The Arizona Wildcats basketball team wrapped up its exhibition trip to the Bahamas on Monday with another blowout victory, and coach Sean Miller declaring the entire experience a success.
The most important thing was not the result of the two games but the 10 practices leading up to the trip, getting a jump-start on preseason teaching and incorporating five key new players into the rotation — four freshmen and senior point guard transfer Mark Lyons.
“There is no question, if we had to do it all over again, we’d do it the exact same way,” Miller said in a video interview posted by ArizonaWildcats.com.
“I know our team has gotten better. I know individually our guys have a better grasp of what we doing, especially the newcomers.”
Lyons has a team-high 19 points Monday as Arizona defeated the Bahamas All-Stars 99-57. The Wildcats beat another all-star team, the Real Deal Shockers, 136-66 on Saturday.
Senior wing Kevin Parrom scored 21 points on Saturday and 16 on Monday. Miller said the extra practices and exhibition games were particularly helpful for Parrom and junior guard Jordin Mayes, both of whom were limited last season by injuries.
Miller said this trip allowed both players to “to get their feet on the ground.”
Here are quick postgame interviews from ArizonaWildcats.com with junior college transfer forward Matt Korcheck and freshman 7-footer Kaleb Tarczewski.
Great game today. We got the W again today! We are very talented and we should get even better as the year goes on. The sky is the limit !!!
— Kevin Parrom (@KevinParrom3) August 14, 2012