Major takeaways in the Arizona Basketball win on Friday

It wasn’t necessarily the prettiest game, nonetheless, it was a win for Arizona Basketball, and this is what we learned in that game!

It is always better being 1-0 versus being 0-1, and with so many fresh faces, there were questions as to whether how good this Arizona Basketball team would be in 2020-21, but regardless, they came away with the 74-55 victory on Friday afternoon.

Down three players (Ira Lee, Daniel Batcho, and Kerr Kriisa), the Wildcats still came out firing, led by the veteran transfers, Jordan Brown and James Akinjo, and despite the inconsistency at times, the Wildcats still came away with a 19-point win.

Arizona Wildcats

Overall, it was a good showing all things considered, and depending on which fans you ask, most would say the same thing.

So with the start of the 2020-21 season amid the Covid pandemic and no fans, what did we learn in the Wildcats’ win? Well to me, here were the biggest takeaways from that game.

The transfers are legit –

This could have been a bit more predictable, however, we didn’t know how they were going to play until they finally took to the court. Well, one game in, and they look every bit as advertised.

Jordan is a competent big man with a great motor, good rebounding abilities, and a nice finishing game around the bucket.

As for James, the kid is fearless. He’s a score-first guard that plays a lot like Mark Lyons just as we expected, and he plays with a lot of confidence. He is great at slashing and driving to the hoop and seems to get the tough bucket when needed and provide that spark on offense.

Both are going to be depended on heavily this season, and it is exciting to see the teams’ success start with the veteran transfers.

Arizona needs better shooting all around –

In the 19-point win, Arizona’s shooting wasn’t great overall. Shooting just 23-60 (.382) from the field, and 7-25 (.280) from three, it was one of Arizona’s less-than-stellar shooting performances.

Chalk it up to it just being a bad shooting day, or the fact that perhaps Arizona isn’t a great shooting team, either way, it’s an area that will need to get better throughout the year.

To me, yes, this team goes as far as Jordan and James allow us, however, they need more consistent scoring from other areas, and it starts with better shooting.

The team needs to find its confidence and identity –

At times yesterday, Arizona looked like a pretty darn good team. However, as we also saw, they are also very inexperienced, and it looked very much like a group that went through the off-season having no scrimmage, or exhibition games.

Going up by as many as 20 against a team they were predicted to beat by 28, Grambling State started to rally, cutting Arizona’s lead to 10, before Arizona ended the game on a 17-8 run.

Moving forward, this is a group that will need to continue to find its confidence and identity, and begin putting opponents away when they have the chance. It’ll come with time and repetition, but for now, it is a win, and it is a great starting point for such a young, fresh team.

Overall this team will have a ways to go, but at the end of the day, they are 1-0!

At Zona Zealots, we’re happy with the win, and can’t wait to see how the Wildcats continue to progress. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!