Pac-12 Basketball

Pace Mannion, the father of Arizona star Nico Mannion, denied his son has decided to enter the 2020 NBA draft despite comments from head coach Sean Miller.

"He will make that decision after the season," Pace Mannion told Sam Vecenie of The Athletic. On Saturday, Miller said Mannion would go pro after the Wildcats' 69-63 loss to Washington, per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN).

Mannion is averaging 14.0 points and 5.5 assists while shooting 39.0 percent from the field and 32.5 percent from beyond the arc for the Wildcats.

He's widely considered a first-round prospect and possible lottery pick this summer. In his most recent mock draft, Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman projected Mannion at No. 13 to the San Antonio Spurs.

The added pressure that comes with making the step up to the NBA won't be that daunting for the 19-year-old either.

Pace was a second-round pick of the Golden State Warriors in the 1983 NBA draft, and he spent six years in the league before playing overseas.

B/R's David Gardner profiled Mannion in December, writing about how his distinctive look and highlight-reel dunks have helped him gain an ardent following already:

"His fame is only going to grow from here. A few weeks after he got back from Hawaii, he was walking around the mall with some friends. They weren't shopping. They just wanted to spend time together before scattering to schools across the country. So when Nico saw a group of kids coming for him, he decided to duck them. He bolted behind a support beam and then squatted behind a table. But he still heard: 'Hey Nico! What's up?'"

Many have commented on the state of the 2020 draft class and the lack of elite talent at the top of the board, and Mannion isn't exempt from the general skepticism about the group.

His frame (6'3" and 190 pounds) might limit how a coach can use him in the backcourt, though CJ McCollum has been effective at the 2 with similar physical tools. He'll need to improve his long-range shooting, too, especially since he might struggle to score inside when matched up against bigger guards.

While he might not reach an All-Star level in the NBA, Mannion should carve out a nice career in the league should he decide to leave.

With a 2.1 assist-to-turnover ratio, he projects to be an effective facilitator.

Mannion's willingness to fire from the perimeter is also encouraging. He is averaging five three-point attempts per game. Assuming he continues to work on his jumper, a bump in efficiency could follow.

Teams in the lottery looking for a floor general would do well to target Mannion if he eventually confirms his exit from Arizona.

Miller knew there was a chance Mannion would be a one-and-done. The Phoenix native was the No. 9 player in the 2019 recruiting class, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

Mannion's departure would hurt all the same, especially since the Wildcats don't have a star-studded group coming in for next season. James Akinjo transferred from Georgetown in January, but their 2020 recruiting class is 41st in 247Sports' composite team rankings.

The Pac-12 tournament is one of the most intriguing competitions to watch during Championship Week because of the mix of teams the league possesses.

At the top is an NCAA men's basketball tournament contender in the Oregon Ducks, who are led by one of the top guards in the country in Payton Pritchard. Directly beneath the Ducks are the UCLA Bruins, who are still fighting for their NCAA tournament berth despite finishing second in the league.

The USC Trojans and Arizona State Sun Devils earned the other byes into the quarterfinals, but they have proved to be susceptible to upsets. The same could be said about the Arizona Wildcats and Colorado Buffaloes, which means the Pac-12 tournament should carry intrigue from the first game in Las Vegas.

                    

Pac-12 Tournament Bracket

The bracket for the 2020 #Pac12Hoops Tournament at @TMobileArena is set, with regular-season outright and defending tourney champion @OregonMBB earning the No. 1 seed!

Details: https://t.co/oG279G9wmJ…
Tix: https://t.co/smMjhuENXd pic.twitter.com/5SbYfWiOEh

— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) March 8, 2020

        

Predictions

Oregon Cruises to Championship Game

Given the volatility of the conference, it is hard to make many guarantees, but Oregon has been the most consistent Pac-12 program.

Pritchard has put his name in the National Player of the Year conversation with his backcourt play and heroics in a handful of games, including in a comeback overtime win over Washington. Before Saturday's victory over the Stanford Cardinal, he averaged 20.2 points, 5.6 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game.

Chris Duarte and Will Richardson provide a strong supporting cast to Pritchard in the backcourt, and they are complemented by Shakur Juiston and N'Faly Dante down low.

A strong argument can be made that Oregon is the most reliable Pac-12 team since it has not lost more than two games in a row. Based off their regular-season production, the Ducks feel like the safest pick to make Saturday's final.

To reach the title game, Oregon may have to go through USC, a team it beat in double overtime in January.

But with Arizona or the upset-minded Washington Huskies awaiting the Trojans in the quarterfinals, there is no guarantee they will make it to the semifinals.

