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PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL MEDIA DAY

October 21, 2016

San Francisco, California

THE MODERATOR: We have Arizona head coach Sean Miller and Kadeem Allen. Coach, an opening statement, and then we'll open it up for questions.

SEAN MILLER: Well, excited to be here. This is my eighth media day, believe it or not, and media day really represents the beginning of not just the college basketball season for Arizona, but it's that time of year where everybody is ready to begin.

We're excited about our group, our team. Have a lot of new faces, perhaps the most new faces and new people in roles than I've ever had as a coach, certainly at Arizona. I wouldn't want to be here at media day with anyone else other than Kadeem. Kadeem is a guy that in my mind is a throwback to how college basketball used to be, and he has earned everything that he has gotten.

He came to us as a Junior College Player of the Year, somebody who was a high scorer, and that same player red shirted his first year and learned, grew, added as a big part of our team a year ago, and positioned as our only senior on this year's team to be not only one of the Pac-12's best, but also a leader, the leader of our team this year. So that's it.

Q. Coach, can you give us an idea of what you expect to see out of your freshman, Allonzo Trier this year?
SEAN MILLER: Allonzo's a sophomore. Allonzo, and I think Kadeem can tell you this, everybody thinks they love the game, everybody thinks that they work hard, and then there's that one player you think of that embodies those two things. No one loves the game of basketball or has worked harder at the game than him. From the time he made the decision in the spring, to return for his sophomore year, so right now. He's been a constant. Probably shot, I can't even begin to tell you, maybe 20,000 shots. I mean, he's been in the gym through the months of June, July and August, more than any guy I've seen.

He's going to add to what he did very well as a freshman. And I think the one stat we always talk to him about is he had 31 assists as a freshman, and he's a much better passer. He knows how to play the game with his teammates better now than ever before. We've seen that in practice. But I think he's poised to have an excellent season.

Q. I have a question about chemistry. I was at the red and blue game. I saw tons of chemistry this season. I was wondering if you could talk about what you think contributed to that and how it's going to help you this season?
KADEEM ALLEN: Well, I felt everyone invited and coming together collectively as a team. As coach said, there is no I in team. Team success comes with individual accolades. So everyone bought into that and we're trying to be the best team we can be.

SEAN MILLER: You know, if you were watching our red-blue weekend, Miles Simon epitomizes a lot of things that we talk about, and that is Miles wasn't a high school All-American. He didn't go on and have a great NBA career. But he had his number retired at a basketball program that is second to none with the tradition that we have. Why? Well, because he won the National Championship, because he was the most outstanding player of that Final Four. And when you're associated with a team that does well and you're successful in the month of March and you're consistent throughout the season, it's amazing how the respect goes to the individual players.

So for that to happen, you have to sacrifice. Not everybody can start, not everybody gets to shoot the same amount of times, and I think that is an ongoing process. I think you can have a team that has great chemistry. You can lose it, you can get it back and lose it again. So it's something that we're well aware of, and we're going to try to foster that, and have already fostered it beginning last spring when our season ended.

Q. Just wondering, Allonzo was schedule to be here, and I didn't know if it was related to eligibility questions and where that status is right now?
SEAN MILLER: I'm not going to comment on that.

Q. Could you talk about Ray Smith's role on the team this year?
SEAN MILLER: Yeah, Ray has, for those of you that don't know his story, he's torn both ACLs. He did it in July, prior to his senior year of high school in which he missed a season where he could have potentially become a McDonald's All American. He came back, played in our Red-Blue game a year ago, practiced 14, 15 times and unfortunately tore his other ACL. So he missed all of last year.

He's worked really hard. His legs are the strongest on our team. I think that says a lot about how hard he's worked. That protects him. Both of his surgeries were successful, and we don't anticipate him having any problems. He's been full-go for about a month. Once in a while we'll have a big picture and give him the day off.

But he's a freshman because of how much time he's missed, but he brings a lot of skill to the table. He brings a lot of athleticism. He's the traditional small forward that you've watched at Arizona for a long, long time. He's 6'8", and he's a tremendous offensive rebounder, versatile in his approach. I think very much a work in progress.

You're not going to be able to judge him early on because of his past. But I think he's one of many players on our team that can really hit his stride as we get into conference play. That's what we're hoping. Nobody has their fingers crossed more than, I think, us for Ray. If you're around him every day, he deserves a great stretch of health. And if that's the case, he's going to be one of our most talented players.

Q. Sean, your thoughts on expectations on Oregon this year? How have you seen that program kind of make the rise up to be where it's now nationally ranked?
SEAN MILLER: Dana Altman, I coached against him when I was the head coach at Xavier and he was at Creighton. So we were very familiar with each other. I was familiar with him before he ever came to Oregon. He's a great coach. I think he's one of the best coaches in our game.

Oregon had an opportunity to win the National Championship last year, a 1-seed, got all the way to the Elite Eight. I think they'll be playing for that same prize this year. No question. I think with who they have returning, him as the coach, the success they had a year ago, we've gone through that. When you get to that level in March you're hungry to return, and you have a lot of confidence. I think Oregon has all the pieces to be one of college basketball's brightest teams this year.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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