By Tyler Quillin
Guilty as charged.
After seeing Derrick Williams ascend the ranks of collegiate basketball dominance last season, it undoubtedly left me with a skewed view of Arizona basketball’s status on the nationally competitive stage.
Knowing who held the reigns of the team’s trajectory left every Wildcat a little more at ease coming down the stretch of a tight game. It let us hold our heads high when at the water cooler, whether it be hypotheticals or trash that we be intimately discussing.
Derrick putting up circa 20 and 10 a night was a given. It was something we could count on in an uncertain world.
However, it is important to remember that it was not all smoke and mirrors. Players like Derrick have an uncanny ability to disseminate their greatness to those around them and cultivate the best in each of their teammates. A great example of this from last season is the triple overtime win at Cal. Derrick fouls out, but MoMo and Parrom step up and finish. I hold this a testament to the showtime instinct rubbing off, the confidence emanating from how Derrick lead the team – an intangible.
We lost 30 points, 12-13 rebounds and 3-4 assists a game by losing MoMo and Derrick. That is a significant portion of our team’s production statistically speaking, let alone from a chemistry standpoint.
We now have a team struggling to survive that magnitude of an identity blow. They are young, for the most part. We are forced to play out of position, which I believe to be a great source of our problems. They are clawing for something, some sort of saving grace at this point.
Yes, Miller gave the “Don’t Panic, Support” speech at the pep rally a few days ago, but that is necessary and perfectly timed leading into the White Out game against Washington this weekend. I would not rest my hat on the don’t panic card.
Josiah Turner has come around, but still fails to yield the pinnacle of his capabilities. Though we have seen flashes (and when I say flashes, I am mean flashes) of what sort of athleticism he possesses and court vision that has just not yet synced with the collegiate pace of late. I foresee him really exploding next season with a solid off season and a year of maturity and Miller’s system under his belt.
Nick Johnson came in as one of my favorites and impressed at first and has presently found himself in the bottom of an embankment he is not yet able to scale. I would not characterize his struggles over the past few games as freshman plateaus, but serious lapses in focus and fundamentals – two qualities that are integral to success at any level of basketball most importantly at the highest level of division I NCAA basketball. (Caveat: With the challenges in personnel match-ups he has been asked to do a lot, more than he expected and more that any freshman might be asked to do.)
Angelo Chol is someone I have just liked from the beginning. I love his demeanor and stealth. I swear this is a guy that moves in what looks like crisp slow motion to out-maneuver and beat his opponents. When he is comfortable in the system and moves past his freshman tentativeness, he will be such a solid contributor to the team it will blow people’s minds. With that said, he is a little ways from fulfilling that awe-factor role for us. Next year’s incoming pot of talent might spark some more competition for him that should invigorate some tenacity for us Wildcat faithful looking for him to switch it on. (Side Note: If he takes another 25 footer, I rescind everything good I just wrote about him.)
