Washington State at Arizona (Thursday)
For the game of the night for Thursday, we travel out west to the trickiest conference in basketball, the PAC 12.
UCLA currently is sitting atop the standings however Oregon, Arizona St., Colorado, USC, Arizona, and Stanford are all legit tournament teams. Arizona is the focus on Thursday due to their three prospects.
Those three prospects are Nico Mannion, Josh Green, Zeke Nnaji. All three are mocked in the first round with point guard Nico Mannion being the most likely to the Pistons.
Mannion is averaging 13.8 points per game, along with 2.6 rebounds and 5.3 assists. I will be watching to see where this hype is coming from as I see no reason that Mannion is anywhere near the top of the lottery.
He’s struggling from the field, shooting just 39 percent including 31 percent from distance.
The other two prospects I could get down with the Pistons drafting in the later first round would be Nnaji and Green. Josh Green is a 6’ 6” combo guard with great length and athleticism.
He’s averaging 12 points per game and 32 percent from three, making him a young and raw NBA prospect. Nnaji is another raw NBA prospect, but he’s a center. He leads the Wildcats with 16.2 points and 8.6 rebounds.
Standing at 6’ 11” his size alone could get him into the league, but he’s shown flashes of a three-ball hitting it 29.4 percent of the time, a huge plus for centers in today’s league.
The Washington State Cougars are led by C.J. Elleby, a 6’ 6” shooting guard, who’s expected to go in the late second round. Elleby is one of the least talked about scorers in the country, averaging 18.7 points per game and 7.7 rebounds.
He’s putting up some serious double-doubles and keeping a bad Cougars team in games they have no business being in. The Cougars got blown out last time the two teams met so lookout for a potential revenge game for Washington State.
I still think that Mannion and the Wildcats will be able to get the job done in a surprisingly low scoring game.