Arizona Basketball: Breakdown of international players from 2020 class
By Ian Mumm
Arizona Basketball goes international with its 2020 recruiting class. Which players will have the biggest impact on the team?
On the heels of another top-10 recruiting class for Arizona Basketball, Sean Miller is looking to reload the roster. Freshmen Nico Mannion, Josh Green and Zeke Nnaji declared early for the NBA Draft and are assuredly going to be selected in the lottery and/or first round. Adding to the lack of continuity on next year’s team, four productive and reliable seniors have graduated and exhausted their eligibility.
Needing to replace seven scholarships, Miller plucked a couple of accomplished guards from the transfer market in Georgetown point guard James Akinjo and Seattle combo guard Terrell Brown Jr. Akinjo was a mid-season transfer and may have a shot to play once conference play starts, but Brown is a graduate transfer who will see immediate playing time. To round out the roster, the Wildcats signed seven talented freshmen.
Aside from top-50 wing Dalen Terry, Miller finished the freshman class in an area he rarely exploits – the international market. Signing six prospects from overseas – Kerr Kriisa (Estonia), Daniel Batcho (France), Bennedict Mathurin (Canada), Tibet Gorener (Turkey), and brothers Azuolas and Tautvilas Tubelis (Lithuania) – were partially the result of reserved scholarship spots for Zhiaire Williams, Kerwin Walton and Cliff Omoruyi not panning out. The Wildcats scrambled for other options in a dwindling pool of elite talent and saw their efforts pay off.
Kriisa, Batcho and Gorener signed with the program in a span of 10 days in late April, while the Tubelis brothers signed just this week. Who are Arizona’s newest signings and how do they project to impact next season’s roster in Tucson?