It will be a happy sight to see Kevin Parrom with a basketball in his hands. Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

LOS ANGELES — Forget wins and losses. The highlight of the Arizona Wildcats’ early season could be — will be? — the moment junior wing Kevin Parrom steps foot on the court.

Coach Sean Miller delivered more encouraging news about Parrom, who was shot last month while home in The Bronx, N.Y., to visit his ailing mother.

“It was five weeks ago to the day that he got shot,” Miller said Friday at Pac-12 Media Day.

“When he got shot, below his right knee didn’t work. He had no feeling, no movement, and there was no guarantee that it would ever come back. Five weeks from Friday, he can run.”

Parrom will begin participating in non-contact portions of practice next week and is pointed toward a return to the court by late November or early December, based on the pace of his progress, Miller said. Conditioning will be an issue initially, but it optimistically looks as if Parrom could be rolling by the time the conference season begins Dec. 31 against visiting Arizona State.

“That’s great for us,” said senior guard Kyle Fogg.

“He has come a long way in a short amount of time. He’s working really hard to get back on the floor with us, and we can’t wait to get him back. … For a guy who has gone through so much stuff, he still has a positive mindset.”

Parrom’s mother died this month, and he was home again this week to attend her funeral. A few months earlier, his grandmother died. He rejoined the team for Thursday night’s exhibition loss to Seattle Pacific.

“Last night, one of the many things that we learned was how important Kevin is to our team,” Miller said.

Parrom, at 6-6 and 215 pounds, is tough, versatile, experienced. The Cats could have used his rebounding and defense, for sure, against Seattle Pacific. He also gives Arizona more size and length on the perimeter, which is always a trait Miller covets.

If Arizona has to slide small forward Solomon Hill to power forward, for example, Parrom would be a similar-sized player to plug in at the 3, as opposed to using Fogg or Brendon Lavender at the position in a small three-guard lineup.

Do you want Parrom crashing the offensive glass from the small forward position, or do you want Fogg to do it? That’s the difference.

Parrom averaged 7.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists while averaging 20 minutes per game last season.

Earlier this week, Miller said Parrom had been through “so much heartache and tragedy” that it almost wasn’t fair.

Perhaps better days aren’t far away.

“When he came back from New York early this week, he had a different look in his eye,” Miller said. “Almost as if all the bad things are over. And I believe returning to the court is a real significant carrot for him.”

Other Pac-12 Media Day stories:

Washington coach Lorenzo Romar: Arizona won’t have a false sense of security

Media Day live blog: Cats not third-best team, Miller says; Cal’s Montgomery ‘all clear’ from bladder cancer

Media picks third in Pac-12 preseason poll

Cal coach Mike Montgomery will be back on the sideline after a scary bout of bladder cancer. Photo by Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

LOS ANGELES — Many coaches gently chide the media when they feel their team is not rated highly enough in preseason polls. Not Arizona Wildcats coach Sean Miller.

“There is no way in the world we’re the third-best team in the Pac-12,” Miller said of where his team landed in the Pac-12 media poll.

“Hopefully, I won’t say that next year but I will am saying it now. There is no chance that’s where we’re at.”

Maybe the fourth-best?

In any case, it’s hard to argue with Miller after Arizona’s loss to Seattle Pacific on Thursday night.

* * *

Arizona coach Sean Miller opens with a joke: “I guess I’m the only coach up here who is 0-1.”

He adds quickly: “We’re not the team that was in the Elite Eight. We’re a brand new team.”

* * *

UCLA coach Ben Howland said he has had meetings about his team taking an exhibition trip to China, perhaps as early as next fall.

* * *

Washington sophomore guard Terrence Ross averaged 8.0 points per game as a freshman last season, but could be one of the league’s premier players this season.

“Terrence is immensely talented,” Husky coach Lorenzo Romar said.

“He’s a very good offensive player. He’s a great athlete. He has a knack for putting the ball in the basket. What has taken place over last year is he has become a better defensive player. … The fact he is paying attention to being more well-rounded is really going to help his cause.”

