Arizona ranks No. 1, ASU No. 8 for best Pac-12 basketball coaching jobs

Despite missing the NCAA Tournament last season, Arizona basketball was ranked as the top head coaching job in the Pac-12.

A survey of coaches taken by Stadium ranked Arizona ahead of No. 2 UCLA and No. 3 Oregon, while Arizona State was tied with California for No. 8 in the 12-team league.

Arizona ranked No. 1 in three of the eight categories polled and No. 2 in four categories.

The categories included history/tradition, media exposure, game atmosphere, budget/resources, buy games, recruiting base, facilities and selling pros.

Recruiting base was the only category Arizona fell short in, ranking No. 7, one spot behind ASU at No. 6.

Stadium’s Jeff Goodman wrote on why Arizona’s reputation makes the head coaching position in Tucson so appealing.

Lute Olson basically built the program in Tucson into a national power, leading the Wildcats to their lone national title in 1997. Arizona has gone to the Final Four a total of four times and went to the NCAA tourney 25 consecutive seasons from 1985 to 2009. They have also produced a countless number of NBA players and rank either first or second in every category except recruiting base.

No. 2 ranked UCLA recently hired a new head coach, Mick Cronin to a six-year, $24 million contract.

Arizona head coach Sean Miller has been with the program since 2009, taking the team to six-straight NCAA Tournament appearences from 2013 to 2018.

Miller has also been linked to a recruiting scandal that landed assistant coach Emanuel “Book” Richardson a three-month prison sentence earlier this month.

Follow @GrandpaKeebs