Trier, Ayton on watch lists

Earlier this week, Allonzo Trier and Deandre Ayton were named to the Wooden Award Late Season Top 20 list, which is an accolade given to the most outstanding player in college basketball. Trier also cracked the top-10 finalist list for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award, while Ayton was named a finalist for the Karl Malone Award given to college basketball’s best power forward. Awards will be announced on April 6 on ESPN2.

Reunited and it feels so good

The NBA trade deadline concluded in the early afternoon Thursday and the most active team was the Cavaliers. With several trades, the Cavs essentially hit the reset button and blew up the team just in time for the All-Star break.

The Cavs traded away Isaiah Thomas and former UA Wildcat Channing Frye to the Lakers for Larry Nance Jr., Jordan Clarkson and a 2018 first-round draft pick. Who is the Lakers’ head coach? Luke Walton. Who was Frye’s old teammate at Arizona? Walton.

Walton and Frye played together at Arizona from 2001-03 and played in a Sweet 16 loss to Oklahoma and an Elite Eight defeat to Kansas. Now the two are reunited, but with a coach-player relationship. Basketball works in mysterious ways.

Playin’ in the sand

Remember Chase Budinger? He was the 6-foot-7-red-haired-freakishly-athletic McDonald’s All-American that played for the Wildcats from 2006-09 and won Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. After seven years in the NBA, Budinger isn’t jumping on the hardwood, but rather sand.

Budinger posted on Instagram that he’s teaming up with professional beach volleyball player and U.S. Olympian Sean Rosenthal on the AVP Tour. Per volleymob.com, the duo will not play together at an upcoming world tour event in Fort Lauderdale, but they’ll be together moving forward. Volleyball was Budinger’s second sport to basketball, as he was dubbed the national player of the year by Volleyball Magazine in 2006, when he was a senior at La Costa Canyon High School.

What do we call Alford now?

According to the LA Times, the UCLA basketball programs received a $6.5 million donation Thursday from Jodi and Michael Price, a UCLA alumnus, to create the Michael Price Family UCLA Basketball Excellence Program to fully support the men’s and women’s basketball teams. As a part of the deal, UCLA head coach Steve Alford will now be known as the Michael Price Family UCLA Head Basketball Coach. Per the LA Times, Stanford has a similar deal and Jerod Haase is known as The Anne and Tony Director of Men’s Basketball.

Foles Fever

Here’s that Nick Foles appearance in the intro video at McKale tonight #MVP pic.twitter.com/59aB8rYSHl

— Dominic Baciocco (@DominicBaciocco) February 9, 2018

On the same day the Eagles paraded through Philadelphia for their Super Bowl celebration, McKale Center showed love for Super Bowl MVP and former UA quarterback Nick Foles. Before the game, a fan was spotted walking through the hallways of McKale Center sporting a Foles Eagles jersey.

Arizona’s pregame video usually ends with Sean Miller saying “this is … Arizona.” Instead, it was Foles wearing a red UA No. 8 jersey from his playing days in Tucson that ended the video. Immediately after, the pre-tipoff video had a clip of comedian Kevin Hart talking about getting a Foles tattoo on his face.

What up Gov!

Great to sit next to @UofAPres tonight and run into legendary coaches Lute Olson and Terry Francona at @APlayersProgram game. #beardown pic.twitter.com/TfdpGwUA6W

— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) February 9, 2018

Sitting beside UA president Robert Robbins and Tucson icon Jim Click courtside was Arizona governor Doug Ducey, and it’s unclear of how the fans reacted. When the McKale Center PA announced that Gov. Ducey was in attendance, fans either booed or yelled “Duuuuce.” Chances are, it was the former.

RichRod sighting

Great performance by @raquelrod_23 and @ArizonaCheer this evening! pic.twitter.com/70dpYMQOfu

— Rich Rodriguez (@RealCoachRod) February 9, 2018

There was another familiar face in the crowd Thursday: former Arizona Wildcats head football coach Rich Rodriguez. The ex-UA coach sat on the southwest side of the arena, across from Arizona’s bench. His daughter Raquel has been to every home game as the captain of the cheerleading team. It was the first time since Rodriguez was fired that he’s been spotted at a basketball game. With 10:31 left to play in the second half, the big screen showed an advertisement to renew season tickets, with Kevin Sumlin holding a helmet. Awkward.

The big number

3

Number of losses at home for Arizona since the 2013-14 season.

He said it

.@BillWalton is relaxed and ready for tonight's game! Poor @DavePasch... @UCLAMBB takes on @APlayersProgram - 10 ET on ESPN #WaltonsWorld #UCLAvsAZ pic.twitter.com/fmv6r0KC9P

— Walton's World (@WaltonsWorldCBB) February 8, 2018

“I’m a Pac-12 kind of guy. I’m not into truck stops.” — Bill Walton on the ESPN broadcast

Tweet of the day

I’m told the @cavs have also traded for Bill Walton. I’ll be doing the game tonight solo. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

— Dave Pasch (@DavePasch) February 8, 2018

UPDATE: Apparently I was unaware of his no-trade clause. pic.twitter.com/kevddqnWI9

— Dave Pasch (@DavePasch) February 8, 2018