Arizona basketball and head coach Sean Miller had a tumultuous 2018 recruiting season. Yet, the Wildcats still came away with a strong overall class.
It is fair to say that Arizona basketball did not have the smoothest 2018 recruiting season. With the FBI investigation hovering over the program, it was difficult for head coach Sean Miller and Co. to avoid decommitments. In fact, the Wildcats lost commitments from both Jahvon Quinerly (Villanova) and Shareef O’Neal (UCLA) during this time period. Furthermore, Arizona also saw Brandon Williams reopen his recruitment but thankfully he elected to recommit.
Although this 2018 recruiting class might not be as elite as it might have been without the turmoil, the Wildcats still have a darn good class coming in. In terms of national rankings, this three-man class comes in ranked at No. 22 in the nation. This was clearly not on the level of the five consecutive top-10 classes that had been signed in the years prior but this is not a class to ignore.
With these being said, though, all three of these freshmen will need to be immediate contributors this year in order to keep the Wildcats near the top of the Pac-12. After this past season, Arizona had to bid farewell to several excellent players, including Deandre Ayton, Allonzo Trier, Dusan Ristic, Rawle Alkins, and Parker Jackson-Cartwright. These were the top five scorers for the team last season and there will obviously be very difficult to replace.
Although these recruits will not be able to fill all of those holes themselves, let’s take a look at what each player could bring to the table right away.