Regardless of which team Oregon faces, it should have enough scoring depth to improve its run of six wins in seven games.

                     

At Least 2 Lower Seeds Spring Upsets

Oregon's potential run to the final will be fun to watch, but it will be the expected result.

The unexpected nature of the conference will make the tournament worth tuning into starting Wednesday.

No. 12 Washington had three league wins going into the final week of the regular season and then beat Arizona State and Arizona in back-to-back road contests. Mike Hopkins' team has a pair of stellar freshmen in Isaiah Stewart and Jaden McDaniels that could challenge Arizona once again in the opening round.

Colorado could be susceptible to a first-round upset to the Washington State Cougars since it enters on a four-game losing streak.

Stanford was one of the few teams to beat Oregon, and the California Golden Bears upset Colorado on February 27.

If one of the lower seeds were to advance to the quarterfinals, they could take advantage of the pressure facing one of the top four programs.

UCLA will be dealing with the pressure of qualifying for the NCAA tournament. The Bruins are on the last four in line, according to ESPN's Joe Lunardi.

A potential quarterfinal clash between UCLA and Stanford could be for an at-large berth since the Cardinal reside on the last four byes line.

USC went through losing streaks of two and three games in Pac-12 play, and Arizona State dropped three in a row before reversing course against Washington State on Saturday.

Because of the abundance of upsets we saw during the regular season—and the pressure on the higher seeds to thrive—there could be a perfect formula in place for a few lower seeds to spring upsets.

                             

Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90. Statistics obtained from ESPN.com.

Arizona will have to play its final two games of the conference season without Chase Jeter.   

The Wildcats announced they were suspending the senior center for the remainder of the Pac-12 season due to an undisclosed violation of team rules. The suspension means Jeter will be ineligible to play on Senior Night against Washington at McKale Memorial Center on March 7.

Chase Jeter is suspended the final two regular season games for a violation of team rules.

— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) March 6, 2020

Jeter is averaging 6.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 16.8 minutes in 21 contests this year. 

According to ESPN's Joe Lunardi, the Wildcats (19-10, 9-7 Pac-12) are projected to enter the NCAA tournament as a No. 6 seed in the South region.

That may change if the Wildcats aren't able to hold serve against Washington and Washington State to close out the regular season. Equally pressing is the fact that Arizona is still playing for seeding in the Pac-12 tournament, which is likely to affect where the selection committee places it once the NCAA tournament begins. 

The Wildcats have defeated both the Cougars and Huskies on the road this season, but losing at home to either of the conference's lesser teams—especially since Arizona is just 1-4 against ranked opponents—would surely hurt their standing on Selection Sunday. 

Jeter has played 99 games over his collegiate career, but he has yet to recapture the success he found as a junior when he averaged 10.9 points and 6.6 rebounds.

He transferred from Duke after his sophomore season and sat out during the 2017-18 campaign while an Arizona team featuring Deandre Ayton, Allonzo Trier and Rawle Alkins won the Pac-12's regular-season championship, as well as the conference tournament. However, the fourth-seeded Wildcats fell in the first round of the NCAA tournament, losing 89-68 to a surging Buffalo team.

While Jeter won't be able to start on Senior Night, he'll have plenty of time to give a formal goodbye to Arizona should it continue to advance through March. 

An independent investigation requested by Arizona State University determined there was "sufficient evidence to conclude" three wives of athletic department members were sexually harassed by booster Bart Wear. 

Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports reported Thursday the school confirmed the matter "could have been resolved in a quicker timeframe," but it refused to released full results of the investigation handled by the St. Louis-based law firm Armstrong Teasdale.

The allegations were brought to light in a notice of claim—a court filing that signals the filing of a lawsuit—filed by former ASU senior associate athletic director David Cohen, who alleges he was fired from his position for "insisting" athletic director Ray Anderson and other staff members investigate Wear's actions.

Cohen's wife, Kathy Cohen, and Leslie Hurley, the wife of Sun Devils head basketball coach Bobby Hurley, were among the women to allege "unwelcome comments and physical contact" by Wear, per Thamel.

Arizona State confirmed it has terminated Wear's season tickets and "informed him he is no longer welcome at university events."

Cohen's notice of claim alleges Wear, who played football at ASU, grabbed his wife at a Pac-12 tournament game in March, "put his hands on her waist, moved his hands up the side of her body to the sides of her breast, held his hands on the sides of her breasts and said, 'Dave is lucky to have you.'"

