Kaleb Tarczewski will return to Arizona for his senior season
Apr 24, 2015, 4:36 PM | Updated: 4:47 pm
Not every member of the Arizona Wildcats’ starting lineup is leaving school, as center Kaleb Tarczewski said Friday he is going to return for his senior season.
The news was first reported by ESPN’s Jeff Goodman, and then confirmed by the school itself.
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Tarczewski explained his decision to Goodman:
Tarczewski told ESPN on Friday it was not a difficult decision to stay in school despite being projected as a possible first-round pick in June.
“When you take your pride out of it and look at what’s best for me, it wasn’t hard at all,” Tarczewski said. “I have an opportunity to be the winningest player here, get my degree and get another year or growth and development. It’s a no-brainer.”
The seven-footer has played three seasons under head coach Sean Miller, and last year as a junior averaged 9.3 points and 5.2 rebounds per game for an Arizona team that went 34-4 and reached the Elite 8.
“It left a bad taste in my mouth, being so close yet so far,” Tarczewski said. “It’s everyone’s goal to play in the NBA, but the goal in college is to get to the Final Four. People might look at that we don’t has as much talent, and that we’re going to drop-off next season. But I’m confident that we’re going to have a great team next season with the guys we have coming back and the freshmen we have coming in.”
Though his statistics do not always jump off the page, Tarczewski has five double-doubles in his three seasons at Arizona. He’s scored as many as 18 points twice, has tallied 13 rebounds four different times and had a career-high five blocks against Weber State in the 2014 NCAA Tournament.
In his career, Tarczewski has averaged 8.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 0.7 blocks per game while shooting 56.8 percent from the field. He has played in 109 of the possible 111 games, starting 107 of those.
Already this offseason, Arizona lost Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Brandon Ashley and Stanley Johnson to the NBA Draft, as well as T.J. McConnell to graduation.
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