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Leaf gets to work under Miller
7 hours ago • By Bruce Pascoe
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — In less than a week, Arizona Wildcats commit T.J. Leaf will have stomached a trifecta of assaults on his system.
“It was a great experience,” Leaf said Saturday, after the U19 team’s first workout. “You’re playing against guys who are 23, 24 years old. We realized we have a long way to go. Skill-level wise, we were all there, but just some of their physical attributes were a little bit better.”
Even
UA recruiting target Josh Jackson, a top-five player in the class of 2016, says that makes a difference.
“I think the college guys are definitely making an impact,” Jackson said. “They’re a lot bigger and stronger than the other guys, but we’re prepared for what they’re bringing.”
”The only thing that really matters now is finding the right team,” Miller said.
Jackson said the competition level was so high during that scrimmage that “they can almost pick this team blindfolded and have a pretty good team.”
The box score bore that out. Not only was the production balanced, but age really didn’t matter. Harry Giles, a 17-year-old forward from the class of 2016, opened eyes in the first scrimmage with 18 points on 8-for-12 shooting
while Jackson, an 18-year-old, had 10 points, five rebounds and two assists.
While
Leaf was the only scoreless player, he had eight rebounds while throwing off all that jet lag and facing a number of difficult matchups.
“Us 2016s, we’re just playing up, so it’s a little bit different,” Leaf said. “We’ll see how it goes.”
He’s getting to play with guys such as Jackson and Giles, whom he will inevitably see on the high-school all-star circuit next season and in college in 2016-17.
He’s also getting to work for the first time under Miller, his future coach. And both the Eurocamp and USA Basketball experiences are reminders of his goal to leap from having about 219 pounds on his 6-foot-10 frame now to about 230 by the time he arrives at Arizona next summer.
“
I want to work on everything,” Leaf said.
“I want to get a lot stronger, and I’ve been working on that a lot. Also on my consistency throughout my game, in every aspect.”
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