Another wife of an athletics department staffer said in the notice of claim that Wear "rubbed her back and asked inappropriate personal questions" during the tournament, and she asked Cohen to move her seat so she didn't have to sit near Wear for the next game.

Following the season, Cohen said he reported the allegations to the head of the ASU booster club, of which Wear was a member, and the notice of claim says that at least five ASU officials were aware of the allegations. The independent investigation into the allegations began after Cohen was removed in August.

Cohen alleges in the notice of claim that "ASU showed more concern for the convenience and reputation of a prominent booster than the victims of assault and sexual harassment."

Arizona State told Yahoo Sports that Cohen "changed his story" about the interaction, saying that Wear grabbed a victim's breast, which the investigation found to be "untrue."

Cohen is seeking a $1.5 million settlement for lost wages, pain and suffering and emotional harm.

"Even though this has been a very challenging and difficult time for my family, I am confident I did the right thing," Cohen told Thamel. "I spoke out because I have a moral responsibility to protect three women that the University failed to protect. These women are the victims, and they deserve to be heard."

No. 17 Oregon regained a share of first place in the Pac-12 with a 68-60 win over No. 16 Colorado on Thursday.

Coming off two straight losses, the Ducks bounced back at home in Matthew Knight Arena as Payton Pritchard earned his second double-double of the season. Oregon (19-6, 8-4 in conference) improved to 13-0 at home while adding another impressive win to the resume.

The Buffaloes led by nine at halftime and were up five with six minutes remaining, but a 12-0 run in the closing minutes helped the Ducks take over. Will Richardson scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half as part of the come-from-behind win.

Colorado (19-6, 8-4) had been one of the hottest teams in the Pac-12 but couldn't extend its conference lead despite 14 points from D'Shawn Schwartz.

   

Notable Stats

• Payton Pritchard, G, Oregon: 15 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals
• Will Richardson, G, Oregon: 21 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals
• D'Shawn Schwartz, G, Colorado: 14 points, 3-of-5 from 3
• Evan Battey, F, Colorado: 14 points, 11 rebounds

        

Will Richardson Takes Over for Oregon Late

Payton Pritchard is the star for Oregon, but he wasn't getting it done early with just seven points and zero assists in the first half.

Colorado pulled ahead with a 20-0 run that lasted nearly eight minutes. After extended droughts killed the team in recent losses to Oregon State and Stanford, it seemed like more of the same story in this one.

However, Pritchard began facilitating more in the second half and ended up with six assists after halftime.

Richardson took advantage, making huge plays both under the basket and from the perimeter to nearly single-handedly get Oregon back in the game:

https://twitter.com/A_G_Haubner/status/1228168691935674372

Meanwhile in Eugene, Ducks have rallied. Huge game from Will Richardson.

— Eric Bossi (@ebosshoops) February 14, 2020

Will Richardson is hooping right now.

— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) February 14, 2020

The Ducks played faster in the second half, putting pressure on the Buffaloes with a press and ending up with 12 steals. There was also more space on the offensive end thanks to the smaller lineup:

Oregon may have finally just found its lineup.

Ducks went to a four-guard set in the second half to come back and beat Colorado.

May be time to rip the band aid off in Eugene and go small.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) February 14, 2020

Pritchard made his clutch shots late to help Oregon pull away, combining with Richardson for 25 in the second half after they had just 11 in the first.

It wasn't a perfect performance, but this backcourt could be scary in March.

       

Top Scorers Disappear for Colorado

There are few teams deeper than Colorado, which plays 10 men regularly and can get a big game from a variety of players.

Several contributed early, keeping the team in front with three-point shooting:

Squad 8-18 3FG (44%) 🙌

Shane (3), D'Shawn (2), Luke (2) & Kin (1)

41-33 Buffs | 2H 15:53 pic.twitter.com/gtTkOYLF3C

— Colorado Men's Basketball (@CUBuffsMBB) February 14, 2020

Just a couple huge shots for #CUBuffs right there. Oregon had cut lead to three points, but Parquet finds Schwartz for a 3, then Wright finds Siewert for a 3. Lead back to 49-49 with 12:06 left

— Pat Rooney (@prooney07) February 14, 2020

Schwartz only took eight shots but made a huge impact with 14 points and three assists.

Still, the Buffaloes need their best players to come through in big moments if they want to make a run in March.

McKinley Wright IV ended with just eight points on 3-of-8 shooting, while Tyler Bey was nearly invisible with four points and three turnovers. Since January, these two had combined for just one game of single digits, but somehow they both failed to reach 10 points in the loss.

