| Conference Link: | Pac-12 Conference men's basketball |
| Mode: | Basketball |
| Year: | 2020–21 |
| Prev Year: | 2019–20 |
| Next Year: | 2021–22 |
| Team: | Arizona Wildcats |
| Conference: | Pac-12 Conference |
| Short Conf: | Pac-12 |
| Record: | 17–9 |
| Conf Record: | 11–9 |
| Hc Year: | 12th |
| Asst Coach3: | Danny Peters |
The 2020–21 Arizona Wildcats men's basketball team represented the University of Arizona during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team was led by 12th-year head coach Sean Miller, in his final season at the program, and played their home games at McKale Center in Tucson, Arizona as members of the Pac-12 Conference. The Wildcats finished the season 17–9, 11–9 in Pac–12 play to finish in fifth place.
The school self-imposed a postseason ban for the 2020–21 season amid an ongoing NCAA investigation over an FBI bribery scandal involving a former assistant coach and agent between 2017 and 2018 hoping to avoid further punishment from the NCAA.[1] [2] The ban included both the Pac–12 Tournament and the NCAA tournament.[3] On April 7, 2021, the school fired head coach Sean Miller due to allegations related to the corruption scandal.[4]
The Wildcats finished the 2019–20 season 20–11, 10–8 in Pac-12 play to finish in tie for 5th place. They received the 5-seed in the 2020 Pac-12 tournament, where they defeated Washington in the first round and were set to take on USC in the quarterfinals before the remainder of the Pac-12 Tournament was cancelled amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
| Name | Position | Year | Hometown | Reason | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stone Gettings | F | Graduate Student | Completed athletic eligibility. | ||||
| Max Hazzard | G | Graduate Student | Los Angeles, CA | Completed athletic eligibility. | |||
| Chase Jeter | F | Redshirt Senior | Las Vegas, NV | Completed athletic eligibility. | |||
| Dylan Smith | G | Redshirt Senior | Mobile, AL | Completed athletic eligibility. | |||
| Jake DesJardins | F | Senior | Henderson, NV | Graduated | |||
| Brandon Williams | G | Sophomore | Los Angeles, CA | Elected to play professionally. | |||
| Josh Green | G | Freshman | Declared for 2020 NBA draft[5] | ||||
| Nico Mannion | G | Freshman | Declared for 2020 NBA draft.[6] | ||||
| Zeke Nnaji | F | Freshman | Declared for 2020 NBA draft.[7] | ||||
| Reference: | |||||||
| Name | Position | Year | Hometown | Previous School | Remaining Eligibility | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | Junior | 2 | Transfer from Georgetown in January 2020.[8] | ||||
| G | Graduate Student | 1 | Graduate from Seattle University. Terrell is eligible to play immediately as a graduate.[9] | ||||
| Reference: | |||||||
Dalen Terry, originally from Phoenix, Arizona, was the first commit of the 2020 recruiting class. He verbally committed to Arizona on July 23, 2019 over rival Arizona State, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Memphis, USC and Utah. Terry a consensus four-star prospect out of Hillcrest Prep in Phoenix, Arizona.
Bennedict Mathurin, originally from Montreal, Canada was the second commitment of the 2020 recruiting class. He verbally committed to Arizona on January 15, 2020 over Baylor & Washington State. Mathurin a consensus four-star prospect out of the NBA Academy Latin America.
Kerr Kriisa, originally from Tartu, Estonia, was the third commitment of the 2020 recruiting class. He verbally committed to Arizona on April 18, 2020 over BYU, Oregon & Syracuse. Kriisa a consensus four-star prospect out of BC Prienai in Prienai, Lithuania.
Daniel Batcho, originally from Chatenay-Malabry, France, was the fourth commitment in the Arizona class. He committed to Arizona on April 23, 2020, over Arizona State, Creighton, Miami & Virginia Tech. He is a consensus four-star prospect out of Centre Fédéral de Basket-ball in Paris, France.
