Friday, March 2, 2018

Ira Lee (concussion) could play vs. Cal on Saturday

Arizona expects Lee to be cleared Friday, putting him on track to play Saturday

Sean Miller is back, Allonzo Trier is back, and Ira Lee should be soon.

Miller said after Thursday’s win vs. Stanford that he anticipates Lee getting cleared to return from his concussion Friday.

And if he does, Miller said, Lee would be available for the Arizona Wildcats’ regular season finale against the California Golden Bears on Saturday.

“With a concussion test, we have a number of symptoms (we test for),” Miller said. “His symptoms have really have almost really dissolved into a single symptom. That’s a good sign.”

Lee has missed three straight games after suffering the concussion in practice last week. He did not travel with the Wildcats on their Oregon road trip, then missed Thursday’s home game against Stanford.

The freshman is averaging 2.3 points and 2.3 rebounds in 10.6 minutes this season.

Lee serves as one of the primary backups for Dusan Ristic and Deandre Ayton. With Lee out, Keanu Pinder and Emmanuel Akot have been receiving more playing time.

Arizona’s bench outscored Stanford’s 14-9, and Miller was happy with the way Pinder and Akot defended.

“We’ve been on a quest all season to develop our bench,” Miller said. “And it’s not the statistics a lot of times that will reveal how well they helped us. It will be things like Keanu’s defense. His willingness to come in and do the dirty work around the basket. We had a number of guys do that. Emmanuel Akot did a really good job.”

Reserve guard Brandon Randolph was a healthy scratch for the first time all season, but Miller thinks the freshman will have a bounce back game against the Golden Bears.

“You get this late in the year, injuries, foul trouble, fatigue, you can’t do it just with four or five players,” Miller said. “We’ve preached that all year and that will be a big part of our success moving forward.”

Saturday’s game is set to tip off at 4:30 p.m. MST on the Pac-12 Network. The Wildcats can win the Pac-12 championship outright with a victory or a USC loss to UCLA.


Follow Ryan Kelapire on Twitter at @RKelapire



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