The disappearance was obvious when Oregon began its comeback and Colorado had no one step up with an answer.

Elite teams need players to rely on when needed most, and that's what the Buffaloes lacked Thursday. 

       

What's Next?

Colorado will remain on the road for a matchup against Oregon State on Saturday. Oregon will have another home game Sunday against Utah.

UCLA forward Shareef O'Neal, the son of Hall of Fame center Shaquille O'Neal, announced his intention to transfer Wednesday.

https://twitter.com/SSJreef/status/1220170410844545025

"After meeting with Shareef on Tuesday, he told me that he plans to transfer. We fully support his decision and are wishing him all the best," UCLA coach Mike Cronin said in a statement.

O'Neal, a freshman, averaged 2.2 points and 2.9 rebounds in 13 games this season. He returned to the Bruins after missing the entire 2018-19 season after undergoing surgery for a preexisting heart condition.

A 4-star recruit out of Crossroads in Los Angeles, O'Neal was the No. 41 overall recruit and eighth-ranked power forward in the 2018 class.

It's unclear what schools O'Neal may consider in the aftermath of his transfer; Kentucky was considered a favorite before he made his decision. O'Neal originally committed to Arizona before flipping to UCLA. It's likely he'll look for a destination where he can get more playing time after failing to find a consistent role in Cronin's rotation.

Steve Alford was UCLA's coach when O'Neal committed but was fired in December 2018.

A lanky big with fluid movement and the ability to stretch the floor out to the mid range, O'Neal should not lack in suitors from Power Five conferences. He could look for a school that is likely to recruit his brother, 2021 guard Shaqir O'Neal.

The top high school boys basketball recruit in 2020 is already taking on some large comparisons before he even steps foot on a college campus.

Center Evan Mobley, 247Sports' top player in this year's class, is being heralded by some as a generational talent on par with two of the NBA's premier players over the last 20 years. Speaking to The Undefeated, his AAU coach, Etop Udo-Ema, called the Californian's game a "mixture of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Durant" and who can play like Kevin Garnett.

"He is as perfect a basketball player that I've ever seen," Mobley's high school coach, Ray Barefield, said. "We all know he's going to be in the NBA. When he picks up weight and if he's on the right team, he could be an All-Star with a big-time career."

The 6-11, 205-pound Mobley has committed to USC, where his father Eric is associate head coach and his brother Isaiah is a freshman power forward.

"He's a great defensive player who can change the course of any game," Udo-Ema said. "I've been coaching for 30 years and I've seen pretty much every top player that has been through Southern California, and if he develops, he can be better than any of them. Once he gets bigger and stronger, there is no ceiling for this kid."

Given his upbringing, it only makes sense. Mobley's father told The Undefeated he had his kids dribble basketballs as they recited the alphabet as toddlers.

Eric Mobley joined Andy Enfield's coaching staff at USC in March 2018 after running AAU teams in California. He played collegiately at Portland before landing at Cal Poly Pomona. 

In an era where top high school recruits are either going abroad to play professionally before they can enter the NBA—like LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton—or sitting out their freshman season—like James Wiseman has chosen to do after starting the year with Memphis—Mobley is set to play for a Trojans team that will count him as one of its best recruits since O.J. Mayo and DeMar DeRozan.

Simply put, Mobley is exactly the type of player Enfield has been searching for at USC for some time now—especially as rival UCLA has trotted out college stars like Lonzo Ball, Kevin Looney and Shareef O'Neal.

If Mobley can play close to the level his current coaches are projecting, two of the Pac-12's marquee names might be able to reignite a rivalry that's long felt dormant.  

Payton Pritchard dropped 18 points, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals as No. 9 Oregon survived a scare from visiting No. 24 Arizona in a 74-73 overtime victory on Thursday in Matthew Knight Arena.

Pritchard was Oregon's hero on both ends. His jumper with 29 seconds in regulation capped a 6-0 Ducks run to tie the game at 66. On defense, he blocked a potential game-winning shot from Zeke Nnaji in the closing seconds to send the game into overtime.

Will Richardson was Oregon's star in overtime, scoring all but one of the Ducks' eight points. His jumper with 17 seconds left gave UO a 74-73 lead.

Knockout punch. 壘@_will1k scored 7 points in OT to send No. 9 @OregonMBB to a 74-73 win over No. 24 Arizona in a #Pac12Hoops heavyweight bout. pic.twitter.com/60TDdyYQpi

— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) January 10, 2020

That set up a heartbreaking final possession for Arizona. Richardson blocked a Dylan Smith layup with 10 seconds left, and Nico Mannion's try six seconds later did not connect. Still, Arizona maintained possession and had a chance for the win in the closing moments, but Pritchard got a steal off an inbounds pass.

