����Ӱ��AV

Is it Lute Olson, who built the Wildcats into a national powerhouse into the 21st century, reaching the 2001 national title game and putting together arguably his best team in 2003-04 … but working most of his magic in the 1980s and 1990s?

Is it Sean Miller, who rescued the Arizona program from two years of instability over Olson’s temporary-turned-permanent leave of absence, bringing the Wildcats to three Elite Eights … but running a program that became a centerpiece in FBI and NCAA investigations?

Or is it Tommy Lloyd, who in turn rescued the Wildcats from the dark clouds hanging over the final Miller-era years, stamping his “love you” approach and “BTFD” vibe on McKale Center, but so far stopping no further than the Sweet 16?

To help sort out the players, we considered only production from 2000-01 on (making Loren Woods’ 102-block season of 1999-2000 irrelevant) and only accomplishments during a player’s years at Arizona (making Lauri Markkanen’s NBA all-Star status irrelevant).

Those parameters led to these subjective picks for a “team” of 15 players that is now the maximum allowed on college basketball rosters:

FIRST TEAM

Point guard: Jason Gardner

Even though his third-team all-American year of 1999-2000 gets thrown out because it happened 26 seasons ago, Gardner’s four-year career also included piloting the Wildcats to the 2001 title game, leading a young 2001-02 team well past expectations and becoming a second-team all-American on a 2002-03 team that spent most of the season atop the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Undersized for an NBA guard, Gardner went on to play eight seasons professionally overseas, then started a coaching career that took him to his high school alma mater, Indianapolis North Central, and IUPUI. He’s now UA’s player relations director.

Shooting guard: Salim Stoudamire

The Wildcats arguably have never had a better pure shooter than Stoudamire, the younger cousin of former UA standout point guard (and current Georgia Tech coach) Damon Stoudamire.

Unflappable at the line, Salim set a UA record by hitting 39 free throws in a row as a freshman in 2001-02, also breaking the UA single-season record by hitting 90.4% that season … and he broke that record again as a senior in 2004-05, when he hit 91.0% from the line.

Stoudamire was pretty good in the field, too. He shot 45.8% from 3 over his four-year career, and the 50.4% he shot as a senior still ranks third on UA’s all-time single-season list, behind only the 57.3% Steve Kerr hit in 1987-88 and the 56.8% that Derrick Williams did (on one less than a third of the shots Stoudamire took) in 2010-11.

In 2004-05, Stoudamire also hit game-winners at ASU to clinch the Pac-10 title for UA, and to beat Oklahoma State in the Sweet 16.

Small forward: Luke Walton

Considering the medical history of his Hall of Fame father, Bill, Luke Walton’s UA career began on a shaky note: He sat out his freshman year of 1998-99 with a stress fracture in his foot. But Walton quickly grew into a boxscore-filler as a sophomore on UA’s Final Four team in 2001, then joined Gardner and forward Ricky Anderson as leaders of the Wildcats’ surprise 2001-02 team and its dominant 2002-03 team.

Walton was a first-team all-American in 2001-02 and was named all Pac-12 in both 2001-02 and 2002-03 before playing 10 years in the NBA and coaching in it since then. He’s been head coach of the Kings and Lakers and is now a Pistons assistant coach.

Power forward: Derrick Williams

Initially among the least-regarded players in Miller’s first UA recruiting class and a bench player to begin his college career, the former USC commit gave an early hint of what was ahead when he broke a school record by getting to the line for 21 free-throw attempts against Wisconsin in the 2009 Maui Invitational.

He broke that record again with 22 in 2010-11, when he led the Wildcats to a Pac-10 title and Sweet 16 win over Duke — and becoming the Pac-10 Player of the Year and the No. 2 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. Along the way, playing with a broken pinky toward the end of his sophomore season, he and his bandaged hand put up an almost iconic, game-saving block against Washington in a white-out game at McKale Center.

Center: Deandre Ayton

Ayton didn’t exactly lead the Wildcats to the Final Four during his one season of 2017-18 — remember Buffalo, anyone? — but that wasn’t all his fault: When the FBI’s investigation into Arizona and other college basketball programs became public in September 2017, the Wildcats were doomed to a stream of off-court distractions.

No more was that the case than during a late-season game at Oregon, just after ESPN reported that Miller discussed paying Ayton $100,000. Miller sat out the game while Oregon students heckled Ayton mercilessly — and a fuming Ayton collected 28 points and 13 rebounds. He also became the Pac-12 regular season and Tournament MVP, a consensus first-team all-American and the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, even though Buffalo ended his career in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

SECOND TEAM

Point guard: TJ McConnell

Probably the most popular Wildcat of the Miller era, McConnell first showed up at McKale Center as a little-known sophomore point guard at Duquesne playing one of those tiresome “buy” games against Arizona in 2011-12. But he transferred to UA after that season, sat out 2012-23 as a redshirt … then bloomed into a second-team all Pac-12 pick in 2013-14 and a first-team pick in 2014-15.

Known for sharp passing skills, basketball IQ and passion for the game, McConnell led the Wildcats to consecutive Pac-12 titles and Elite Eight appearances. That he’s since played 10 years in the NBA may be a surprise to many — he left UA undrafted in 2015 — but not necessarily to those who watched him at McKale.

