The 50-player Naismith Award preseason watch list included six Pac-12 players, but none from Arizona.
Stanford had two players on the list for one of college basketball's major awards -- senior Oscar da Silva and freshman Ziaire Williams -- while the other Pac-12 players were ASU's Remy Martin, USC's Evan Mobley, UCLA's Chris Smith and Colorado's McKinley Wright.
Arizona returns no starters from last season but has a former Big East Freshman of the Year in guard James Akinjo and a former McDonald's high school all-American in forward Jordan Brown.
Nico Mannion has not surprisingly been a frequent topic of conversation for well-connected ESPN draft analyst Jonathan Givony.
Consistent theme I'm hearing in conversations with NBA execs this morning: how in the world did Nico Mannion drop all the way to 48? What a great pick for Golden State. Call me crazy but he could very well contribute this year. Two-way or not, I love his fit in Kerr's offense.
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) November 19, 2020
Among the things that impressed the Nuggets about Zeke Nnaji: An impromptu keyboard performance. (Maybe the Nuggets also saw his Red-Blue Game performanceΒ (video here) also...)
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle is hoping Josh Green can help out his defense.
