“I am so excited about Arrinten. I think he has the chance to make one of the bigger jumps from his freshman to sophomore season in all of college basketball because he is super gifted, but an even better kid with a great work ethic,” Miller told reporters. “I think that is such a great example of why all the grass roots recruiting even if you are not going to recruit high school players, which we are. However, the grass roots recruiting aspect is still so important because if we hadn’t recruited Arrinten for a year and some change in high school on two different teams, I saw him work out at 5:30 in the morning going into his senior year of high school and you could quickly see the progression from a guy who wasn’t really being recruited much to a top-50 player. That was really neat to watch him grown and improve throughout his high school career.”
“I was as sure as I am about Arrinten in the high school recruiting process as anyone I have ever recruited. So, when he went into the transfer portal at Southern California, I didn’t care what his numbers were as a freshman because I have already evaluated him and know how hard it can be at times as a freshman in college basketball. When it came to evaluating Arrinten it was much deeper, to find out he had Mono his freshman season and things like that are things you learn and makes a lot of sense.”
Now for Page, it should be expected that he sees a significant allotment of minutes behind guys like Dillon Mitchell and Aziz Bandaogo there in the front court. Now for Page, if he is able to make the big jump from his freshman to sophomore season like Wes Miller is hoping for, it would not surprise me if Page quickly became a viable player off the bench for Cincinnati due to his versatility and physicality in the front court.
Which is something that Cincinnati missed at times throughout the 2023-2024 season after Bandaogo and Viktor Lakhin both missed time with injuries, while Jamille Reynolds missed the first 11 games due to the NCAA Two-Time transfer ruling. Now, it will be interesting to see how this offseason works out for Page in terms of offseason workouts and a full season in the “Monster Factory” with strength and conditioning coach Mike Rehfeldt and what they elect to do with Page this summer in the weight room. It is worth noting what Rehfeldt did with Jamille Reynolds last season prior to the 2023-2024 season after losing nearly 50 pounds prior to the season and reshaping his whole body.
It is safe to say he is expected to be a key contributor this upcoming season especially with their ability to stretch the floor due to how much depth this team has compared to a season ago. Personally, it will be something to keep an eye on throughout summer workouts, but it is safe to say that behind Bandaogo and Mitchell, Page is the next man up with “Power Five” playing experience while true freshman Tyler McKinley will also be in the fold at that forward position as well.