Shooting guard: Nick Johnson

Was it really an offensive foul? A block-charge call went against the third-year UA guard with just 3.2 seconds left in the 2014 Elite Eight, allowing Wisconsin to hang on for a 64-63 win, ending the Wildcats’ hopes of reaching their first Final Four in 14 years.

It was a sour ending to a standout career. Johnson arrived as an aggressive freshman in 2011-12, ascended along with the program under Miller, then led the 2013-14 bunch to a 21-0 start. He became a first-team all-American that season and Pac-12 Player of the Year.

Small forward: Solomon Hill

Having committed to Olson, then USC after Olson’s retirement, Hill flipped back to play for Miller during his first year of 2009-10. Initially considered a one-and-done prospect, Hill instead became one of those old-school college basketball success stories, adding to his game during each of his four years with the Wildcats to the point where he became a first-team all-Pac-12 pick as a senior in 2012-13.

Hill was rewarded when he shot unexpectedly into the first round of the 2013 NBA Draft, then spent nine years in the league.

Power forward: Aaron Gordon

Gordon arrived as a one-and-done prospect, and left just as advertised. But in between, he became the Pac-12’s Freshman of the Year and also played a standout role in leading the Wildcats to that dominant ride and near-Final Four appearance in 2013-14.

The fourth pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, Gordon has since played 11 NBA seasons and was part of Denver’s NBA title team in 2023.

Center: Channing Frye

While earning nearly $69 million as a much-coveted “stretch five” during his 13-year NBA career, Frye sometimes jokingly noted that Olson never let him shoot the long ball at Arizona. After all, he took only 23 3s over four years at UA and made six of them.

But Olson had his reasons. The Wildcat teams he played for between 2001-02 and 2004-05 had plenty of other guys who could shoot from beyond the arc: Salim Stoudamire, Walton, Hassan Adams and Gardner among them, while Frye was an efficient, mobile presence inside who shot 56.2% from 2-point range. Frye became a first-team all-Pac-10 player in 2004 and 2005 before turning into a 2005 NBA lottery pick.

THIRD TEAM

Point guard: Nic Wise

Not only did Wise grow into a second-team all-Pac-10 player in 2008-09 and make the first team as a senior in 2009-10, but he gets extra credit for playing for four different Arizona coaches in four seasons.

That’s right: Wise played a reserve role his freshman season under Olson in 2006-07, became a part-time starter under interim coach Kevin O’Neill in 2007-08, then turned into part of what another interim coach, Russ Pennell, called the “Big Three” during a surprise 2008-09 Sweet 16 season, and finally returned as a senior to become what Miller called a “bridge” between the different eras of Arizona basketball.

Shooting guard: Bennedict Mathurin

The Canadian guard with Haitian roots was known for practically jumping out of the gym as a raw athlete developing at the NBA Academy Latin America. But under Miller and Lloyd, Mathurin also developed an outside shot, giving him a knack for scoring in multiple ways to complement his burning intensity on the floor.

Mathurin became the Pac-12’s Player of the Year and a consensus second-team all-American as a junior in 2022-23, then became the sixth pick of the 2022 NBA Draft.

Small forward: Chase Budinger

Really tough call here for a spot that could have gone to Stanley Johnson (all Pac-12 in 2013-14), Andre Iguodala (who was only scratching the surface of his upside when he left UA in 2004), Richard Jefferson (played two of his three UA seasons before 2000-01) or even Hassan Adams (a positionless pogo stick of a player named first-team all Pac-12 in 2005-06).

But Budinger also gets extra credit for dealing with considerable pressure since his arrival — he was co-MVP of the McDonald’s All-American Game with Kevin Durant, after all — and sticking around when the Wildcats needed him desperately in a chaotic time of coaching transition. He was a third-team all-Pac-10 pick under O’Neill in 2007-08 and a first-teamer as a senior in 2008-09.

Power forward: Azuolas Tubelis

Quiet and unassuming off the court, “Zu” was explosive and efficient on it. Arriving sight unseen from Lithuania during the COVID-restricted summer of 2020, Tubelis moved into the starting lineup after just six games on UA’s under-the-radar, postseason-banned 2020-21 team under Miller. Then he grew into a first-team all-Pac-12 pick under Lloyd in 2021-22 and 2022-23 before leaving to become an undrafted free agent who is now playing back in his home country.

Center: Jordan Hill

Growing from a raw big man under Olson in 2006-07 to a dominant first-team all-Pac-12 pick in 2008-09 under Pennell, Hill was the final point of the “Big Three” with Wise and Budinger, helping the Wildcats turn (probably) the last NCAA Tournament at-large bid in 2009 into a Sweet 16 appearance. After that season, Hill became the eighth pick in the NBA Draft and spent eight years in the league.

COACH

Sean Miller

By the time Olson had taken a health-related absence in 2007-08, fired O’Neill when he returned in the spring of 2008, then retired for good in October 2008, the Arizona program faced an almost existential danger: Could it find somebody to pull the Wildcats out of instability, restoring credibility with fans and recruits alike? Or would the program sink into irrelevancy, without a natural home recruiting turf to fall back on?

Miller took the job in 2009, rode the jumpstart that was Derrick Williams and led the Wildcats to three Elite Eights over five seasons. While he didn’t reach the Final Four, and ran a program that attracted off-court scrutiny, Miller’s cumulative recruiting set a new standard at Arizona.