Arizona basketball recruiting: What power forward Lauri Markkanen means for the Wildcats

Finally, the first piece of the 2016 recruiting class

Sean Miller landed the first piece of his 2016 recruiting this weekend in Lauri Markkanen. The 6-11 225lb power forward is ranked 93rd overall, and 18th among all power forwards. This seems like a bit of a low ranking considering his skills, likely because he is an international.

Lauri Markkanen is a significant pick up for Arizona. Picked them over UNC and Utah. Think of him as a top 25 player.

— Evan Daniels (@EvanDaniels) October 17, 2015

A few days ago, I was worried about Sean Miller's current class, as the options looked slim. I said I had a decent feeling about Markkanen coming to Arizona, but I really didn't follow his recruitment too closely, probably because it's a little harder to follow an international guy.

With Arizona's first commit for 2016, Sean Miller can now build the class around Markkanen. There are still some guys on Arizona's radar, and Sean Miller can now point to Markkanen as a pivotal piece of his puzzle. Before Markkanen, it's hard to give a recruit a pitch about the future, when there is no future 2016 class. But rest assure, the 2015 class seems to have quite a few guys who are here for at least two years or so. The only downside to Markkanen is that he doesn't have any connections to some of the top high school recruits, unlike many previous Arizona commits, which is pretty important considering this day and age when guys want to go play with their friends from AAU.

One of the top in-state products, Mitch Lightfoot, seems to be on the verge of committing, and will decide on October 24th. As a 6-8 190lb power forward, it's really unclear as to what his role on the team will be. You would think that Lauri certainly has the one-and-done potential as a foreign stretch four that NBA scouts seem to drool over. But after that, you'd hope that Sean Miller can pull in another top power forward for 2017 to start. Lightfoot has other options where he can be an impact guy fairly soon, but at Arizona that just doesn't seem to be the case considering the potential talent Sean Miller can pull in.

Josh Jackson's good friend Miles Bridges committed to Michigan State, and Tom Izzo is poised to pull in a top-5 recruiting class, making it a very intriguing option. We'll see how the addition of Lauri plays into Jackson's recruitment at Arizona. Andrew Jones won't be committing for a while, so there might not be too much news on that front.

Maybe, Lauri is such an intriguing piece, that other recruits who once looked over Arizona, now give them a second look. With a commitment from Josh Jackson, you would certainly think that's the case, with top recruits in the nation usually having a good amount of pull when it comes to recruiting guys they want to play with.

Lauri will presumably fill in as the starting power forward for 2016, with another foreign big man in Dusan Ristic playing next to him at center. You would think that Ray Smith is the starting small forward should he forgo the NBA if given the oppotunity, with Allonzo Trier and Parker Jackson-Cartwright holding down the backcourt.

This is a big get for Arizona, and soon, Sean Miller should start snagging more top talent to surround Lauri.

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