Pac-12 Basketball: Way-too-early power rankings for 2020-21 season

By Brian Rauf | May 16, 2020

EUGENE, OREGON - JANUARY 11: Payton Pritchard #3 of the Oregon Ducks pokes the ball away from Alonzo Verge Jr. #11 of the Arizona State Sun Devils as Will Richardson #0 defends during the second half at Matthew Knight Arena on January 11, 2020 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) /

7 of 13

TUCSON, ARIZONA – FEBRUARY 07: Head coach Sean Miller of the Arizona Wildcats (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /

511. . Last Year: 21-11 (10-8). . Wildcats . 7. team

It has been a rough few seasons for Sean Miller and the Arizona Wildcats. They have not advanced past the first round of the NCAA Tournament since 2017 and they are just .500 in Pac-12 play over the last two seasons combined (the cloud of potential NCAA violations hanging over the program has certainly played a hand in that). That’s not the level of play we expect from Arizona.

Like Colorado, last year was supposed to be the year that got this program back on the right track with prized recruits Nico Mannion, Josh Green, and Zeke Nnaji. While that trio was good, Mannion and Green were not as good as expected and, in turn, neither were the Wildcats. Late season struggles (2-4 in their last six games) kept them from being viewed as real contenders as they limped into what would’ve been the postseason.

Those struggles should continue into next season. With the expected departures of that freshman trio, Arizona will only return three players from their rotation. Miller has supplemented the roster with a seven-man recruiting class – the highest-ranked class in the conference – but even that comes with some questions.

The big addition is Georgetown transfer James Akinjo, but he may not be available until the second semester after making the decision to transfer in December. Seattle grad transfer Terrell Brown Jr. will be immediately eligible after averaging 20.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game, but we don’t know how he’ll produce against a higher level of competition.

There are some talented freshmen in the group, yet only one (Dalen Terry) is a top 50 prospect and only three (Kerr Kriisa, Daniel Batcho) are top 100 prospects. None of the five total freshmen appear ready to be anything other than role players at this point.

This may be a season designed to build for 2021-22, as I just don’t think Arizona has either the high-end stars or depth to finish in the top half of the conference. They’re talented enough to be respectable – there are just so many question marks and so much youth.

Home/Pac-12