The Arizona Wildcats received some good news regarding the NBA Draft pool Monday, but it wasn't about their three expected freshmen departures.

Instead, it was that ASU guard Remy Martin has declared for the draft, potentially taking away an opponent who averaged 25.3 points against Arizona over the past two seasons.

In his last game against UA, Martin led ASU's comeback from a 22-point deficit to beat Arizona 66-65 with 24 points on 10-for-17 shooting even though he was just 2 for 8 from 3-point range.

At the same time, Nico Mannion was mired in foul trouble while scoring 16 points with no assists and three turnovers. He played just 25 minutes, sitting out an extended stretch late in the first half when ASU began turning the game around.

When asked after that game if Mannion's absence contributed to UA’s lack of confidence, UA coach Sean Miller quickly pivoted to talking about Martin.

β€œI mean, obviously Nico is an important part of our team,” Miller said. β€œHim getting two fouls in the first half there, that wasn't a good thing for us. But I think the other part of it is you have to give a lot of credit to Remy Martin. He's a heck of a player.

"He's a winner. He does it on offense. He does it on defense. He does it game in, game out. He's got great confidence in himself. I thought he was the difference in the two teams today. He had 24 points on 17 shots. And he's a load, he really is. He's one of the best guards in our conference and he's one of the best guards in college basketball.”

It isn't clear if Martin is keeping his options open to return, however.

At Colorado, guard McKinley Wright and forward Tyler Bey have also both declared for the draft, and Buffs coach Tad Boyle doesn't expect Bey to return. Wright said he will keep open the option to come back.

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