NCAA Basketball: Way-too-early top-25 power rankings for 2021-22 season

If we’re being honest, we kinda forgot about the Wildcats once they announced their postseason ban to take them out of consideration of the NCAA Tournament. They likely weren’t making it anyways, finishing in the middle of the Pac-12 standings and having to go through the ups and downs of a young team filled with so many new pieces.

The good news for them is that they’ll be bringing the vast majority of the production and not having to deal with a “freshman wall”. Two players to keep in mind are Azuolas Tubelis (12.2 ppg and 7.1 rpg) and Bennedict Mathurin (10.8 ppg and 4.8 rpg). These are a pair of international prospects that signed late last offseason and had some ups and downs, but each also had games of 30+ points and several dominant efforts. More consistency will have them as All-Pac 12 candidates.

Then there’s the team’s leading scorer James Akinjo, who averaged 15.6 ppg and 5.4 apg. He’s currently testing the NBA Draft process and Arizona lost Terrell Brown after he transferred out. But Kerr Kriisa has the potential to take over as a lead point guard just in case. His decision will determine whether or not they can be viable in the conference next season.

If Akinjo does come back and the freshman core continues to develop, there’s a lot to like with this Arizona squad. They’ll need to add some shooting with Jemarl Baker also gone but incoming freshmen Shane Nowel and Kenneth Simpson, Jr. each has real promise and could be in the rotation next season.

*Arizona just added Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year guard Kim Aiken, coming off a season of averaging 11.3 ppg and 8.7 rpg