Nico Mannion signs NLI for Arizona

Nico Mannion is expected to play significant minutes as a freshman with the injury of sophomore combo guard Brandon Williams.

Five-star guards Nico Mannion and Josh Green were named to the McDonald’s All-American Game on Thursday, giving the Wildcats a total of 10 signees under coach Sean Miller in the prestigious high school showcase.

Both Mannion and Green will play for the West team, as they did in recent summers together on the West Coast Elite travel team. 

This season, Mannion is averaging 23.4 points, 5.8 assists and 4.7 rebounds a game for for Phoenix Pinnacle High School. Green, a native of Australia who has family in Phoenix, is averaging 15.6 points, 4.0 assists and 1.5 steals a game for the nation's third-ranked team at IMG Academy in Florida. 

When asked about their chances of making the McDonald's game Wednesday, Miller appeared certain both Mannion and Green would be named.

“I would think so for sure,” Miller said. “I would be really, really surprised if they weren’t.”

Arizona is one of only five schools to have two representatives in the 2019 game, to be played on March 27 at Atlanta's State Farm Arena. 

The Pac-12 also had two other players named: USC-bound Isaiah Mobley and new Washington commit Isaiah Stewart


Counting the two class of 2019 signees and earlier UA players who started their college careers elsewhere, Arizona now has had a total of 26 representatives in the McDonald’s game.

The list includes:

1984 Craig McMillan, Coverdale, Calif.

1985 Sean Elliott, Tucson

1987 Brian Williams (started career at Maryland), Santa Monica, Calif.

1988 Chris Mills (started career at Kentucky), Los Angeles

1990 Khalid Reeves, New York

1991 Ben Davis, Vero Beach, Fla. (started career at Kansas)

1996 Loren Woods (started career at Wake Forest), St. Louis

Mike Bibby, Phoenix

1998 Richard Jefferson, Phoenix

1999 Jason Gardner, Indianapolis

2002 Hassan Adams, Los Angeles

2003 Mustafa Shakur, Philadelphia

2004 Jawann McClellan, Houston

2006 Chase Budinger, Encinitas, Calif

2007 Jerryd Bayless, Phoenix

2012 Brandon Ashley, Oakland, Calif.

Grant Jerrett, Chino Hills, Calif.

2013 Aaron Gordon, San Jose, Calif.

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Chester, Pa.

2014 Stanley Johnson, Fullerton, Calif.

2015 Allonzo Trier, Seattle

Chase Jeter, Las Vegas (started career at Duke)

2016 Kobi Simmons, Alpharetta, Ga.

2017 DeAndre Ayton, Phoenix/Bahamas

2019 Nico Mannion, Phoenix

Josh Green, Phoenix/Australia


The Wildcats snapped a streak of six straight seasons with McDonald's players last year but might have kept it going if Brandon Williams didn't miss a full year of basketball in high school with a knee issue that appeared to hurt his chances.

So, not surprisingly, Williams wasn't making much of the announcement.


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Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at 573-4146 or bpascoe@tucson.com. On Twitter @brucepascoe