Arizona-SHU pregame: On Ayton's Arizona love and McCoy's list

Was only about four or five months ago when the Arizona Wildcats didn’t even appear to be on DeAndre Ayton’s radar, and there was even some buzz that the gifted big man from the Bahamas might not even go to college.

Since it was the first time Sean Miller spoke about his new signees Thursday, I asked him about all of that.

“He is going to go to college,” Miller said. “That’s No. 1 … One of the things that’s really helped us, that hurts us sometimes, is that we don't have a plethora of players from the state of Arizona. We love the state and when there’s that player who would fit in to our program we want to do a great job of recruiting that player but many times we’re going to other states. And we’re recruiting top talent in the backyards of other elite programs.

“In this case the thing that helped us the most is he relocated to Phoenix. His mom left the Bahamas to come here to the United States and she’s a real significant factor in his life, as it should be. They love the warm weather, they love Phoenix, they’re not people who love the hype and shine that a lot of these families and kids tend to like in the recruiting process, and they wanted a safe environment and an environment where he could grow and develop. And certainly an environment where he could reach the lofty goals that he has. We offered all three.”

Ayton moved to San Diego in middle school and began playing for Balboa City School, but transferred to Phoenix’s Hillcrest Prep (technically, classes are at Precision High School) in the fall of 2015. In an interview with the Star in September, Ayton said that he's comfortable living in Arizona.

While Miller spoke often of a need to recruit players who love the game and want to work hard at Arizona, that doesn’t mean he’s bent on having them stick around if they are ready for the NBA Draft (as long as they hold their heads up if they aren't quite ready after a year).

Ayton, for one, has already said he’ll leave after the 2017-18 season, as anyone in his position would.

“One and done, we might have five players on our team who either wanted to be or think they are one and done,” Miller said. “So realistically, how many are there that’s a big deal. I think it’s OK to go for that as a player, to have those aspirations, but for any of these younger players to look at themselves as a failure, at 19 years old because they had an very good year on a good team but they’re not part of this year’s NBA draft that’s so unfair.”

San Diego big man Brandon McCoy listed Arizona among his five finalists, along with San Diego State, Michigan State, UNLV and Oregon.

Here's the game notes from Sacred Heart and Arizona. The game will start on Pac-12 Networks at 8:10 p.m., with Steve Lavin doing the analysis.

The Daily Wildcat takes a look at the Wildcats after their first two games.

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