What Dwayne Aristode Brings to Arizona

The Arizona Wildcats basketball team is filled with elite-level freshmen who are set to play in the upcoming 2025 season, making them an even bigger threat than they once were in their second year in the Big 12.

Five-star recruits like Koa Peat and Brayden Burries flood headlines all over, but Dwayne Aristode is not someone to forget about when winter rolls around.

Aristode is another one of those five-star recruits who has incredible potential to make a splash in the 2025-2026 season.

A 6-foot-8 forward, Aristode played his last two yeas of high school basketball in the United States for Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, where he averaged 12 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.0 steals per game.

Aristode was injured for his senior year of high school, which could be a reason why Arizona fans tend not to talk about him as much as the other highly touted recruits that are coming in to play for Tommy Lloyd.

Despite the injury, Lloyd expects Aristode to "Be a really good player".

He continued, "Dwayne's really talented. I think, you know, he's maybe been forgotten about, you know, which is crazy to say. Dwayne maybe had an injury similar to kind of what Mo (Motiejus Krivas) had and, you know, basically cost him his senior year of high school. Dwayne is talented enough and was playing on a big enough stage. If he went and played well, I mean it wasn't out of the realm of possibility for him to be a McDonald's All-American, but he didn't play."

"So people, you know, obviously have kind of you know, maybe forgot about him a little bit. So I'm excited to see his contributions. Dwayne is, you know, he's got great size, he's got great strength. I think he has good potential, got a good skill level. There's nothing that tell me that you know he's gonna be a long-term development project. I think he's gonna be pretty ready from day one."

Aristode is a four-star recruit according to 247 Sports, a five-star in their composite rankings. He is also the 29th best player in their rankings, No. 24 in the composite rankings.

Aristode has a plethora of international experience, playing for Joventut Badalona in Spain for three years and the Netherlands FIBA U16 team in the European championship in 2022.

During that time on the U16 team, he averaged 15.3 points, nine rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.3 blocks in seven games.

"He's a great player," Anthony Dell'Orso said in a press conference.

"This ranking system's a pretty big deal in America and he obviously got those for a reason, you know, He earned them and he's just as good as anyone can be. Like I said before, there's always growing pains with new arrivals and you just gotta trust the work, you gotta trust that, you know, the coaches have the right path. Once the season comes, it'll be exciting to see once these guys, like JB said once he coaches get a hold of them and they really get inside the program and it's like, we can actually see what they can really do for Arizona."

Scouts see Aristode as a high level defensive asset with the ability to guard multiple positions on the floor. His size and versatility make him excellent in different schemes in the game.

Once he is able to polish his offensive game, Aristode might be a problem for opposing teams to handle on both sides of the court.

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