Richardson had 21 points, five boards and four dimes off the Oregon bench. Chris Duarte had 17 points and eight boards.

Mannion led four Arizona Wildcats in double digits with 20 points. Nnaji had an 11-point, 14-rebound double-double, and Josh Green scored 17.

Arizona led wire-to-wire in the first half and even took a 32-22 lead. Oregon stormed back, however, and closed the first half on a 12-4 run to trail just 36-34 entering the midgame break.

Both teams went back and forth in the second half, but Nnaji scored six points in a 9-0 Arizona run to give the Wildcats a 66-60 edge.

Oregon eventually held serve at home, however, and moved to 13-3 overall and 2-1 in Pac-12 play. The 11-4 Wildcats are 1-1 in conference action.

             

Notable Performances

Arizona G Nico Mannion: 20 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists

Arizona G Josh Green: 17 points, 5 rebounds

Arizona F Zeke Nnaji: 11 points, 14 rebounds, 2 blocks

Oregon G Will Richardson: 21 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists

Oregon G Chris Duarte: 17 points, 8 rebounds

Oregon G Payton Pritchard: 18 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals

      

Will Richardson Carries Oregon in Extra Session

It's hard to characterize any game in early January as a "must-win," but the Ducks found themselves in an unideal spot entering the Arizona contest.

They fell to Colorado in their Pac-12 opener before surviving a scare against unranked Utah two days later. A loss to Arizona on Thursday would have put Oregon at 1-2 in conference play and given one of the league's top contenders for the regular-season crown a leg up on the Ducks heading into the rest of the Pac-12 schedule.

But Richardson had other ideas in overtime.

The sophomore guard went on a personal 5-0 run thanks to a two-pointer and an and-1 layup to give Oregon a 71-68 lead.

Mannion responded with a three-pointer to tie the game at 71. A Pritchard free throw put the Ducks back on top, but Arizona then bounced back with a Green layup with 24 seconds left.

Before you could blink, the Ducks flew down the court and set up Richardson for the game-winning jumper. Tough defense on the other end sealed the win.

Richardson is the X-factor for Oregon's success this season. Having a player coming off the bench who's easily capable of dropping 20 or more points against a Top 25 team isn't a luxury most teams possess. But he can fill that role and help bail the Ducks out of tough situations like the one they found themselves in on Thursday.

He's also smart and fearless, as evidenced by postgame comments about the game-winning bucket (h/t Matt Prehm of 247Sports):

Will Richardson on the game-winner and going one-on-four after a made basket.

"The best chance we had, the game clock was running down. I knew they were a young team. Some of them were celebrating."

— Matt Prehm (@MattPrehm) January 10, 2020

The sophomore got great reviews for his work, with Andrew G. Hauber of KEZI 9 NEWS and Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports providing two examples:

https://twitter.com/A_G_Haubner/status/1215484559673839616

Is there a player in college basketball that uses angles as well as Will Richardson?

Such an underrated piece for Oregon.

Crafty Southpaw was the difference tonight in Oregon's win over Arizona.

One heck of a college basketball game.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) January 10, 2020

The Ducks have enjoyed NCAA tournament success over the past few years, with an appearance in the 2017 Final Four serving as their high-water mark.

But in a year filled with weekly Top 25 chaos, a return to that round is possible because of players like Richardson who can get hot at a moment's notice and take over a game.

                    

What's Next?

Arizona will visit Oregon State on Saturday at 10 p.m. ET in Gill Coliseum in Corvallis. Oregon will host Arizona State on Saturday at 10:30 p.m.

The Washington Huskies will have to play the remainder of the regular season without sophomore point guard Quade Green. 

According to Stadium's Jeff Goodman, Green has been ruled academically ineligible. Goodman's anonymous source relayed that there is still a "slight chance" Green could return to the Huskies in the postseason because the winter quarter ends in mid-March.

Green has averaged 11.6 points, 5.3 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 30.4 minutes across 15 games for the 11-5 Huskies this season. 

This is Green's first season at Washington. The Philadelphia native began his collegiate career with two seasons at Kentucky. As a freshman, the former 5-star prospect averaged 9.3 points, 2.7 assists and 1.8 rebounds in 25.6 minutes across 34 games (13 starts). Green's 2018-19 was cut to nine games when he opted to transfer from UK in Dec. 2018.

