SAN FRANCISCO — Arizona forward Brandon Ashley made it unscathed through almost 10 minutes at the Pac-12 media day interview podium Thursday before a bullet came flying in.
“I’m Brandon Ashley’s mom,” said Lashiem Clark, grabbing the microphone, “and my question is, are you taking your vitamins? The second question is, are you ready to go for this season?”
Ashley, knowing his mother was prodded into asking the questions, hardly flinched.
“Definitely make it a key part of my everyday regimen to make sure I take my vitamins, to make sure my bones are strong and everything like that,” Ashley said. “Definitely trying to remain healthy.”
Clark smiled softly when asked about her questions afterward. Really, she was just there to accompany her son on a business trip back to their hometown. She said she didn’t really want to ask them but went along with it, anyway.
And why not? Podium interviews tend to be on the dry side, and it wasn’t exactly like there was a whole lot of suspense over the “news” of the day, the release of the conference’s official media poll, which had Arizona atop it for the third straight season.
The Wildcats nearly lived up to that pick in 2012-13, finishing second to UCLA, but won it last season and were a near-unanimous choice to win it again this season. Arizona received 31 of 32 first-place votes, and UCLA picked up the other top pick but finished fourth in voting overall.
Utah was picked to finish second by just a point over third-place-pick Colorado, suggesting the mountain swing could be the most difficult conference road trip of the season.
Already, the Buffaloes had the advantage of high altitude and rowdy fans at Coors Events Center, but now will get some teams after they’ve had to deal with the ever-improving Utes and their fans.
“I think that helps a great deal,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “The job that Larry (Krystkowiak, Utah coach) and his staff have done, every year they’ve gotten better and better and better. … We play at altitude, which makes it hard to begin with. When you have two tough environments, especially on that second day … hopefully Utah has taken some of their legs, beat them up a little bit.”
Both Utah and Colorado have plenty of veteran talent returning, which generated their lofty predictions, though being No. 2 was something new for Utah, which was a conference doormat when it first joined the Pac-12 in 2011-12.
Back then, Krystkowiak was asked about life on the other end of the conference poll. So he didn’t make much of being asked about second place.
“The first thing that comes to mind is I hope you are right,” Krystkowiak said. “It’s an indication that we are moving in the right direction.
“But we also have to stay pretty true to the answer. I was asked the same question a couple of years ago, about how I felt about being picked 12th. We’ve never put a lot of credence into the polls.
“I respect (the media’s) job, that we have to start somewhere, give a little buzz to the basketball season starting up. But at the end of the day it’s nothing more than a preseason poll.”
The Pac-12, being the Pac-12, took care of the rest of the buzz itself. The conference held its media day at its studios and offices in the SoMa neighborhood, ushering players through a series of interviews while putting on a three-hour show over the Pac-12 Networks and streaming the podium interviews online at the same time.
When it was all over, everybody retreated to the building rooftop, where the San Francisco Bay and AT&T Park were in the nearby background, and were offered turkey, brie and apple sandwiches.
After finishing lunch from that lofty perch, neither Ashley nor UA coach Sean Miller found anything new about sitting on top of their own metaphorical one.
“It’s certainly an honor,” Ashley said. “But … when you have a program like Arizona, it kind of comes with the territory. It’s expected.”
It was expected even back in 2009-10, when Miller took over the Wildcats. California was picked to win that season, and did, but Miller said the Wildcats still felt a particular target even then.
“That was the case our first year,” Miller said. “We just didn’t have a very good team.”
The 2009-10 Wildcats didn’t make the NCAA or even the NIT tournaments that season. Now they’re expected to race through the Pac-12 and get to the Final Four.
Big difference. But maybe they’re ready.
“Guys who’ve been in our program for a couple of years, they know the deal and they know how hard it is, when you go on an away court, how you really are going to get everybody’s best shot,” Miller said. “I feel like from our perspective, maybe we have an advantage this year because we’ve been through it a few times, especially in recent years.”
