Arizona’s Deandre Ayton and Allonzo Trier waste no time declaring for NBA draft

After the Arizona Wildcats’ shocking blowout loss Thursday night, Deandre Ayton and Allonzo Trier wasted no time deciding to go pro.

A tumultuous season for the Arizona Wildcats came to a fitting end Thursday night, with an 89-68 loss to No. 13 seed Buffalo in the NCAA Tournament. In the postgame locker room, freshman center Deandre Ayton and junior guard Allonzo Trier wasted no time to officially declare for the 2018 NBA Draft.

Ayton posted his 24th double-double of the season against Buffalo, with 14 points and 13 rebounds, while Trier had 10 points while going 4-for-15 from the floor and 0-for-5 from beyond the arc. More was needed from both guys, as the Wildcats were outscored 49-30 in the second half by the upstart MAC Tournament champions.

Ayton was the epitome of a one-and-done, as he said he made the decision to go pro along with his family after his senior year of high school. Trier nearly left Tucson after last season, but a conversation with coach Sean Miller apparently kept him around for a third year.

Ayton is considered a potential No. 1 overall pick in June’s draft, and he’s a sure-fire top-five pick, so his decision to go pro was inevitable and obvious. But Trier is a second-round pick (No. 55 overall) in NBA Draft.net’s most recent mock draft, behind Rawle Alkins, who will officially make it three Arizona players to declare early for the draft in short order.

Ayton and Trier talked about their careers at Arizona after the bad loss to Buffalo.

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The Wildcats will lose their top five scorers from this season heading into 2018-19. Their 2018 recruiting class is now notably empty too. Shareef O’Neal (Shaq’s son) shifted his commitment to conference rival UCLA last month, after an ESPN report of a FBI wire tap capturing Miller’s authorization of a $100,000 payment to secure Ayton’s commitment surfaced.