Tibet Gorener, originally from Şişli, Turkey, was the fifth commitment in the Arizona class. He committed to Arizona on April 28, 2020, over Nebraska, Creighton, UC Santa Barbara & UConn. He is consensus four-star out of Orange Lutheran HS in Orange, California.
Ąžuolas Tubelis, originally from Lithuania, was the sixth commitment in the Arizona class. He committed to Arizona on May 27, 2020. He is currently a four-star prospect out of Rytas Vilnius in Lithuania.
Tautvilas Tubelis, originally from Lithuania, was the seventh commitment in the Arizona class. He committed to Arizona on May 27, 2020. He is currently an unranked prospect out of Rytas Vilnius in Lithuania.
Shane Nowell, originally from Sammamish, WA, was the third commit of the 2021 recruiting class. He verbally committed to Arizona on October 31, 2020 over rival Montana, Montana State, Oklahoma & Washington. Nowell was a consensus four-star prospect out of Eastside Catholic in Sammamish, WA.
On April 3, 2020, Assistant coach Justin Gainey accepted the Associate Head coach position at Marquette.[10]
On May 27, 2020, former Arizona great & NBA veteran Jason Terry was announced as an assistant coach on Miller's staff.[11]
| Name | Position | Year at Arizona | Alma Mater (year) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sean Miller | Head coach | 12th | Pittsburgh (1992) | |
| Associate head coach | 2nd | Arizona (2005) | ||
| Danny Peters | Assistant coach | 3rd | Ohio State (2010) | |
| Assistant coach | 1st | Arizona (1999) | ||
| Ryan Reynolds | Director of Basketball Operations | 12th | Xavier (2007) | |
| Austin Carroll | Assistant director of Basketball Operations | 5th | American (2014) |
The Wildcats opponents are still being finalized in the summer and dates and times will be finalized in the fall. Arizona will host opponents Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado,Cal State Bakersfield, Cal Baptist & Montana at McKale Center in Tucson, AZ. Arizona was forced to cancel the 2020 NIT Season Tip-Off in Brooklyn with Cincinnati, Texas Tech & St. John's because of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the Wildcats two true road against Gonzaga & Illinois. The Pac-12 announced it would add two Pac-12 regular season games from the previous 18-game schedule, adding Colorado & Stanford. The Pac-12 announced on August 11, 2020 that all fall sporting events would be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[15]
|-!colspan=12 style=| Regular season
|-
See also: 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings. *AP does not release post-NCAA Tournament rankings
^Coaches did not release a Week 2 poll.
| Minutes | Scoring | Total FGs | 3-point FGs | Free-Throws | Rebounds | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | GP | GS | Tot | Avg | Pts | Avg | FG | FGA | Pct | 3FG | 3FA | Pct | FT | FTA | Pct | Off | Def | Tot | Avg | A | PF | TO | Stl | Blk | |
| style=white-space:nowrap | James Akinjo | 26 | 26 | 903 | 34.7 | 405 | 15.6 | 124 | 327 | 37.9% | 53 | 130 | 40.8% | 104 | 127 | 81.9% | 8 | 51 | 59 | 2.3 | 141 | 51 | 60 | 37 | 0 |
