Seen and heard: Christian Koloko, still adapting to life in US, has Arizona on his radar

LAS VEGAS — This week is Christian Koloko’s first experience with travel ball, and he’s doing it for the well-regarded Oakland Soldiers, too.

Yet in some ways it’s nothing.

This week is the one year anniversary of Koloko’s move from Cameroon to the United States, meaning he’s had to adapt to a new country, go to a new school and learn a new language. Both French and English are official languages in Cameroon but Koloko said he spoke French.

“My first week of classes was pretty hard because I wasn’t speaking English,” Koloko said. “Even the system is very difficult.”

But Koloko thrived anyway, recording a 3.8 GPA at Southern California’s Birmingham High School, where he played with incoming UA freshman Devonaire Doutrive.

Koloko is a 7-foot, 195-pound center in the class of 2019, drawing offers so far from Arizona, Northwestern, Harvard and Princeton, among others.

While Koloko said he hasn’t given much thought at this point to his recruitment, he has been in touch with Doutrive about one place he could go.

“He said Arizona is a good school, it’s a good thing,” Koloko said.

Drive Nation won on sudden death putback by Drew Timme in third overtime. Free tip for his future defenders, he’s going to hit you with every pump fake and spin in the book and then out trash talk you. Effective style.

— Eric Bossi (@ebosshoops) July 27, 2018

With only a 10-minute gap scheduled between most tournament games, there isn’t a lot of tolerance for those that are tied at the end of regulation. Many have just two-minute overtime periods, and Drew Timme found himself in an even tighter squeeze Friday.

A class of 2019 Arizona recruiting target from the Dallas area, Timme and his Drive Nation team were thrown into sudden death when its Friday afternoon game with Louisiana Supreme 17U was tied at 63-63. Three times, in fact.

On the fourth possession, Timme managed to drive inside for a layup to give Drive Nation a 65-63 win.

As satisfying as that might have seemed, Timme wasn’t a fan of the sudden death format.

“Heck, no,” Timme said. “It’s not fun at all.”

The No. 1 overall prospect in the class of 2020, Fresno guard Jalen Green, went off to Argentina to play against some of the top 17-year-olds in the world earlier this summer.

Turns out, just staying home and playing travel ball is a lot more competitive: With Green averaging 15.7 points to lead the way, USA Basketball won all seven games by an average margin of 53.7 points.

Still, Green said the experience was a good one, in part because of the competition within the team.

“It was fun but you gotta know your role on the USA team,” Green said. “There’s a lot of players that are the top in their class in the country. But I don’t think any team was better than us and we showed it.”

Green has been playing this week with Adidas-sponsored EBO.

While Lorenzo Romar spent last season as an assistant Arizona coach, he made a point of contacting Seattle guard MarJon Beauchamp to talk about the Wildcats.

Beauchamp says he’s still in touch with Arizona, but of course not with Romar, who now coaches Pepperdine. He said Romar hasn’t tried to talk him into playing for the Waves.

“We still talk though,” Beauchamp said.

A top-25 guard in the class of 2020, Beauchamp said he’s considering Arizona, Washington, ASU, Washington State, USC, UCLA and Michigan.

NAU coach Jack Murphy, taking in a game at the Under Armour Association championships, said the Big Sky’s move from 18 to 20 games next season was partly responsible for the Lumberjacks’ absence from UA’s 2018-19 schedule.

However, Murphy said he’s been talking to UA operations director Ryan Reynolds about renewing the nearly annual series again in 2019-20.

5-Star Forward Jaden McDaniels Single Game Highlights @ LV Classic!FULL VIDEO: https://t.co/8WJpM33kax pic.twitter.com/kNOyEWKQrS

— Courtside Films (@CourtsideFilms) July 27, 2018

“Uh. Not really.” — Seattle forward Jaden McDaniels, when asked if he’s a morning person after leading the Seattle Rotary to a 90-65 double-overtime victory in a game that started at 8 a.m., just 75 minutes after he woke up.