"I have loved my time at Kentucky and love Coach Cal and the staff,” Green said in a statement announcing his transfer (h/t the Seattle Times' Percy Allen). "This was a difficult decision and one I didn’t take lightly. However, after talking with my family and the coaching staff, I just felt like it was best that I explore other opportunities for my athletic and academic future."

Green told ESPN's Jeff Borzello on Dec. 20, 2018, that he had committed to Washington. The NCAA granted Green a waiver that allowed him to play immediately ahead of the Huskies' regular-season opener on Nov. 8.

Green has led the Huskies' in assists, while junior Nahziah Carter has been the highest-scoring guard with 13.3 points per game. Washington's leading scorer is freshman forward Isaiah Stewart (19.5 points per game). 

Green last played in the Huskies' 72-40 win over USC on Sunday, posting 14 points, five assists, four steals and two rebounds.

The Huskies will host Stanford Thursday night in their first Pac-12 matchup of the season. Moving forward without Green, head coach Mike Hopkins could incorporate sophomore guard Jamal Bey more into the rotation. Green started 14 of 15 games, while Bey has only made two starts.

Nico Mannion gets noticed a lot. This past summer, a couple of months before he left for college, he and his parents went to Hawaii for vacation. One afternoon, he and his mother were strolling along the shoreline, talking about how life was changing, when they noticed something unusual. A 10-year-old boy sprang out of the ocean, snagged his phone off his towel and sprinted toward them to ask for a picture with Nico. The next day, two children made their parents wait in the hotel lobby—in Hawaii, with the beach thisclose—for three hours so they could ask for his autograph.

Nico says yes to almost every request. His parents were both professional athletes, and they taught him that he had two choices as his fame grew: Be the kind of player kids feel comfortable approaching, or be an ass. But even they couldn't have anticipated the kind of attention their son would receive.

It's not just that Nico is the star of Arizona's strong freshman class, or that he's already averaging 15.3 points and 5.8 assists for the undefeated No. 12 Wildcats, or even that he's a potential top-10 pick in the 2020 NBA draft.

It's that he really doesn't look like he could be any of those things. He's "shouldn't you be wearing some more sunscreen?" pale and "shouldn't you be drinking another protein shake?" skinny. And his signature red hair springs from the top of his head like a well-watered Chia Pet. The fact that he stands out, even among elite basketball prospects, has made him an internet obsession, with 400,000 Instagram followers and counting.

His fame is only going to grow from here. A few weeks after he got back from Hawaii, he was walking around the mall with some friends. They weren't shopping. They just wanted to spend time together before scattering to schools across the country. So when Nico saw a group of kids coming for him, he decided to duck them. He bolted behind a support beam and then squatted behind a table. But he still heard: "Hey Nico! What's up?"

To his horror, he turned and saw a group of eight police officers eating lunch. One of them wanted a picture. "I was like, 'Dang, that's not good,'" Nico says now. "They know exactly who I am. If I do anything wrong, I'm screwed. It was an eye-opener. It wasn't just kids that knew who I was. It was the general public. And it won't be long before even more people know who I am."

---

Before Nico Mannion was a viral sensation, before he was born or his parents had even met, his father was making the Mannion name known. As a senior in 1983, Pace Mannion led the 10th-seeded Utah Utes to an unlikely Sweet 16 run out of a regional in Boise, Idaho. Eighteen hundred miles to the southeast, a group of Rice students crowded around the television in their Texas dorm to watch the NCAA tournament. They became fixated on a 6'7" guard with floppy red hair. That day, they formed the Pace Mannion Fan Club.

When Pace turned pro, the club's members would come to watch him play whenever his teams were in town to face the Houston Rockets. Pace played for six seasons in the NBA and primarily came off the bench, but that never slowed the students' enthusiasm. They would chant, "Pace! Pace! He's our Mannion!" and wear green T-shirts with his face on them. The group began with just a dozen or so students but swelled into more than 100 within a couple of years.

"We weren't spoofing him," says Neil Liss, the president of the long-since-disbanded fan club. "We were authentic. He was this super-skilled guy, but he was an underdog who came off the bench. And he was kind of gawky and odd. There's no logical explanation for it, but we genuinely loved him and were excited to watch him play."

People have been excited to watch Pace's son play since he was in eighth grade. Before then, Nico says, "I wasn't very good, if I'm being honest. I was scoring on the wrong hoop." Indeed, in one of his first competitive basketball games, Nico checked in off the bench, caught a pass and heard the parents cheering, "Go, Nico, go!" as he sprinted toward the rim for a layup. It was only after he scored that realized they were actually yelling, "No, Nico, no!" He'd run to the wrong basket.

