Arizona has been doing well in March Madness with the efforts of Caleb Love and Pelle Larsson shining in the big dance. Stars and legends out of the Wildcats system loved the beating Dayton suffered as they are now headed to the Sweet Sixteen. Before the second weekend, Mike Bibby got into the mood of crafting his all-time starting five from the program. One addition raised eyebrows and that was Portland Trail Blazers big man DeAndre Ayton.
Mike Bibby dropped the whole list and looked fairly confident that these indeed were the best at their positions during their Arizona tenure, via Run It Back.
“Khalid Reeves, me at the two, three I put Sean Elliott, Derrick Williams at the four, and I have Deandre Ayton at the five, just position-wise,” the Wildcats legend said.
Chandler Parsons then interjected to gush about the six-foot-eight player who dominated while wearing number 23.
“By the way, when Derrick Williams was coming out, I thought Derrick Williams was going to be the best player in the NBA when he was coming out of Arizona. Was it the game against Duke where he absolutely torched them? Oh my goodness,” Parsons said.
All Mike Bibby did was agree about Williams' dominance with the Wildcats, “And that’s why I put him up there, you’ve got to put him up in the top 5 to ever do it at Arizona.”
But, Williams was not the notable player that was questionable on this list. It was DeAndre Ayton. The former first-overall pick in the 2018 draft was selected over Luka Doncic, Trae Young, and Jaren Jackson Jr.
Ayton, an Arizona legend
While his NBA career has not panned out the way most people expected it to be, Ayton's career in Arizona was still stellar. In just a single campaign in 2017-18, he sank 61.2% of his attempts from all three levels of scoring to notch 20.1 points. Alongside this, Ayton was able to grab 11.6 rebounds and record 1.9 blocks on a nightly basis.
All of his production landed Ayton the 2018 Pac-12 Player of the Year award and a consensus All-American nod in his one-and-done season. However, big-name legends from Arizona did not make the list because of his inclusion. Damon Stoudamire, Channing Frye, Chris Mills, and Jason Terry were able to lead Arizona to deep runs in March Madness and in their conference. But, this is still just Mike Bibby's own list and it is not at all the objective list that everyone should adhere to. After all, Ayton still has the accolades and numbers to back himself up in this conversation.
As of the moment, he has finally found his footing with the Trail Blazers. His elbow might be a concern as of late but the former Arizona star is still producing at a high rate. He is scoring 15.8 points on average while knocking down 58% of his attempts. Not to mention, his steal and block a game helps the team's interior defense a lot.
There is still a lot of time for Ayton to get back to his Arizona form and be great in the NBA.
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