NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Pros and cons of Shaedon Sharpe final 5 options

Arizona Wildcats

There’s a new sheriff in town, as longtime Gonzaga assistant Tommy Lloyd has replaced Sean Miller as the new head coach of Arizona Basketball. The roster has been revamped but should be a threat to make the NCAA Tournament this season. But what about the year after?

Pros

The No. 1 selling point here would be the ability for Sharpe to stay in the state of Arizona. While the Wildcats have taken a step back in the past couple of years, they’re still one of the premier programs in the Pac-12 and west coast overall. And the program would get a major boost with a top-5 overall prospect and would benefit greatly from NIL.

From a roster standpoint, the Wildcats would allow Sharpe to be the undisputed No. 1 option on offense, and considering the current lack of point guard options (barring five-star point guard Jaden Bradley not picking Arizona), we could see the five-star guard handle the ball as well and show even more of his skillset. And if both Bennedict Mathurin and Ąžuolas Tubelis decide to stay for another year, this would be a preseason top-5 team for 2022-23.

Cons

The likelihood of either Mathurin or Tubelis coming back for an extra season is slim and Alabama is rumored to be the favorite for Bradley. Outside of four-star forward commit Dylan Anderson, the Wildcats don’t have a ton of talent to surround Sharpe a year from now. Of the four team options, Arizona has the worst potential supporting cast.

And that doesn’t even include the fact that this is a first-year head coach in Lloyd that may or may not succeed. We don’t know yet how it’ll work in Tuscon and compared to a couple of Hall of Famers (Calipari and Self), and a man who just helped develop a player to being the No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick (Boynton), Coach Lloyd may have to wait a year before eventually becoming a force on the recruiting trail.