Garland Judkins is a Ferrari in Hong Kong traffic.
At least that’s how UA men’s basketball interim head coach Russ Pennell sees it.
When UA guard Nic Wise jumped to shoot a 3-pointer with 10 minutes left in practice Saturday morning, he landed on Judkins’ foot, causing Wise to roll his ankle.
Wise was forced to wear a protective boot and didn’t play in Saturday afternoon’s Red/Blue intrasquad scrimmage in McKale Center, giving Judkins, also a guard, a chance to put himself on a roll of his own. The freshman scored 16 points, dished out six assists and grabbed six rebounds in a 46-46 tie before an announced attendance of 5,829.
“”I just came out to play hard. I just go with the game,”” Judkins said. “”I had a couple scoring opportunities so I just took advantage.””
Arizona’s team captain Chase Budinger said Judkins’ production was due to the free-flowing motion offense Pennell has the team running this season.
“”I was talking to Garland before the game, and he was just really excited to run up and down,”” Budinger said. “”That’s why he came here, so he could run. The kid has horse legs. You can’t guard him full court; he’ll run right past you.””
Of all the newcomers, Pennell said he was most impressed with freshman guard Kyle Fogg, who scored 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting, including 2-of-2 from the extended 3-point line. Fogg also had four boards, two assists and two steals.
Pennell said he was pleased with Fogg’s performance because he didn’t try to over-perform and wasn’t out of control – something he knocked Judkins for.
Fogg, a soft-spoken guard from Brea, Calif., said he’s just trying to follow the lead of the veteran players.
“”When you have guys like Chase, J-Hill (Jordan Hill), Nic and Fendi (Onobun), I just gotta follow my role and try not to do too much with the ball,”” Fogg said.
With Wise out for two or three days and the transfer of 6-foot-10 forward Jeff Withey, the Wildcats were left with just 11 players to compete in the scrimmage. A two-hour morning practice earlier in the day led to Onobun and freshman guard Brendon Lavender cramping up.
In the second half, Onobun passed the ball to Lavender in the key for a layup to tie the game at 46. Lavender went down on the play with a cramped calf, prompting Pennell to call the game 24:39 into the contest – a 20 minute first half and 4:39 in the second half – despite the players’ efforts to convince him otherwise.
“”That was just too much practice today,”” Pennell said.
Judkins got a substantial amount of help on the Blue team from Budinger, who led all scorers with 17 points on 6-for-15 shooting. The team as a whole fired off 37 shots, meaning Budinger attempted 40.5 percent of the Blue squad’s shots.
“”That’s about right where we want,”” Pennell said. “”I think Chase needs to take about 40 percent of our attempts.””
Budinger said he knows what’s expected of him offensively with the youth and lack of depth on the team.
“”I’m not really shy at shooting the ball,”” he said. “”I think that’s part of my job this year. I’m going to need to produce in that way for us to win.””
Center Alex Jacobson took advantage of playing the entire game on Saturday after redshirting last season as a true freshman. A two-handed slam by “”Tree”” started a 10-0 run by the Blue team a little more than six minutes into the game. The run put the Red team down 20-10.
Then a Jacobson layup with 2:43 left in the half gave the Blue team a 14-point edge at 36-22, the largest lead of the game.
“”He didn’t try to do things he can’t do,”” Pennell said of Jacobson. “”And to me, that’s what makes a guy like that valuable.
Budinger said he would have liked to keep playing, but added that it was slightly understandable.
“”We did have a two-hour practice this morning that I think tired a lot of guys out,”” he said. “”But that’s what happens when you don’t have a lot of guys on the team, and also you’re tired and sore.””
And 1
Pennell addressed the crowd before the scrimmage regarding Lute Olson’s retirement and the future of the program.
“”The one thing I want you to know from us … the one thing that you can be assured of is that we will give our best to you this year,”” Pennell said. “”We miss Coach just like you do, but if he was here right now he’d tell us to move forward. … He’d tell us to give our best to fight. He’d tell us to bear down Arizona.”” …
With only one substitute available, there were 32 personal fouls in the scrimmage. Two players were charged with five fouls, one with six and Fogg was called for seven fouls.