* * *

USC coach Kevin O’Neill on Cal coach Mike Montgomery: “Not a more respected coach in the whole country.”

* * *

USC coach Kevin O’Neill’s team suffered a devastating injury loss when point guard Jio Fontan blew out his knee this summer. KO sat at the interview table at Media Day with sophomore guard Maurice Jones and said:

“He is playing 40 minutes per game this year. I’m informing him of that right now. He’s going to have to.”

USC doesn’t really have a second ball-handler.

“If Mo gets hurt, we can’t really even play the games,” O’Neill said. “Don’t come to the games. It will be ugly.”

But O’Neill vowed, “We’re going to guard you. That’s going to happen, no matter what.”

* * *

Cal coach Mike Montgomery sat down at the interview table and said, “It’s good to see everybody and, in light of recent circumstances, it’s good to be seen.”

He explained.

Montgomery was diagnosed about a month ago with bladder cancer.

“Through a series of extremely fortuitous events, we were able to get in, get the little polyp, tumor, out and everything since that time has been all clear, all clear, all clear. Essentially I went from having high-grade bladder cancer to cancer-free at this point.”

Montgomery said he was resumed some basketball duties and that he will have no physical limitations this season.

“I will be back full-time Monday, much to the players’ chagrin,” he said.

He said that the doctors told him that if he had been checked six months earlier, the cancer would not have been detected. Six months later, he said, and it would have been too late.

“It’s scary,” he said.

* * *

Colorado is paired with Utah as a travel partner in the new Pac-12, which might — or might not — create a rivalry.

“I don’t know if you pick a rival,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. ”

“I know everybody is trying yo make Utah our rival and maybe that is what it will end up being, but I’m more of the mind that rivalries develop.”

* * *

New Utah coach Larry Krystowiak was asked by one of his local beat writers this morning what it felt like to be picked a “distant last” in the Pac-12 media poll.

“Distant last? What’s distant last?” Krystowiak said he replied.

“Then I looked and we were the only team with two digits.”

He was referring to the fact Utah had 74 points in the poll; Colorado and Washington State tied for 10th with 119 points.

“For us, we have so many internal things to try to improve on and learn than we really haven’t had a lot of time to sort out where we might fit in in the overall scheme of things,” Krystowiak said. “Just because we’re picked last has no relevance to me. There are always two or three teams in every league that exceed expectations.”

Further showing his dry wit he noted that the league media had correctly picked the winner of the conference in 12 of the past 19 years and wondered what’s the record for picking the worst team.

“Hopefully, that is not quite as high a number,” he said.

* * *

Washington State guard Marcus Capers is asked which player in the Pac-12 is toughest to guard. His answer: Cal’s Allen Crabbe, the league Freshman of the Year last season.

* * *

Washington State coach Ken Bone on new Utah coach Larry Krystowiak, the former coach at Montana and an ex-NBA coach: “Larry is intense. They play relentless basketball and will bring it. They are going to be a team to be reckoned with, there is no doubt about it.”

Utah doesn’t have the personnel to compete right away, but it has the tradition to be a factor in a few years. The Utes have eight new players and only four returning players.

* * *

Oregon is a bit of a mystery with eight newcomers — eight very talented newcomers that includes Louisiana Tech transfer Olu Ashaolu (who could be a rebounding machine in the Pac-12) and, more notably in recruiting circles, freshman guard Jabari Brown.

He will play a significant role; how much is to be determined,” coach Dana Altman said. “He shoots it well from the perimeter and is getting better at putting the ball on the floor and getting to the basket.”

As for the impact of those eight new scholarship players?

“We like our increased athleticism; we like our increased depth,” Altman said. “It will take some time for us to jell as a team. I think team chemistry is going to be important.”

Oregon was widely picked last in the league last season but went 7-11 and tied for seventh. The Ducks are picked fifth in this season’s media poll.

“This year, people are expecting some things,” said senior guard Garrett Sim.

* * *

Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins is bullish on his point guard position. He said sophomore Aaron Bright “is probably our most improved player.” And then there is touted freshman Chasson Randle.

