[AzCatFan]

2. Ira at 6-7 was stuck behind two 7 footers to play Center or PF? If that's true then good point. Ira likely a starter on this team? If so, we really need to pack it in this season and focus on 2019. My hope is Ryan Luther at 6'9" is able to step in and start immediately at PF.

I think Luther will need to get big minutes, at PF and backup C. Also, there's Akot at 6-7, who showed some badly needed toughness and quickness on the boards and defensively. Just for the sake of argument (and I know I'll get plenty), based on a smaller faster lineup, I've had the following a starters: Coleman/WIlliams/Randolph/Akot/Jeter. Behind them (by position, not necessarily rank): Barcelo/Smith/Doutrive/Thielemans/Luther. I could see Lee maybe ahead of Thielemans, depending on his level of development at the outset. So, fine; maybe he's somewhere between 9 and 11, but I haven't seen much from him yet, and he's off to a bad start. My not-so-subtle original point was that Lee (2 PPG/2 RPG) shouldn't be propped-up too much just to make for a better DUI story.

I like Akot, but I see him more of a 3 than a 4. Occasional spot time at the 4, but Akot, I think, will be more effective guarding out on the perimeter and playing from the wing, rather than under the basket. I think Jeter starts, but if we want to compare numbers, he also averaged about 2 and 2 and Duke, which are the same numbers Lee did last year. Luther certainly gets playing time, but I question his ability against top competition. Good numbers against lesser competition, but not so great against tougher competition.

So out of the 80 minutes at the 4 and 5, Jeter likely gets 25-30, leaving 65-70 between Luther, Lee, and Akot. Go small and I can see Akot taking 15 minutes most at the 4, with additional time at the 3, which still leaves 50-55 minutes between Luther and Lee. Maybe Theilmans will be ready for spot duty at the 4 too, but that's a huge question mark.

I personally think Lee starts, at least in the beginning, because his better knowledge of the system and the fact that he went up against some great competition all year in practice. Bring Luther off the bench and I think he'll provide a good spark playing against other team's second squad.

Just how I see things working out today, and as always, my opinion and $1 still won't get you anything at Starbucks.

[BearDownAZ]

I want to know how much he drank to blow a .2! For an average person, a single beer will add about .02 to your blood alcohol level, and you lose about .01 an hour. And Ira is a bit larger than the average person, meaning to get to .2, he'd likely have to drink an entire 24 pack in an hour to reach this BAL!

Clearly, he must have been drinking something a little harder than beer. Another question is, who was with him, and did anyone try and stop him from driving?

And no, he wasn't going to be 11th off the bench, and clearly has potential. He was just stuck behind the #1 pick in the NBA draft (Ayton) and #1 all-time winning Wildcat in Dusan. This year, Lee, if he is still on the team, will likely be a starter and I was hoping for 10-12 ppg and 6-8 rpg from him. But whatever Miller and the school decides is fine by me. And if that means cutting his scholarship, so be it.

Two thoughts:

1. Who the hell cares who else was with him and whether anyone tried to stop him from driving! Ira is responsible for Ira. No blame needs to be placed on anyone else for Ira's dumbass decision.

2. Ira at 6-7 was stuck behind two 7 footers to play Center or PF? If that's true then good point. Ira likely a starter on this team? If so, we really need to pack it in this season and focus on 2019. My hope is Ryan Luther at 6'9" is able to step in and start immediately at PF.

1. Going to school in the early to mid 90s, Uber and Lyft didn't exist. But whenever we got together to party and yes, drink, we always looked out for one another. Made sure there were designated drivers, people who were going to drink heavily didn't have their keys, etc. And we'd do whatever we needed to do to try and prevent anyone from driving drunk, including taking keys away and hiding them. I remember moving a friend out of a house and we found a set of keys hidden deep in a Lazy Boy Chair only to remember it was someone hiding keys from a party that took place two years prior.

If Lee was getting this drunk alone, there are likely some mental issues he needs to work out, and this is a cry for help. If Lee got this drunk with a group that didn't intervene, or at least try to intervene, then he needs a better group of friends. And it's likely that the trouble isn't going to end.

2. Between the 80 minutes at the 4 and 5 spots, Ayton and Ristic played about 60 of them on average. The other 20 minutes were split between Pinder and Lee, with both averaging close to 10 minutes a game. So when you look at it, Lee was stuck behind the #1 overall NBA pick and two seniors. This year, I expect Jeter to start at the 5 spot, but the four is open, and the competition should be between Luther and Lee. Luther will be a senior, but he's a grad transfer who doesn't know the system and was injured the last 2/3 of the year last year. Lee practiced against Ayton, Ristic, Pinder, and Jeter all year last year, and showed flashes of being a solid contributor going into this year.

All of this could be moot if Lee is kicked off the team. And if that happens, no complaints here. But even if Lee wasn't going to start, he was going to play significant minutes.

1. So however you look at it, Lee is 100% to blame.

2. I think you took a look at the average minutes for Lee over the entire season without checking out how it actually unfolded for Lee. He had a significant role in the first 12 games of the season from November 10th - December 18th playing double digit minutes in each game and probably averaged around 15-16 minutes per game during that span. His role was then greatly reduced the final 23 games where he only played 12 minutes each in just two games and the rest were either single digits or no minutes played. So his average of 10.2 minutes over the entire season doesn't tell the story at all. The guy was not a significant contributor during Pac-12 play or beyond.

[AzCatFan]

1. Never said otherwise. Lee is to blame. But getting to a BAL of .2 is a sign of deeper problems. Was he alone, which suggests mental health issues? Was he with friends? Suggests he's hanging out with the wrong crowd since they let him get behind the wheel with a .2 BAL. Doesn't absolve Lee of any blame, and I never said it did.

2. Not unusual for a freshman to have minutes diminish as the season goes on the rotations tighten. At least it used to be the norm, not that long ago. And during this era, Lute used to say the best thing about Freshmen is they become Sophomores, and the biggest improvement is between the 1st and 2nd years. Lee showed flashes last year. But as the year went along and the minutes became more important, was Lee going to take minutes from Ayton or Ristic? No. Pinder did take some of Lee's minutes, but Miller often plays the better defender, and scoring wasn't the issue last year.

Bottom line is with the guys who played the majority of minutes gone, guys like Lee and Akot are going to have to step up big time. They were top 100 recruits, so the potential is there. And now, they'll have more minutes to show what they can do.

[AzCatFan]

Lee issued an apology: http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket ... ed-suicide

The legal case is making it's way through the system. As for Lee the student, the case as been given to the Dean of Students. If it's me, given the death of his Grandmother by suicide, I would put Lee on probation and tell him to get appropriate mental health as part of getting off probation. Not sure what will happen, but at least the apology seems to come from the right place.