Nico Mannion doesn’t dazzle, but helps Arizona to victory over his dad’s former team

TUCSON, Ariz. — When he was just 15 years old, Nico Mannion was featured in a 10-page spread in Sports Illustrated magazine. The son of former University of Utah and Utah Jazz player Pace Mannion, he was already expected to go to a big-name school — SI mentioned Duke, Kentucky and UCLA as possibilities, even though he was just a freshman in high school.

Instead Mannion ended up at the University of Arizona, close to where his family had a home (north of Phoenix), after living in Italy for several years, while Pace played basketball in the European League.

At the Pac-12 media day, Mannion told the Deseret News he considered going to Utah, that it was in his final 10 choices, but he may have been acting nice.

Mannion is off to a good start as a freshman, averaging 14.3 points and 6.3 assists, best in the Pac-12, and has already been listed as a probable Top-10 NBA draft pick next summer.

Thursday night, Mannion played what might be his only game ever against Utah (the two schools don’t play in Salt Lake this year) and helped the Wildcats to their 93-77 victory over the Utes. 

He didn’t dazzle, by any means, not scoring until the final three minutes of the first half after missing his first three shots. He finished with with 11 points on 4 of 9 shooting and 3 of 7 from 3-point range, dished out five assists in his 26 minutes and smoothly ran the Arizona offense.

“Don’t take Nico’s performance for granted tonight,” said Arizona coach Sean Miller, who pointed out his five assists with just one turnover.

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Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak said Mannion hurt his team with his three 3-pointers and called him a “tremendous” and “multifaceted” player.

Mannion’s father played for Utah from 1979-1983 and finished as one of the Utes 39 players to score more than 1,000 points as he finished with 1,018 points in his career. He went on to play parts of six seasons in Utah, including two with the Jazz from 1984-86.