Arizona basketball: Allonzo Trier ‘promises’ to be in 2018 NBA Draft

The last two years, it’s been somewhat surprising that Allonzo Trier has decided to return to the Arizona Wildcats instead of, at the minimum, testing the NBA Draft waters.

Well, it won’t happen for a third time, at least assuming Trier holds true to the “promise” he made on Twitter just before this year’s draft.

As of Thursday evening, DraftExpress has Trier as the 34th overall pick in the 2018 Draft.

After missing the first 19 games of the 2016-17 season due to a PED suspension, Trier wound up being the team’s leading scorer, averaging 17.2 points per game over the Wildcats’ final 18 contests. He shot 46% from the field, including a 39.1% mark from three. That was a 2.7% increase from his three-point accuracy during his freshman year.

A third year at Arizona will undoubtedly allow Trier to work on some deficiencies in his game while also being on the national stage. It’s not out of the question that the Wildcats will enter the 2017-18 season as the preseason No. 1 overall team, and based on their schedule and the state of the Pac-12, Arizona could stay near the top of the rankings all year long.

Having Lorenzo Romar in Tucson will also help Trier, as Romar has plenty of experience coaching top draft picks, and also has a long-standing relationship with the Arizona junior.

And that work for Trier began right after Lauri Markkanen — Trier’s roommate last year — was selected 7th overall by the Chicago Bulls.