Off-the-court issues plagued Arizona last season. On the court, the Wildcats suffered a disappointing loss in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Buffalo. The Arizona Daily Star's Bruce Pascoe weighs in on a new-look Arizona team — one Illinois could meet in the Maui Invitational — that will try to right the ship in 2018-19:
Have there been any lasting repercussions to the program as a whole, even just perception wise, following last year's arrest and firing of Book Richardson and then allegations against Sean Miller?
No question. It significantly set back recruiting, in that their 2018 class was ultimately much less talented than it was probably going to be without the investigation, and it also may have hurt with 2019 players, although it is hard to tell that yet.