The McKale Center doors opened at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. As the Arizona Wildcats started firing some early practice shots, a pair of fans made a beeline down the stands facing center court.
They looked for Allonzo Trier, noticed he wasn’t wearing game shorts, and turned to a couple of press row folks for confirmation.
Nope, he wasn’t playing — for the 16th game this season.
Speculation suggests Trier’s NCAA suspension might be lifted Saturday for the Arizona-Colorado game, since the Wildcats have reached the halfway point of the season.
Until it is, this is what life has become for some Arizona followers: seeing what kind of pants Trier is wearing before the game.
Are they game shorts? Sweats? Khakis? Or something else?
“THOSE ARE TEARAWAY PANTS” the Zero Facts Podcast tweeted Thursday in reply to a photo posted by the Star.
Maybe, but the fact was he didn’t play.
So that’s how it goes. Analyzing clothing, body language or parsing words along Trier’s social media trails, whatever, anything, in the great vacuum created by Arizona, the NCAA and student-privacy laws.
Back on Nov. 21, Trier had a few folks going when he tweeted out scripture from Matthew 5:16: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven.” He did not return to the spotlight of the court in the days that followed.
On Jan. 1, while staying with the Wildcats in Palo Alto in advance of a game at Stanford that night, he posted the words “Day One” on his Twitter page. It looked like a simple New Year’s Day tweet … that could have been interpreted as something else. But he didn’t play against the Cardinal, either.
Though other “hints” have popped up via Instagram and Snapchat, the only thing known on the record is what the eye tells you: Trier has missed 16 games, half of UA’s 32 regular-season games (counting the Pac-12 Tournament as one game).
Why? The NCAA has declined to comment on Trier, and UA has remained steadfastly quiet.
UA athletic director Greg Byrne responded to a series of Trier-related questions from the Star on Friday with an email saying he was “going to stay consistent and not comment on this subject.”
Coach Sean Miller’s press conferences have been prefaced by a spokesman telling all assembled media that questions about Trier won’t be answered.
Trier has not been made available for comment since UA’s Sept. 29 media day. Miller acknowledged rumors about Trier following the team’s Oct. 14 Red-Blue Game, but would not comment further. Trier was swapped out of Arizona’s appearance at the Oct. 21 Pac-12 media day for Kadeem Allen, with Miller declining to say why.
Multiple public-records requests filed by the Star with UA so far have given no indication about Trier’s situation, because the school determined the information sought — including that of appeals — fell under student-privacy laws.
The school wrote to the Star saying, “Student records cannot be produced to protect the privacy interests of student-athletes, including under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which mandates the University to maintain student education records in confidence.”
In that case, maybe some process-of-elimination thinking is in order:
- Except for two minor traffic issues, Trier’s name has not surfaced in any local court records. That likely indicates there’s no off-campus concern.
- Miller said after the fall semester ended that Trier’s situation has “nothing to do” with the school calendar, suggesting it is not an academic issue.
- The NCAA cleared Trier to travel with Arizona for its Dec. 3 game against Gonzaga, after Trier had not been cleared for November trips to Honolulu and Las Vegas. That suggested there was some element of progress, since ineligible players are usually not allowed to travel without paying their own way. Miller, however, said the NCAA’s decision meant nothing.
- The NCAA hasn’t announced an investigation, finding or penalty for extra benefits or other violations, as it often does in such cases. Those situations can be resolved quickly, especially if the violation occurs in-season. The NCAA’s penalty for a failed drug test is suspension for up to a full year, though it can be reduced or eliminated on appeal.
Trier has enthusiastically supported his teammates at nearly every UA game and practice, plus all road trips since he was cleared to travel — except Dec. 10 at Missouri, when fall semester finals were finishing up. If Trier wasn’t returning — or didn’t think he might return — he might have considered signing a pro contract overseas instead of staying at Arizona.
Trier’s general effort, in fact, is the one thing Miller has addressed recently.
“I wish I could talk more about Allonzo,” Miller said on Tuesday. “Hopefully in time I can but, I mean, the only thing you have to do is just watch him during the games to see how much he cares about winning, how bad he feels about not being able to play, and I think how much he really cares about Arizona and his teammates. … He practices with great spirit and energy and competitiveness that’s helped our team as well, and we’ll see.”
