NEW YORK — Arizona signee Brandon Randolph gave Wildcats fans a glimpse of what they’ll be getting next year when he went off for 32 points en route to MVP honors in Friday’s Jordan Regional Game at Barclays Center.
“It feels great, we were focused on the win,” said the 6-foot-6 Yonkers, N.Y., native who added nine rebounds as the Red Team beat the Blue Team 170-162. “It wasn’t really about scoring buckets, but I did what I did. That’s what I do, I score buckets and that’s it.”
Randolph, who ran with the PSA Cardinals and played at Westtown (PA), is part of a four-man recruiting class ranked No. 4 by ESPN.com. DeAndre Ayton, who went for 19 points and eight rebounds in the National game, is the No. 2-ranked player in the class by ESPN.
Regional game MVP goes to Brandon Randolph ? @brandolph902 @WTbbasketball #NEXTvsNEXT pic.twitter.com/o82ppx9l62
— Overtime (@overtime) April 14, 2017
Going forward, Randolph will now join an Arizona team that will include returning junior shooting guard Allonzo Trier, who opted to return to campus in part because of his relationship with new Arizona assistant Lorenzo Romar, the former Washington coach.
“Of course [Sean Miller] reached out to me,” Randolph told ZAGSBLOG. “He says that doesn’t affect anything. It doesn’t affect how he sees me fitting in. We’re going to have a great season, we’re going to fit together and that’s basically it.”
With their incoming plus plus the returns of Trier, Rawle Alkins and much or their roster, “We can win it,” Randolph said. “That’s how I feel, we can win it. Yessir, yessir.”
Randolph said he and his friends picked Arizona to win it this year, but of course they were upset by Xavier in the Sweet 16.
“I was definitely frustrated,” he said. “We all made brackets together, we all picked them winning. That was pretty disappointing, but I know this year we’re gonna get. Don’t worry about that.”
Arizona remains in the mix still for point guard Trevon Duval, wing Brian Bowen and big man Brandon McCoy, all of whom played in the National Game.
Bowen went for 26 points en route to MVP honors as the West beat the East, 124-116.
Why Not??♂️?#JBCMVP??? pic.twitter.com/V8qlwMNP5z
— Brian Bowen ? (@20tugs) April 15, 2017
