UA-Wazzu pregame: future Wildcat DeAndre Ayton thankful for McDonald's appearance

Just before Arizona took off for Washington this week, Wildcat signee DeAndre Ayton held a press conference in Phoenix over his appearance in the McDonald's All-American Game on March 29 in Chicago.

Not surprisingly, once Ayton had slipped a jersey over his 7-foot frame, he graciously thanked just about everybody possible.

“I would like to thank my mother,” Ayton said. “She’s always been there for me through ups and downs, and my family as well. I’d like to thank Hillcrest Prep as well. My teammates -- we fight a lot in practice, but we really got the job done, and got me better. Thank you for inviting me and recognizing my talents. I’d like to thank the man above as well. Amen.”

ICYMI, we had a look at Ayton back in September as well as an update when he played in Scottsdale.

Washington State is the worst offensive rebounding team in Pac-12 games, averaging just 5.8, and Arizona will be aiming to keep that number low again tonight.

The Wildcats gave up 12 offensive rebounds leading to 17 second-chance points by Stanford on Feb. 8 but just four to Cal two days later – a full eight offensive boards less than the Bears are averaging in Pac-12 games.

“I just think Stanford woke us up,” center Chance Comanche said earlier this week. “They had 12 offensive rebounds between two guys and they just let us know that we weren’t playing as hard as we honestly could have because 12 offensive rebounds is a lot for any team in general. So I think once that happened that woke everybody on our team up. We told ourselves we gotta change this up. We can’t have that happening.”

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Not only is Washington State likely to throw out a lot of zone defense tonight, but so is every other UA opponent, the way UA assistant Book Richardson sees it. His remarks are in our scouting report.

Ernie Kent says in the Spokesman-Review that some success down the stretch would be huge for the Cougars. The Spokane newspaper also noted that both the No. 1 and No. 5 teams in the country spent the night in Spokane.

Our main advance story detailed how Arizona has handled the Pullman swing successful ... by not really going to Pullman at all, except for the game.

Here's the school-produced notes from Arizona and WSU.