“Chasson Randle definitely gives us depth there and definitely answers some of our questions as to how do we compete in the Pac-12,” Dawkins said.

“When I first saw Chasson, I thought he was a winner. I also saw a young man who was very versatile in his play. … I think he adds another dimension to our team.”

* * *

Oregon State coach Craig Robinson says his team will play more man-to-man defense this season after relying on the 1-3-1 zone for most of the past three seasons.

“We just haven’t had the athletes, the athletic ability and the depth to play man-to-man,” Robinson said. “You have to have a little bit of depth to play man-to-man. But we would never, ever, stop playing the 1-3-1.”

* * *

Strong opening statement from Oregon State coach Craig Robinson:

“Over the past few years, we have been rebuilding the place at Oregon State and I sort of had to couch my statements with terms like, ‘We’re going to try our best’ and all that kind of stuff,” he said. “For the first time, I think I have a team that can compete in every single game we play this season.”

The Beavers are picked to finish eighth in the Pac-12 media poll.

* * *

Arizona State is still waiting on star freshman guard Jahii Carson, who has not been academically cleared.

“I’m not at liberty to say very much for obvious privacy reasons,” coach Herb Sendek said. “We remain hopeful that he will be able to join us sometime in the near future. …

“Our approach from the beginning has been that we’re going to work with the guys who are available and take it from there.”

* * *

Arizona State has only player returning who averaged more than 5.4 points last season, that being guard Trent Lockett, who averaged 13.4 points.

“Other than Trent, we don’t have somebody who has put a lot of points on the board yet in their career,” coach Herb Sendek said. “I don’t know if we can look to any one individual. I think we’re going to have to be a team that works to get each baskets.”

* * *

Commissioner Larry Scott, talking about the launch of the Pac-12 television networks next August, says the national narrative will change when every conference game is available on national television.

He used ex-Arizona Wildcat Derrick Williams as an example, saying how it seemed the rest of the country only caught on to Williams during the NCAA Tournament. And he’s right about that.

“Those of us who were in the conference and followed some of his exciting performances during the year, saw that we had a special student-athlete and a special team there,” Scott said.

* * *

While we’re waiting for the interviews to begin, it’s worth noting what Fox Sports Net analyst Marques Johnson told Doug Haller of the Arizona Republic this week about the Wildcats:

“They’re the one team I don’t think will be as good as people are saying. … They’re a top five team (in the conference), but I don’t know if they’re a team that will be pushing for the conference championship this year.”

* * *

The national media thinks more of Arizona than the regional media, as Arizona debuted at No. 16 in the AP poll Friday morning.

The Cats also are 16th in the coaches poll, released last week.

Arizona has the highest ranking among Pac-12 teams, with UCLA 17th in the AP poll and Cal 24th.

* * *

Interviews with coaches and players will begin soon after 10 a.m., starting with Arizona State. Arizona coach Sean Miller and senior guard Kyle Fogg will take to the stage at about 1:05 p.m.

This will be the spot for updating notes and quotes from the festivities. The media poll is out. Here are my thoughts on the race:

1. Cal. The Bears have the best and most balanced starting five in the conference. There’s questionable depth, but no Pac-12 team is perfect.

2. UCLA. So big. I’m putting the Bruins over Arizona based on the fact the Wildcats can’t stop power forward Reeves Nelson, and UCLA should win both head-to-head matchups. Will guard play be the Bruins undoing?

3. Arizona. The Wildcats will eventually figure out their roles in the post-Derrick Williams era, but his automatic-points security blanket is gone — and that can’t be overstated at this time.

4. Washington. Like Arizona, the Huskies have a lot of good players under 6-foot-8 and their underclassmen will be fun to watch.

After that, it’s a scramble to be the best of the rest … and not very interesting.

Nick Foles is interviewed by KVOA Channel 4's George Savaricas at Pac-12 Media Day.

Arizona Wildcats quarterback Nick Foles wore a black band on his left wrist at Pac-12 Media Day earlier this week. Coach Mike Stoops wore the same black band on his right wrist.

There are two messages on it: “No looking back” and “All in.” The university’s “A” logs separates the sayings.

