Arizona Basketball, a team joined together with many International Flavors

Traveling across oceans and thousands of miles of landscape, the Arizona Basketball team is uniting with the same goal, continuing excellence, and tradition.

In a turbulent time of social unrest and the Covid-19 Pandemic presenting numerous challenges and obstacles for athletes and fans alike, Sean Miller has assembled arguably the most diverse team in Arizona Basketball history

The year 2020 has proven now more than ever, the need for transparency and togetherness. This team is proving to be an example not only for basketball but for how people from everywhere can bond in unity.

Arizona Wildcats

Seven team members, including two brothers, have traveled over oceans and thousands of miles assembling in Tucson across three continents from Africa, Lithuania, Estonia, France, Turkey, and Canada, joining their American teammates.

Coach Sean Miller has established common goals and so far, all team members are bought into achieving the goals following the “Better Together” motto and mindset.

Under Miller’s leadership, the Wildcats are off to a 4-0 start against non-conference opponents. Continuing to sharpen their skills and cohesiveness, the Wildcats regularly play nine players as they prepare for a tougher Pac-12 slate.

Terrell Brown, Jr. a 6-foot-3-inch guard and graduate transfer from Seattle University, Brown is the godson of Assistant Coach Jason Terry and has great insight on what team cohesiveness means to him. “Everybody in the locker room, we all talk, we all goof around, it’s the connection we bring to each other. Everything is genuine with each other, we all want to win games together”.

Bennedict Mathurin, the 6-feet-7-inch freshman guard/wing from Montreal, Canada is certainly adjusting to the various languages spoken on the team “I’m starting to learn Lithuanian, it’s pretty hard but I feel like I’m going to get better as the year goes on. French is my first language, Turkish I know 2 or 3 words, I’m getting better every day”.

As for adjusting to the Tucson community, Mathurin is fitting in just nicely, “I feel like Tucson is amazing, the sunset is pretty cool, people are really genuine. The people, when we are walking around campus they know we are basketball players and are always throwing us Bear Down, so I feel like it’s really nice to be walking around the city”.

The Wildcats will have a chance to display and continue to build on their team cohesiveness, and hopefully move to 5-0 when they face the UTEP Miners on Saturday at 4:00 PM MST/3:00 PM PST at McKale Center, which will be televised on Pac-12 Networks.

The Miners are coming off of a 73-61 loss to Saint Mary’s on Tuesday, meanwhile, the Wildcats beat Cal State Bakersfield 85-60 on Wednesday.

The Wildcats will look for junior guard Jemarl Baker to stay hot beyond the arc as he is currently shooting 48 percent from three-point land through four games, and is the leading scorer to date averaging 15 points per game. Additionally, junior transfer guard James Akinjo is averaging 13 points per game and has been a pleasant addition this season.

At Zona Zealots, we’re excited to see the Cats take to the court again, and are hoping they once again come away victorious! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!