Playing only half a season with the Arizona Wildcats as a sophomore, Allonzo Trier has plans to make up for it as a junior.
The Wildcats’ leading scorer said Thursday he would return next season instead of declaring for the NBA draft, all but assuring UA will remain in the national title conversation even as teammates Rawle Alkins and Chance Comanche consider turning pro.
Individually, Trier will get to take a crack at all-American and Pac-12 player of the year honors, too.
He responded Thursday to a tweet suggesting he could even be national player of the year in 2017-18, by tweeting “on it.” When another person later tweeted “Hope @iso_zo dominates next season,” Trier responded with confidence.
“Hope lol?” Trier wrote. “You ain’t gotta hope my dude.”
Trier did not issue a definitive statement on Twitter or via UA, and he could not be reached locally for comment, but he was in touch with ESPN and Scout about his decision. He told ESPN he wanted to continue with his “original goal” of winning a national championship.
Trier’s mother, Marcie, told the Star via text message that her son never left the Wildcats and is “all in” for next season.
“He is committed to bringing home a national championship,” she said. “He loves his teammates and his fans.”
Trier reacted similarly last season while deciding to stay in Tucson instead of declaring for the NBA draft, saying he was excited about “the quest to become a complete player.” He then drew praise for his over-the-top offseason work from UA coach Sean Miller.
“He invested from the second he said he was coming back to Arizona in all the things you’d want him to invest in,” Miller said last August. “His body, his waist, his body fat — he looks like a different person, and that’s through hard work. It is an obsession for him to become a great player, and it’s so fun to be around him because he is maturing.”
However, Trier’s sophomore season was grounded when he tested positive for a performance enhancing drug in the preseason. He later said the result came because he was unknowingly given a banned substance by a “well-intentioned but misguided” person after suffering an injury.
The suspension put Trier under a cloud of uncertainty for three months, with the UA refusing to say why he was out. Trier finally admitted the PED result in mid-January, two days before he was cleared to return.
Trier said he grew from the experience, not only because he couldn’t play for a reason he said was not his fault, but also from “always being hassled about it” wherever he went.
“It was kind of a lonely moment, a low feeling,” Trier said during the Pac-12 tournament. “It’s something nobody can describe. You just feel kind of on your own. I was just thankful to have my family have my back, and the coaching staff and the team.”
Trier made his debut in what became the Wildcats’ best regular-season win, at UCLA on Jan. 21. He came off the bench for the next four games then jumped back into the starting lineup on Feb. 8 against Stanford. He wound up leading the Wildcats in scoring with an average of 17.2 points, while shooting 39.1 percent from 3-point territory and 81.0 percent from the free-throw line.
Trier’s decision to stay means Arizona will have at least four members of its nine-man rotation back, along with a top-five recruiting class led by forward/center DeAndre Ayton.
The Wildcats could add another high school signee or transfer this spring. Coaches are pursuing, among others, five-star Delaware point guard Trevon Duval, five-star Michigan wing Brian Bowen, Pitt grad transfer forward Cameron Johnson and Rice transfer guard Marcus Evans.
Arizona has one scholarship available as of now, and more if either Alkins or Comanche do not return. They have both declared for the NBA draft without signing with an agent, meaning they’ll have the option of returning to school until May 24.
While Bowen said two weeks ago he’s waiting to see how rosters shake out before deciding between Arizona, Michigan State and Creighton, the decisions of Trier and Michigan State’s Miles Bridges to stay in school could make it difficult.
Bowen told New York recruiting reporter Adam Zagoria this week that Oregon, Missouri and Ohio State have reached out lately “because they know I’m not committed.”
At a public gathering in East Lansing, Michigan, on Thursday, Bridges told a group of about 1,000 fans that he wanted “to finish business here.” His decision was more of a surprise than Trier’s, since he was considered a potential lottery pick who could have commanded a guaranteed contract worth at least $4 million.
Draft Express projects Trier as the No. 35 pick in the 2018 NBA draft, just five spots below the first round where seven-figure, two-year contracts are guaranteed. Alkins is listed at No. 47 in 2018 while Comanche is not in Draft Express’ 2017 or 2018 mocks.
Rim shots
- Ayton will play in the Jordan Brand Classic game at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center at 5 p.m. Friday. It will be carried on ESPN2.
- Departing Oregon guard Casey Benson, a product of Tempe’s Corona Del Sol High School, is expected to play for Grand Canyon as a grad transfer next season. His brother, T.J., is an assistant coach for the Antelopes, who are losing dynamic guard DeWayne Russell.
“I am open now so I am just kind of sorting things out with my family and see who contacts me and calls,” Benson told the Eugene Register-Guard. “Obviously, with my brother being at Grand Canyon, that is an option.”