| style=white-space:nowrap | Jemarl Baker Jr. | 12 | 12 | 353 | 29.4 | 144 | 12.0 | 50 | 124 | 40.3% | 24 | 70 | 34.3% | 20 | 24 | 83.3% | 2 | 32 | 34 | 2.8 | 21 | 22 | 12 | 7 | 4 |
| style=white-space:nowrap | Daniel Batcho | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| style=white-space:nowrap | Terrell Brown Jr. | 26 | 9 | 666 | 25.6 | 190 | 7.3 | 62 | 159 | 39.0% | 14 | 38 | 36.8% | 52 | 67 | 77.6% | 13 | 77 | 90 | 3.5 | 90 | 37 | 23 | 24 | 6 |
| style=white-space:nowrap | Jordan Brown | 26 | 12 | 512 | 19.7 | 244 | 9.4 | 93 | 166 | 56.0% | 0 | 1 | 0% | 58 | 97 | 59.8% | 41 | 94 | 135 | 5.2 | 15 | 61 | 23 | 12 | 23 |
| style=white-space:nowrap | Tibet Görener | 8 | 0 | 30 | 3.8 | 9 | 1.1 | 3 | 9 | 33.3% | 3 | 9 | 33.3% | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0.8 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| style=white-space:nowrap | Christian Koloko | 26 | 19 | 448 | 17.2 | 119 | 4.6 | 39 | 94 | 52.0% | 0 | 1 | 0% | 35 | 56 | 62.5% | 58 | 67 | 125 | 4.8 | 8 | 70 | 19 | 12 | 35 |
| style=white-space:nowrap | Kerr Kriisa | 8 | 5 | 180 | 22.5 | 44 | 5.5 | 14 | 42 | 33.3% | 14 | 38 | 36.8% | 2 | 2 | 100% | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.5 | 19 | 12 | 10 | 3 | 0 |
| style=white-space:nowrap | Ira Lee | 23 | 1 | 256 | 11.1 | 68 | 3.0 | 27 | 49 | 55.1% | 0 | 0 | 0% | 14 | 19 | 73.7% | 22 | 48 | 70 | 3.0 | 7 | 36 | 23 | 4 | 7 |
| style=white-space:nowrap | Jordan Mains | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2.0 | 3 | 1.5 | 1 | 3 | 33.3% | 1 | 2 | 50.0% | 0 | 0 | 0% | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| style=white-space:nowrap | Bennedict Mathurin | 26 | 12 | 647 | 24.9 | 280 | 10.8 | 88 | 187 | 47.1% | 38 | 91 | 41.8% | 66 | 78 | 84.6% | 32 | 92 | 124 | 4.8 | 30 | 43 | 30 | 18 | 2 |
| style=white-space:nowrap | Dalen Terry | 26 | 14 | 540 | 20.8 | 119 | 4.6 | 39 | 94 | 41.5% | 14 | 43 | 32.6% | 27 | 44 | 55.9% | 20 | 63 | 83 | 3.2 | 38 | 61 | 31 | 19 | 10 |
| style=white-space:nowrap | Ąžuolas Tubelis | 26 | 20 | 689 | 26.5 | 317 | 12.2 | 115 | 231 | 49.8% | 13 | 42 | 31.0% | 74 | 104 | 69.2% | 67 | 117 | 184 | 7.1 | 32 | 65 | 61 | 15 | 16 |
| style=white-space:nowrap | Tautvilas Tubelis | 5 | 0 | 9 | 1.8 | 1 | 0.2 | 0 | 2 | 0% | 0 | 2 | 0.0% | 1 | 2 | 50.0% | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| style=white-space:nowrap | Grant Weitman | 5 | 0 | 8 | 1.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| style=white-space:nowrap | Matt Weyand | 4 | 0 | 6 | 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 19 | – | – | – | 1961 | 75.4 | 667 | 1492 | 44.7% | 174 | 468 | 37.2% | 453 | 623 | 72.7% | 307 | 690 | 997 | 38.3 | 403 | 463 | 309 | 152 | 104 | |
| Opponents | 19 | – | – | – | 1783 | 68.5 | 631 | 1470 | 42.9% | 184 | 539 | 34.1% | 337 | 477 | 71.7% | 223 | 589 | 812 | 31.2 | 292 | 524 | 322 | 140 | 72 | |
| Legend | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | Avg | Average per game |
| FG | Field-goals made | FGA | Field-goal attempts | Off | Offensive rebounds |
| Def | Defensive rebounds | A | Assists | TO | Turnovers |
| Blk | Stl | Steals | High | Team high | |
James Akinjo
Jordan Brown
Bennedict Mathurin
Ąžuolas Tubelis
2020–21 Arizona Wildcats women's basketball team