Meet your 2018-19 Arizona Wildcat Basketball Team #BearDown 📷

[WILD]

Can't wait, BEARDOWN

[GoCatZ]

I have a feeling this team is going to be scrappy good!

[Little George]

I do as well!

Lots of talent that just did not perform at the highest level before for some reason, but still there and should shine this year.
Jeter just did not fit the Dukie mold.
Injuries have slowed Luther but he is currently healthy!
Lee, Barcello, and Randolph will shake their Freshman ways.
Coleman is solid.
Akot is healthy and will shine.
The freshmen are very good! Especially Williams, and Thielemans looks the part.

[TBOG]

I'm gonna need help with some of the new faces.  Can someone match the names to the picture for the current roster?

[mvpreed2]

I'm gonna need help with some of the new faces.  Can someone match the names to the picture for the current roster?

https://arizonawildcats.com/roster.aspx?roster=3280&path=mbball

Site has name, picture and number all in one shot.

[ollieboy5150]

The map. Was also realizing I couldn't identify the new guys.

[mvpreed2]

The map. Was also realizing I couldn't identify the new guys.

Understandable.
Maybe it was a lot easier for me since I almost breath recruiting.
The primary one that I have a hard time easily spotting would be Coleman (12), but the rest of them I can spot easily (13/1/2/10).

[talj1@juno.com]

numbers 50 and above are all walkons.  I never noticed that before...

[talj1@juno.com]

Bigest questions are.

1.  Who will start at point guard?  Williams, Coleman, Barcello.  If its not Williams we may be in trouble.

2.  How good will Jeter be?  He will start at Center cause we have no one else...If he isn't very good we may be in trouble. 

3.  Which of the wings small forwards will step up and make us proud?  We have a bunch of wing players and smalls that were highly ranked coming in.  Are they going to be ready?  If not we may be in trouble.

4.  Are we going to have enough inside for defense and rebounding?  We only have 4 dudes big enough to even attempt it.  One is having legal problems and honestly did not show much last year.  One is an injury prone 1st year player transfer.  One is a totally unknown 6'7 freshman who may end up more of a wing player.  One is another injury prone transfer from Duke who under performed big time.  So many question marks here.  Will Miller go small ball and play 4 out 1 in successfully?  Will these guys stay healthy and play to there potential.  If not we may be in trouble.

With all the question marks comes a lot of potential.  Most of these kids were highly ranked players in high school.  If they play to that potential we could be pretty good.  I bet our D this year is at least better than last year.  It will be a fun year seeing if we are in trouble or not.

[mvpreed2]

numbers 50 and above are all walkons.  I never noticed that before...

It is actually from 40 and above, but I have realized that not too long ago.
I assume Miller wants to make sure the "good" numbers are available for the scholarship players?

[mvpreed2]

Bigest questions are.

1.  Who will start at point guard?  Williams, Coleman, Barcello.  If its not Williams we may be in trouble.

2.  How good will Jeter be?  He will start at Center cause we have no one else...If he isn't very good we may be in trouble. 

3.  Which of the wings small forwards will step up and make us proud?  We have a bunch of wing players and smalls that were highly ranked coming in.  Are they going to be ready?  If not we may be in trouble.

4.  Are we going to have enough inside for defense and rebounding?  We only have 4 dudes big enough to even attempt it.  One is having legal problems and honestly did not show much last year.  One is an injury prone 1st year player transfer.  One is a totally unknown 6'7 freshman who may end up more of a wing player.  One is another injury prone transfer from Duke who under performed big time.  So many question marks here.  Will Miller go small ball and play 4 out 1 in successfully?  Will these guys stay healthy and play to there potential.  If not we may be in trouble.

With all the question marks comes a lot of potential.  Most of these kids were highly ranked players in high school.  If they play to that potential we could be pretty good.  I bet our D this year is at least better than last year.  It will be a fun year seeing if we are in trouble or not.

I'll take a stab at them..

1. I want to believe it is Coleman. I would not understand why Miller would bring in a grad-transfer and NOT start him. Everyone that has come before him (Lyons/Tollefsen) filled an immediate need, which we have at PG, and was penciled in from day one. I believe that Coleman/Williams would be our starting backcourt for the same reason, history. Miller normally starts our highest rated prospect unless there is an experienced, quality veteran in front of him.

2. I believe Jeter will have his role/assignments that won't cause him to extend himself too thin. Set screens on offense, roll to the basket, finish at and above the rim. On defense, protect the rim should be his primary goal and rebound on both ends of the floor. How he plays depends on how the other four players do their job(s). If everyone is able to hold their assignment, I believe Jeter would be able to do his job just fine. I would guess and say 10/6/2 would be a VERY good line for Jeter.

3. Now this one is difficult because none of them, to me, showed much last season. If I were to choose, I would want Akot/Thielemans to step up. With their size and ability at 6'7 to play multiple positions, that would help us A LOT next season. I Those would be my choices..

4. To put it simply on interior defense, no. This team is going to be like none we've ever seen under Miller because we don't have a big, thick space-eater. Jeter and Luther are our biggest bodies? I would like to see how we look against a team with a thick big like UCLA (Riley) or Washington (Dickerson). As far as rebounding, this is going to be a team effort. One of those where the shot goes up and everyone should be on a body, especially in/near the paint. This is going to be the biggest indicator to dictate (1) how good we will be and (2) how far we are going to be willing to go in the PAC-12/NCAA tournament. And yes, I see Miller running a lot of a Georgetown, dribble-drive offense where we try to use our strength (guard/wing play) to get us wins.

[ollieboy5150]

Nice analysis MVP. All seems logical and unbiased.

[wildcatinthewoods]

I agree with MVPEED. We really need Wiliams to be good enough to start at PG. We can't have another tiny ass PG who can't play D starting for us or we will go nowhere. Coleman would a great change of pace PG.

Fingers crossed our starting backcourt is Williams and Randolph. If Smith starts we are also in some trouble.

Jeter most likely is still not very good. He will play some solid D and rebound a bit but I wouldn't expect anything from him on the offensive end but if we are more guard oriented we may not need offense from him.

We are probably going to see Akot and Omar play some 4 so we will see how they rebound. We may be without Lee for a bit so we'd only have two bigs.

[yodefoe]

Miller is moving to a two ball handler base line-up. Expect Coleman and Williams to start at the one and two, then varying line-ups with them playing with and without each other, switching on and off ball when they're on the court together. That's what he's selling all of the recruits (including Williams and Mannion). If he doesn't make good on it, he'll screw his recruiting. He'll make good on it.

If you watch the NBA and saw how the Rockets used both CP3 and Harden this past season (on their way to the best record in basketball) - this is that. Feel free to project Jeter as a Clint Cappela-type big in that same offense, surrounded by shooters who can switch.