Why No. 1 seed Arizona built with freshmen, not 'overpriced' transfers
The coach of No. 1 seed Arizona explained why he built his basketball roster around freshmen instead of the 'overpriced' transfer portal.
SAN DIEGO – No other freshman class in America has scored more points this season than the five active freshmen on the Arizona men’s basketball team . They have combined for 1,461 points, which leads the nation heading into the NCAA Tournament this week, according to data provided by USA TODAY Sports by Stats Perform. Which is pretty darn remarkable for two big reasons: 1.
This team is on fire. The Wildcats (32-2) have won nine consecutive games and will start the tournament here as a No. 1 seed against Long Island University on Friday, March 20.
2. This kind of youth movement goes against conventional wisdom these days. Isn’t older supposed to be better in the era of wide-open player transfers?
More: John Calipari unleashed Darius Acuff by taking page out of NBA book More: High Point upset was going to take everything — including a first layup of the season Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd instead took a different approach than many others last year, veering away from the transfer portal, where more experienced players typically seek to earn more money from their names, images and likenesses (NIL). “We were able to get involved with some freshmen that we felt could be just big-time impact players in college basketball, no matter what year or what class they were,” Lloyd told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday. He had a strategy for it, as he explained Thursday.
Continue to the original source for the full article.