Arizona basketball: Chance Comanche won't be redshirting this season

With Ray Smith's injury, it could allow Comanche to get more playing time than anticipated.

The Arizona Wildcats' front court is certainly the team's strength. Seniors Kaleb Tarczewski and Ryan Anderson will get the bulk of the minutes, and Dusan Ristic, who is talented enough to start for almost every other team in the Pac-12, will back them up. Mark Tollefsen could slide to the four if need be, too.

So coming into the season, it seemed there was a decent chance that Chance Comanche, a four-star prospect that needs to add considerable amount of weight, would redshirt.

However, at a press conference on Thursday, Sean Miller said that Chance Comanche will not be redshirting this season. The reason Miller gave was that Comanche is farther ahead in his development than the coaching staff thought he'd be.

Of course, it's also possible that with the season-ending injury to Ray Smith and the ankle injury that Tarczewski is dealing with, Miller felt it wouldn't hurt to have some extra depth this season. Tarczewski is expected to be fine, but Smith's injury leaves Tollefsen has the only other player on the roster -- other than Comanche and Anderson -- that can play the four. Tollefsen will likely play a lot at the three as well, so Comanche may be able to pick up some minutes here and there. We all know that the whistle-happy Pac-12 refs always make depth a necessity.

In the Red-Blue game, Comanche displayed some good skill and impressive athleticism, but he was still noticeably thin. So it will be interesting to see what type of contribution he'll make this season. I feel as though he could be in the Matt Korcheck role this season.

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