Trier’s Suspension Magically Clears in Time for UCLA Game

Arizona’s star suspended guard Allonzo Trier is eligible for his first game this season today at 1 pm against UCLA. As CBS reported:

Arizona guard Allonzo Trier has been cleared by the NCAA and will be available on Saturday for the Wildcats against No. 3 UCLA, the school announced Friday.

Trier, a 6-foot-5 guard, has not played in any of the teams 19 games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. He filed for an appeal with the NCAA -- and won -- however was not cleared to play until the substance was completely out of his system, according to a report by CBS Sports' Gary Parrish earlier this week.

"The NCAA notified us on Friday afternoon that Allonzo Trier's most recent drug test was negative," Arizona said in a statement. "Therefore, he is eligible to return to the court immediately and will be available for our game against UCLA."

Before the season, Trier was supposed to be Arizona’s number one option on offense.

I will leave others to have an opinion on the timing. As a UCLA fan I think it is at least an effort to steal the spotlight from one of the best stories in college basketball this season, the UCLA offense.

The media it seems does not like the idea of UCLA outshining Arizona. As ESPN writes:

The 4 p.m. ET tip is arguably the first time in Arizona coach Sean Miller's eight seasons in Tucson that the league's two traditional powers and rivals (across various eras, but still) will meet up with the Bruins, and not the Wildcats, looking like the obviously superior team. For pretty much all of Miller's tenure, the Wildcats have either been marginally better (and there have been some pretty marginal UCLA teams in the past eight years) or -- more often in the years since since Alford arrived -- downright dominant. The 2013-14 Bruins were 28-9, 12-6 in the league, had the conference's best offense, went to the Sweet 16, and even knocked off Arizona in the Pac-12 title game, and were still never mentioned in the same national-title-contention breath. The 2014-15 Wildcats were a juggarnaut. The 2015-16 team was just OK, by Miller's standards, but still vastly better than the 15-17 Bruins, Jan. 7's home upset notwithstanding.

No ESPN/CBS and the rest, Arizona is not better than UCLA. However the Bruins need to win today on the court to prove it.

Go Bruins! Beat the Wildcats!