-and-done’ talents, and instead brought in some solid guys that will presumably be here for a couple years.

To me, it is a better recruiting strategy, as relying on freshmen can sometimes be a crap shoot. In case you need an unfortunate reminder, the Wildcats had lots of talent last season, but because of a lack of experience at some of the key positions, the team failed to live up to the hype.

So perhaps Sean Miller is coming to his senses, and is changing up his formula on how to recruit again. Maybe he approach to 2020 and beyond will be to try and have his teams resemble some of those earlier teams he had at Arizona.

His bread and butter seems to be getting more veteran players that buy in to his system, while keeping and developing younger players, rather than stacking his roster full of one-and-done’s.

To me, that strategy doesn’t really work all that well anyways, and if you can recall, I broke down how teams that have won NCAA Championships recently, are typically led by veteran players. It is not common to see a largely freshmen-led team win a National Championship.

So given all that, it makes sense why Arizona isn’t in the Top 25, but the good news is that perhaps Miller is indeed building for the future!

Either way, we are excited about the soon return of basketball, and can’t wait to see how the Wildcats do this year! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!