It’s sunny in Tucson

Several minutes after all the direct questions about the federal investigation and trial calmed down Thursday, UA coach Sean Miller was asked what he tells fans of the program who might be concerned when they read the current headlines about the Wildcats.

He turned the question into a recruiting pitch of sorts.

“You know, we have a lot to sell,” Miller said. “Arizona has had great teams and players for 30-some years. You start going through it. I'm embarrassed sometimes to name names, because it's who you leave out that means more than maybe who you even talk about.

"We're here in Golden State and you have Andre Iguodala, you've got Steve Kerr. In Tucson, we have a Red-Blue Game at noon on Sunday, a couple days from now. It's 15,000 (fans). It's sold out. We don't let anybody in free. Everybody has to pay for a ticket.

“It's a great basketball town. You walk outside, you look up, it's blue sky and 75 degrees. We've got a world-class university. We've got a conference here that has had back-to-back No. 1 picks in the NBA Draft, and it's not a difficult sell.”

Scott ‘eager’ to see what comes of trial

At least Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott didn’t have to answer the annual DirecTV question this time.

Scott was asked to discuss the additional allegations surfacing out of the past two weeks from the federal trial in New York. On Wednesday, former Adidas consultant T.J. Gassnola testified that he paid five former basketball recruits, including eventual UA star Deandre Ayton, on behalf of the shoe company.

Oregon, Arizona, Washington, Utah and USC have all been mentioned either in the federal complaints or during the current trial, but Scott said that didn’t indicate the conference had a “systemic problem” with compliance.

“Allegations have been made about a lot of schools nationally,” Scott said. “We are eager to see what comes out of the trial, what comes out of NCAA investigation, as are our schools.”

Scott spoke of efforts the conference and its schools have made since the investigation was announced in Sept. 2017, and the task force it assembled, while also noting that he’s confident that Pac-12 schools will take any new information from the trials “very seriously.”

Coug spirit

Having lost standout point guard Malachi Flynn as a San Diego State transfer, Washington State was picked to finish last for the fourth straight season (though the Cougars were actually 11th in front of Cal last season).

But coach Ernie Kent still had his usual upbeat outlook, thanks to a load of junior college transfers that include point guard Jervae Robinson and Ahmed Ali.

“I felt with Malachi Flynn returning that we were upper echelon,” Kent said. “All of a sudden, he leaves our program. With what's come in our door — Robinson, Ahmed Ali — I am thoroughly impressed with this team. We will not miss a beat with this team.

“Ahmed Ali is just a jet,” Kent said. “He can really score and knows the game.”

WSU also returns forward Robert Franks, who withdrew from the NBA Draft pool.

"I feel like it was very tough decision," Franks said. "But a couple of family members and mentors steered me into coming back and I feel it will be very valuable."

Kenpom-worthy

Utah lost four starters from its NIT runners-up, yet coach Larry Krystkowiak will take the Utes to Minnesota and Kentucky and also host a top-10 Nevada team.

That’s a marked contrast to the easier nonconference schedules Krystkowiak put together earlier in his Utah career, before he was scheduling to impress the NCAA selection committee. 

At that point, "I'm scheduling to try to survive," Krystkowiak said. "Your mindset as a coach changes ... and I think with the schedule we have this year and any upcoming year, if we're in a discussion on Selection Sunday, they're never going to say we didn't play a hard enough schedule.

"Hopefully, we'll be in those discussions, and if we don't make it, it's not going to be because we sure didn't go down swinging."

Utah-based college basketball statistician Ken Pomeroy said he consulted with Krystkowiak over the schedule.

Floor burning

Once known as ever-hustling guard who played on the top-ranked Kansas team that was upset by Arizona in the 1997 NCAA Sweet 16 — and one who later wrote a book about his KU career entitled "Floor Burns" — Stanford coach Jerod Haase is trying to stamp the same imprint on the Cardinal.

Guard Daejon Davis says the philosophy is known as "ITS:" Invested, tough and selfless.

“We’ve seen his highlights when he played, how he was always diving on the floor,” Davis said. “It makes it easier to know what to expect from him.”

Zonie

Washington guard Matisse Thybulle said the Huskies spent the majority of last season “trying to figure out the zone,” but once they did, their opponents could not.

Washington finished as the most efficient defensive team in the conference and Thybulle was a big reason why. The long 6-foot-5-inch guard recorded a league-high 27 steals in 18 conference games, and earned the Pac-12’s Defensive Player of the Year award.

“He was just Spider Man,” Washington coach Mike Hopkins said. “When the coaching staff recommended putting Matisse up top (in the zone), we were going against the grain. But he understood it, and his anticipation skills — you know, it's just uncanny. It becomes in the minds of your opponents, and that's when you know your defense is really good.

"He's just a disruptive guy. He makes some plays that you kind of look at each other like, 'Did you just see that? Is that real?'"

'Reef will return

UCLA coach Steve Alford said freshman forward Shareef O’Neal, the former UA commit, will “absolutely be back” next season after a life-threatening heart defect was found last month, forcing him to have surgery this fall and miss the entire season.

“It was definitely something that needed to be found, and now it can be corrected through surgery," Alford said. "He should be full-go once all that rehab is over. There's not a timeline yet of when it's all going to happen, but it is something he should recover from.”

Alford will also be without freshman point guard Tyger Campbell, who tore an ACL earlier this week, while Oregon is still waiting for five-star freshman forward Louis King to be cleared after he tore his meniscus in January. Altman said King should be cleared to play around Dec. 1.

The big number

8

Of the nine previous seasons under Sean Miller that Arizona has finished at or within one place of where it was picked to finish in the Pac-12 preseason media poll. The outlier: 2015-16, when the Wildcats were picked to win it and finished in a third-place tie. Arizona was picked fourth this season.

Quotable

“Thank you.”

— Miller, when a Pac-12 Networks reporter asked how he was doing and told him “you look good” after a line of questions about the federal investigation and trial had been asked.