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May 27, 2020
12:29:09pm
ag4cougs All-American
Researching McClung led me down a rabbit hole: AZ's roster shuffle.
I noticed James Akinjo was in the same GTown class as McClung. Akinjo and three other players left GTown during the 2019-2020 season. Akinjo landed at AZ and will be eligible in December 2020. So I started looking at AZ's roster composition. For reasons other than NCAA infractions, AZ was in a big trouble a few months ago. It was struggling to round out its roster after losing 10 players! College basketball is a constant roster shuffle, I get that, and AZ's roster shuffle is probably not THAT unique. What is unique is the way Miller filled the gaps — six international players.

Three players declared for the draft:
1. Nico Mannion
2. Josh Green
3. Zeke Nnaji

Six players finished their eligibility:
4. Max Hazzard (grad xfer)
5. Stone Gettings (grad xfer)
6. Dylan Smith
7. Chase Jeter
8. Jake DesJardins
9. Kory Jones

One player transferring out of the program:
10. Brandon Williams

Here's how Miller rounded out his roster:
1. Jemarl Baker (returning, started career at Kentucky)
2. Ira Lee (returning, ESPN top 100 in 2017)
3. Christian Koloko (returning, born in Cameroon and moved to CA for last two years of HS basketball)
4. Jordan Brown (returning, sat out, xfer from Nevada, 2017 McDonald's All-American)
5. James Akinjo (returning, sat out, xfer from GTown, 2018-2019 Big East Freshman of the Year)
6. Terrell Brown (grad xfer from Seattle, avg 20/6/5 in 2019-2020)
7. Dalen Terry (four-star signee, Hillcrest Prep in PHX)
8. Bennedict Mathurin (four-star signee, Haitian-Canadian who played at the NBA Academy in Mexico DF)
9. Kerr Kriisa (four-star signee, Estonia)
10. Daniel Batcho (four-star signee, France)
11. Tibet Gorener (three-star signee, Turkey)
12. Azuolas Tubelis (unranked signee, Lithuania - impressive tape)
13. Tautvilas Tubelis (unranked signee, Lithuania)

One kid from the state of Arizona. Wrong board, I know, but I think it's interesting that Miller transitioned from one-and-dones and McDonald's All-Americans to foreign players and guys who will stick around. Like Pope's roster magic last year, this shows a skill not every coach has.
This message has been modified
Originally posted on May 27, 2020 at 12:29:09pm
Message modified by ag4cougs on May 27, 2020 at 12:58:49pm
ag4cougs
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