NCAA Tournament: Lauri Markkanen provides Arizona with a unique weapon

Arizona freshman forward Lauri Markkanen might be the most unique player taking the floor in Salt Lake City this week. The 7-foot, 230-pound Finland native with the skills and shooting ability of a guard entered college basketball with a lot of hype — and hasn't disappointed.

A finalist for the John R. Wooden Award, Naismith Trophy, Karl Malone Award and a Pac-12 All-Conference First Team selection, Markkanen wasted no time making his presence felt for second-seed Arizona in Thursday's opening round. He scored 16 first-half points on his way to a 20-point performance in a win over North Dakota, and he'll certainly be a focal point in Saturday's second-round game against seventh seed Saint Mary's.

"He's such a tough matchup," North Dakota coach Brain Jones said of Markkanen following Thursday's game. "He shoots at a high level. For a young player, he's so poised. He never gets rattled or sped up. We were switching and trying to keep them off balance by giving them different looks, and they did a nice job of just getting him the ball. And he was patient with it."

Markkanen has played for Finland's FIBA U16, U18 and U20 teams. He led the 2016 U20 Euros with in scoring, averaging 24.9 points per game.

"As you know, the world is a smaller place now than ever before," Arizona coach Sean Miller said. "We recognized how well he was playing in the FIBA tournaments that he was in. And we followed up, Joe Pasternack, one of our assistant coaches, did a great job of identifying Lauri and pursuing him. And thank goodness we were able to get him because I don't know if there's a freshman that's playing in the NCAA tournament that's had a bigger impact on his team than Lauri has had on our team."

Markkanen, whose father, Pekka, played for Kansas before playing professionally in Finland, has averaged 15.7 points, a team-high 7.1 rebounds and shot 49.6 percent from the field and 43 percent from behind the 3-point line.

Markkanen, who developed his perimeter skills by playing guard and small forward growing up, was also high on the University of Utah's wish list prior to his commitment to Arizona. Utah impressed him when he made a visit to Salt Lake City.

"I really liked it," Markkanen said of Utah. "I like the environment, the gym, the locker rooms. I was really able to think of myself studying here and playing here. Arizona was just — I felt more comfortable with that. I think it was pretty close."

That said, "I'm 100 percent sure I made the right decision. I'm not regretting anything," he added.

Markkanen said the physical play and the tempo of the game were adjustments for him. Specifically, he said the half court game in Finland was faster because of a 24-second shot clock, but the transition game since he's come to college has been much faster than he'd anticipated.

The latest mock draft from the website DraftExpress projects Markkanen as the seventh overall pick in this year's NBA draft, while ESPN Draft analyst Chad Ford recently projected the Finn as the eighth overall pick.

"He's a really talented offensive player," Saint Mary's coach Randy Bennett said. "He's a good player; not to say he's not a good defender, but for a freshman he's a really good offensive player. He can really shoot the ball. He can put it on the floor. He can score in the post. Doesn't take bad shots. He's a fun player to watch, really. Hopefully, we're not watching him. Hopefully, we're guarding him tomorrow."

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Twitter: @LWorthySports