Arizona Basketball is nearly back and with just weeks until the start season, the Wildcats went through the Pac-12 media day, being picked to finish fourth.
It’s a busy time for Arizona Athletics and as we reach the middle of October, that means the return of Arizona Basketball! Yesterday the Wildcats took part in the annual Pac-12 Media Day with head coach Sean Miller accompanied by Chase Jeter and Brandon Randolph.
Arizona Basketball has been dominating the headlines for some time now, and it’s no secret they would be the center of a lot of attention as the program headed to San Francisco for the event.
Arizona Wildcats
As we’re all too familiar by now, we’ve had to deal with the ongoing saga that is the FBI Investigation. Now a year after the initial report came out, testimonies are beginning, so naturally Arizona’s name is going to be tossed around.
At the media day, Miller and his team remained focused, not willing to entertain any questions regarding the matter. For now, the focus is basketball!
Heading into 2018-19, there are plenty of questions regarding this team, but none the less they should still be plenty talented.
Arizona has won the conference the last two years, this year won’t be an easy feat to do. Also returning a lot of talent is Oregon, UCLA and Washington most notably.
Unsure of how the Wildcats would fare in the annual conference predictions, it seems the voters went a bit easy on Arizona, predicting them to finish fourth. The Wildcats received just one first place vote.
Ahead of Arizona was; Oregon, UCLA and Washington. Here’s how those predictions look:
Team (1st place votes)
1. Oregon (16)
2. UCLA (6)
3. Washington (2)
4. Arizona (1)
5. USC
6. Arizona State
7. Colorado
8. Utah
9. Stanford
10. Oregon State
11. California
12. Washington State
Even though Arizona lost quite a few pieces from last season, they were still picked fourth. That was a bit surprising to Miller.
Here is the reaction that Arizona Daily Stars Bruce Pascoe was able to capture from Miller; “I was surprised we were picked that high,” he said. “I don’t look at us as being the fourth best team in the Pac-12. I don’t mean that in a negative light at all toward our group, but we’ve lost eight players from a year ago. There’s a lot of teams that have very good players and more experience returning.”
Overall, I think the pick seems fair. Arizona is unproven, and there should be better play in the Pac-12 this season.
At Zona Zealots, we are excited for the return of basketball and can’t wait to see how the Wildcats perform. We look forward to the Red-Blue game this weekend to kick-off 2018-19! Bear Down, Arizona!