Arizona basketball season player review: Stone Gettings

Jacob Snow-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Wildcats never got to complete their 2019-20 season, one that began with so much promise, hope and hype before ending abruptly when the coronavirus pandemic shut down college basketball (and all other sports) in March.

While we’ll never know what this team could have accomplished in the NCAA Tournament, 32 games worth of competition is more than enough to assess each individual player’s performance.

Stone Gettings

• Year: Redshirt senior
• Height: 6-foot-9
• Position: Forward
• 2019-20 statistics: 6.6 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 1.0 APG, 48.3% FG, 36.6% 3-pt FG, 69.4% FT

Season breakdown

A graduate transfer from Cornell, Gettings joined the program in early 2019 but didn’t start playing until the fall. He really could have been used on that 2018-19 team but the plan all along had been for him to wait until 2019-20 to play a full season.

One of the top scorers in the Ivy League before coming to Tucson, Gettings appeared in 27 games but began as one of the first guys off the bench, averaging 4.8 points and 2.7 rebounds in 14.8 minutes. It didn’t help that he suffered a concussion and facial fracture after getting whacked by a Penn player during the Wooden Legacy over Thanksgiving, causing him to miss five games.

Once he was moved into the starting lineup on Jan. 16, though, his production jumped up to the tune of 7.8 points and 7.6 rebounds.

Billed as a stretch 4 coming to Tucson, Gettings had the second-best 3-point percentage among Arizona’s regulars. But it was his ability to hit mid-range jumpers, particularly against a zone defense, where Gettings had the greatest overall impact, while improved play on the boards as the season went on enabled the Wildcats to be the best defensive rebounding team in the Pac-12.

Best stretch of play

Gettings scored in double figures just five times in his one season at Arizona, but three of those came in a row during a critical part of the Pac-12 schedule. His performance on the Washington road trip enabled the UA to record the season’s first road sweep in league play and he carried that momentum into a home win against USC.

Arizona’s first road win of 2019-20 wouldn’t have happened had Gettings not scored 13 and made 5 of 8 2-pointers from the middle of Washington’s zone, then two days later he was 8 of 13 from the field to score 19 points with 12 rebounds (both UA career highs). Against USC he had 12 points and eight rebounds, with that three-game performance accounting for 24.7 percent of his season scoring.

Worst stretch of play

After an 11-point, 8-rebound effort in the home loss to Oregon on Feb. 22, Gettings became almost a non-factor offensively the rest of the season. He scored just 25 points over the next five games, making no more than two baskets in any contest.

It wasn’t all bad, though, as Gettings averaged 6.0 rebounds and had one-third of his 27 assists for the season during that stretch. Still, shooting only 33 percent overall and missing all seven 3-point attempts does not make for a strong offensive contribution.

Quotable

Arizona head coach Sean Miller on Gettings: “He helps us immensely against the zone because he’s a threat scoring, passing, shooting from 2, shooting from 3. He’s also a very good offensive rebounder and he’s done a good job in a lot of ways, but especially attacking zone defenses.”

What’s next?

Gettings has a degree from an Ivy League school and was named the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year while wrapping up an MBA from Arizona’s Eller College of Management. Assuming he managed his stock portfolio effectively at the beginning of the economic downturn, things will be just fine for him after basketball.

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