But he grew up around the game and learned from its greats. Nico was born in Italy because Pace played there professionally and stayed there when he met and married professional volleyball player Gaia Bianchi. When the family returned to the United States, Pace got a gig doing pre- and postgame analysis for Utah Jazz broadcasts. Nico would shoot around on the studio set hoop and single out Jazz players to talk to before games. After games, even though Pace worked for the home team, Nico would have no problem approaching an opponent and asking for an autograph.

In 2008, when Nico was seven, he made Pace wait an hour after the Jazz lost Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals to the Lakers so that he could meet Kobe Bryant. Pace had played with Bryant's dad in Italy, and he told Nico to get his attention by talking to him in Italian. "Kobe took time out of his day to come talk to a little kid," Nico says. "He took 10 minutes, and he made my year." To this day, Nico has signed and framed jerseys from Bryant, Steve Nash, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James on the wall above his bed.

Pace was Nico's coach when they lived in Utah, but he retired from that title when they moved to Arizona. Nico was 12 at the time, and Pace says he "wanted to be Nico's dad and not his coach." Pace used to tell Nico that, because of the way he looked, he had five minutes to surprise opponents. Nico would smile when he saw the opposing team's worst player ask his coach to defend him. In Arizona, it wasn't long before he stopped surprising people.

In his first viral highlight, Nico, then a rising ninth grader, dunked for the first time in a live game, going over a kid who was about half a foot taller than him. The clip prompted Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott to follow Nico on Instagram—along with a few thousand others. Later, Kevin Durant was recorded watching a Nico mixtape. "Oh yeah, I done seen players like him before, having long careers," Durant said as he watched Nico drain a three. And then, a moment later, when Nico assaulted the rim with a slam: "Oh! I ain't seen that, though."

It's the incongruity between the way Nico, who's 6'3" and 190 pounds, looks and the way he plays that never ceases to surprise newcomers to his game. "He's white and he's got red hair," Pace says. "… There aren't too many guys like that with his skill set. Not even in the NBA. … That's what's drawn people to Nico."

When Nico's Pinnacle High School team would visit rivals, fans would hold up signs that read "Nico Mannion listens to Nickelback" or "Nico Mannion sleeps with a nightlight." Once, the entire student section brought carrots with them to taunt their redheaded foe. "Not like baby carrots," Nico says. "Real big ones." But Nico had a double-double by the end of the third quarter, and the carrots ended up on the floor beneath the bleachers. By the age of 15, he had been featured in a lengthy profile by Sports Illustrated and had received countless college scholarship offers—including from Arizona.

But before he could jump to the next level, he had to return home.

---

The hardest moment of Nico Mannion's young basketball life happened in Colorado Springs. He had just finished his freshman season at Pinnacle, averaging 20.2 points a game and being named a MaxPreps first-team freshman All-American. His next goal was to qualify for the 2017 FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship with Team USA. For all attention that AAU offers, USA Basketball is a much more serious operation, and its camps are a chance for prospects to put themselves ahead of their peers. Nico thought it might be his last chance to surprise people.

For the first couple of days at the camp, Nico got to show off the skills that were making him a coveted college prospect. He is a strong finisher at the rim, given his slight frame, and he has the kind of basketball IQ you'd expect to see from the son of a pro. He's flashy but still a facilitator, and he can change speeds with ease. But after the first couple of rounds of cuts, Team USA coaches switched him off the ball. He didn't feel like he played his best basketball, but he still felt confident he would make the team.

That night, USA Basketball Assistant Director Samson Kayode called the kids into a recreation room where he would announce the final cut. Crowded onto a couch with teammates, Nico heard Samson say the first name. He was safe. The second. He was still safe. The third. He felt sure he'd made the team. And then he heard the fourth cut: "Nico Mannion."

He hustled back to his dorm room and threw his gear in his bag. He called his parents, pissed. He asked them to come pick him up. And then he called his trainer and told him to meet him at the gym in Arizona as soon as possible. Two days later, they were back at work. "It was probably the toughest thing Nico went through in basketball," Pace says. "Someone told him he wasn't good enough to play. It was also probably the best thing to happen to him. It lit a fire under him."

When he returned home, Nico heard from the Italian Basketball Federation. They knew he was a dual citizen, and they wanted to know: Would he come play for Italy at the FIBA U16 European Championship instead? He would. And in seven games that summer, Mannion averaged a tournament-high 19.9 points, to go along with 4.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game. Two summers later, after leading Pinnacle to an Arizona 6A state championship, he turned down a chance to return to Team USA and instead made his debut for the Italian national team at age 17.

