The basketball season is still nearly five months away, but it is not too early to take an early look at how the roster shapes up. We’ll start by looking at the point guard position.

Jordin Mayes (Rick Faust/WildcatSportsReport.com)

So MoMo Jones is gone and the Wildcat may have more overall talent at the position than they did a year ago. Jones will not be easy to replace. He was a leader and one of the players who proved he could hit big shots, but he was not a pure point guard. Prior to the Pac-10 season he was struggling, so much so that during the Bethune Cookman game I said to the person next to me “I wonder which MAAC school he’ll play at next season?” Well, I said Manhattan, it turned out to be Iona. (I also said Long Island, but they are in the Northeast Conference.)

By season’s end, I had changed my tune. The Cal game made many believers and Jones was one of the Cats’ most visible players, but he still wasn’t a point guard.

In my opinion a sophomore Jordin Mayes and a freshman Josiah Turner are more talented than a sophomore Jones and a freshman Mayes. They will miss Jones, but the talent to be better is there. (more…)

Although it is the offseason, Arizona point guard Jordin Mayes will be sidelined for at least 4-6 weeks after suffering a foot injury.

Jordin Mayes (Rick Faust/WildcatSportsReport.com)

“Jordin was diagnosed with a stress fracture,” explained Sean Miller.

Mayes complained of foot pain after the Wildcats’ Elite Eight loss to UConn.

“He could have played had we gone to the Final Four, but we would have shut him down right after,” said Miller.

Miller indicated it was not an old injury, but that the pain “just started” and long term Mayes should be in “good shape.”

Miller explained that Mayes will have to miss the first rounds of off season conditioning and workouts.

Mayes was 6-6 from behind the arc in his first three games of the NCAA Tournament, but was 0-3 against UConn, though Miller dismissed the notion that the injury bothered him in that game.

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Jones expected to run the show next season. (Rick Faust/WildcatSportsReport.com)

Sean Miller has some work to do. After the Wildcats lost to Oregon State on Sunday night there is a blueprint on how to beat the Wildcats. Now it is up to Miller to make that blueprint obsolete.

Right now it is apparent that the Cats struggle against the zone. On Sunday night they could not hit open shots, failed to properly attack the zone and were far too impatient. The Cats shot over 70% inside the arc, but were just 6 of 20 from three-point land.

Until the Wildcats show they can either attack the zone, or shoot over the zone, I’d expect teams to keep throwing different zones at them. I also expect the Cats to get better at attacking the zone and if players continue to take bad/rushed shots against the zone, they will see their minutes diminish in favor of those who better follow the game plan.

Maybe the bigger concern was the fact that Oregon State chose to really pressure the Wildcat point guards, frequently trapping them when they approached half court. To me it showed that the Beavers really didn’t respect the ball handling ability of the Wildcat point guards. Could you imagine teams trying to do that to Mike Bibby or Jason Gardner?

MoMo Jones and Jordin Mayes combined for seven turnovers and made a number of other iffy passes that they got away with but probably should not have been made. All season long point guard has been an iffy proposition for the Cats but until Jones and Mayes take better care of the ball, you can bet a number of teams will throw extra pressure at the duo.

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He may not be a top-100 player, but Arizona did not "settle" for MoMo Jones.

After the Wildcats lost out on three McDonald’s All-Americans in the past two weeks, many Arizona Wildcat basketball fans were stressing. Many felt that this meant that Sean Miller could not attract big time recruits and would have to settle for “projects”.

Fans on message boards, call-in shows and even my e-mail in-box felt that the Cats were reaching for lesser players. This just isn’t the case.

While it is true the Cats have failed to land a big time, game-ready, elite prospect, they certainly are not settling for players who are not solid prospects. In fact, Lute Olson’s last few teams “settled” far more than Miller has.

Miller’s first recruiting class featured four players in ESPN’s top-100. The only player who was not an ESPN top-100 player was MoMo Jones. Jones was a Rivals top-100 player and was recruited by the likes of Louisville, Florida, Memphis and USC among many others.

The rest of the class were all top-100 according to ESPN:

Kyryl Natyazhko #39

Solomon Hill #54

Derrick Williams #72 

Kevin Parrom #86

All of these players were recruited by elite programs. While none of them were top-25 players, or as highly ranked as Doron Lamb, Josh Selby or Ray McCallum, they were hardly borderline prospects headed to low majors had Arizona not swooped in and offered them a scholarship.

This year’s class is not quite as highly rated, but again, not full of slouches. Daniel Bejarano is a top 100 player, albeit rated #92 by ESPN. Jordin Mayes just missed the top-100, but Rivals tabbed him as #106. Mayes had offers from BC, Cal and Oklahoma among others.

JUCO transfer Jesse Perry was not eligible for the top-100 but had offers from a host of Big 12 and SEC schools.

Compare these two classes to the last few Lute Olson classes and you’ll see that Lute attracted a few more “elite” players but a lot more “reaches”. The 2008 class is a strange one. The school originally signed four players, three of whom were top-100 but when the smoke cleared, only two of those players arrived on campus and only the non-top-100 player (Brendan Lavender) every played a game for Arizona.

Because of the defections of Brandon Jennings and Emmanuel Negedu, the Cats had to scramble and took in Kyle Fogg, Garland Judkins and D.J. Shumpert. Of those only Fogg is still on the roster.

Some of the other reaches in the Olson era include Alex Jacobson, Kirk Walters, Daniel Dillon and Chris Dunn. The Cats also signed non top-100 players who did little in an Arizona uniform such as Zane Johnson, Jesus Verdejo and Laval-Lucas Perry.

It must be noted that standouts Nic Wise and Jordan Hill were not top-100 players, while guys like Chris Rodgers, Fendi Onobun and Jamelle Horne were all top-75 prospects who had less than illustrious Arizona careers.

Miller has yet to land a top-25 prospect, and to truly return Arizona to the national elite he will have to land some of these players, but he is still landing quality recruits. Five of his seven prep signees have been top-100 players, and the two who weren’t still had their share of top-notch suitors.