A couple of months later, in September 2018, Nico surprised people with another commitment. Although he held offers from Duke and Villanova and just about every other college in the country, Nico only held one in-home visit in the fall before making his decision. Sean Miller and then-assistant coach Mark Phelps drove to Phoenix and showed Nico a slideshow with Arizona greats and then told him how he could be the Wildcats' next star freshman. The next day, Nico drove his parents to the airport for a vacation in Mexico. By the time Pace and Gaia landed and got to baggage claim, Nico had called to tell them he was ready to commit.

Even as scandals swirled around Arizona—the firing of Phelps or the release of the transcripts from the trial of former assistant coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson in the college basketball recruiting scandal—Nico didn't waver. When bad news stories were about to break, an Arizona coach would call the Mannions and explain their side. Nico's friends would pester him with questions, but he felt at home—literally—in Arizona.

"Everyone was like, 'Why don't you go to Duke? Why don't you go to Villanova?' Nico says. "Duke was the main one. But everything I wanted was in Arizona. There's no reason to go all the way across the country when I have everything I need and want two hours away."

It helped that one of his AAU teammates, Australian wing Josh Green, committed to being part of Arizona's class. They were among the most lethal backcourts in grassroots basketball over the past three seasons, and that connection has proved fruitful so far this season too. Mannion and Green are Arizona's second- and third-leading scorers, respectively, behind fellow freshman Zeke Nnaji. "There's no other college backcourt where the 1- and the 2-guards have played with each other for four years," he says.

In April, the pair teamed up again for the Nike Hoop Summit. Because Nico had chosen to play with Italy, he was a member of the World Team, facing off against the U.S. team that had cut him a few years before. He finished with five assists, five rebounds and 28 points on 12 shots.

"I saw the coach that cut me sitting on the bench," he says. "That was definitely part of the motivation. I really believed I should have made that team. The fact that I didn't shocked me. I thought to myself, I guess I have to do more. It still motivates me. All those kids on the team, they're still succeeding. I won't stop till I've proven to myself that I belong with them."

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On an early October afternoon, Nico Mannion walked to the McKale Center to get taped for practice. Outside the arena, high school swimmers scurried around him, dripping wet and dancing to Lizzo. They were in town for a competition that could help them become college athletes, and they were a little too absorbed in their own world to notice Nico. Already, it's hard for him to cut across campus without being stopped, but on this day he smiled as he reached the mirrored glass door without interruption. He paused for a second to check his hair and then walked inside.

"People used to call me Red," he says, "but that wasn't too creative. I don't feel strongly about any of the nicknames. I'd rather people call me Nico. The people close to me all call me Nico. The nicknames are all social media. I don't really care for them. They're not a big deal to me."

But Miller knows the nicknames and the attention can add weight to what can already be a challenging transition to college. "He's not like the other star freshmen we've had," Miller says, "but he could be as good—or better—than them. Some of the players we've had who have had great freshman years didn't really look like freshmen physically. Stanley Johnson was 240 pounds when he showed up. Deandre Ayton could bench 185 pounds 19 times. Aaron Gordon was Superman. That's not why Nico is good. Nico is good because of how he understands the game and because of the number of ways he can affect it. He could go down as one of the great point guards in Arizona history."

Through November, Nico and the Wildcats have cruised. After failing to make the NCAA tournament for the first time in six years last season, Arizona is pummeling opponents by an average of 22.3 points. Nico boasts an offensive rating of 126.6 while shooting 52.2 percent from the field, 43.2 percent from three and 77.8 percent from the free-throw line. And he is still throwing down brutal dunks.

NICO MANNION 💥💥 https://t.co/2wDeL1CfWR

— Arizona in the NBA 😼 (@ArizonaNBA) November 22, 2019

Although he is still seen as the second or third point guard in the 2020 draft class, behind LaMelo Ball and North Carolina's Cole Anthony, Mannion isn't far behind. That's part of why he chose the Wildcats—to learn under one of the best point guard teachers in the college game, someone who starred at the position himself.

Back on that early October day, Miller spent more time instructing Nico in practice than any other player. And when Nico would sub out of a drill, he'd stand behind Miller, like a shadow, as the coach described what he saw as plays unfolded. Near the end of practice, Miller kneeled on the baseline and watched Nico bring the ball up the floor. When Nico crossed half court but failed to signal the play, Miller blew his whistle. He stood and took two steps toward his star freshman.

"Nico!" he shouted. "You're the point guard! Everyone is looking to you! You've got to step up!"