This is the band the Wildcats will be wearing this season, the mottos they want to carry into the season as they try to erase the memories of a five-game losing streak to end last year.

“You can learn from the past, but no looking back, no regrets,” Foles said.

“And everybody has to be all in. So, bands go to the equipment guys, the video crew, the training staff … because football is a family. If we’re going to win all the games I want to win, we have to be all together.”

I asked Stoops if everyone is wearing the bands.

“They are if they’re all in,” he replied.

Two things about Foles this season.

1. He has to be a better and quicker decision-maker, not forcing throws or holding the ball too long, both of which led to untimely turnovers last season. We’ll see how that turns out.

2. He has to be the leader of these Wildcats, which is something we already know how it has turned out. He dedicated himself to being that kind of leader through the entire offseason.

“He had to step up,” Stoops said. “That’s part of the maturity and growth. I mean, that is what he’s going to have to do for the rest of his career.”

Foles and other team veterans got together to create the wristbands, but the planning of the team’s offseason informal workouts fell more squarely on Foles.

“Playing quarterback, to take that next step, you have to realize that, you know what, this is my team, these are my guys,” Foles said.

“I have to be the head of it. It’s on me. They look to me. And that’s where the morning throwing came from. I was looked at to set it up how I wanted to do it. Of course, I’m not going to completely run the show. I have guys to run the show with me,” he added, mentioning senior linebacker Paul Vassallo and senior cornerback Trevin Wade.

“I go to different guys and say, ‘Hey, what do you think we should get done today, what are y’all thinking?”

Those 7-on-7 workouts began at 6:45 a.m. Per NCAA rules, coaches aren’t allowed to watch or take video of the drills.

“I got music out there. I got water bottles out there like it was a practice,” Foles said.

“It really was just us out there, teaching each other, going through it, and it really develops a great bond. It’s a blast. We’re just out there playing football for an hour and a half with no coaches yelling at us.”

Perhaps most notable is the inclusion of David Lopez as the first-stringer at strong-side linebacker. Lopez, a junior college transfer from Cerritos College, was a June addition to the roster. He had originally committed to play at Portland State.

The strong-side position is often removed for a nickel-back in the Wildcats’ scheme, but Arizona needs helps as it has no experience at the position. Lopez (6-3, 230) is trying to take over for Jake Fischer, who suffered an ACL injury in the spring game. His return, if at all for this season, is uncertain.

Arizona also lost two backup linebackers to transfer in the spring, and other to academic problems.

“We lost four linebackers, so we kind of looked around and saw three or four guys we really liked,” coach Mike Stoops said. “We liked him, and brought him in, and he’s done a really good job this summer. He looks good. He’s a big kid. We hope we stole one there.”

Lopez made 107 tackles, including 10.5 for loss and 4.5 sacks, last season at Cerritos, earning JC Grid-Wire All-America honors. Previously, he attended Los Angeles Garfield High School.

Arizona is also expecting to take a long look in fall camp at a trio of freshmen at the position — Rob Hankins, Hank Hobson and Domonique Petties.

(So far at Media Day in Los Angeles, Oregon coach Chip Kelly deferred questions about potential NCAA recruiting violations involving the “scouting services” of Willie Lyles … Cal coach Jeff Tedford, whose program also has used Lyles’ services, said he is “not concerned one bit” about the Bears’ business relationship with Lyles … Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck is rocking a new beard. “When I get annoyed with it, I’ll shave it,” he said. … Oregon State coach Mike Riley says star WR James Rodgers, who tore his ACL against Arizona last season, is still rehabbing and has a “major” doctor’s appointment coming up. “You can’t count him out,” Riley said, “but I’m not going to force him in.”)

LOS ANGELES — The Arizona Wildcats football team has been selected fourth in the Pac-12 South in a media poll announced this morning at the league’s media day.

Not much of a surprise.

(I predicted Arizona to finish fourth in the Pac-12 South).

USC, with 24 of 42 first-place votes was picked to finish first in the South. Arizona did pick up one first-place vote. Here is the voting for the South, with first-place votes and total points in parentheses:

1. USC (24, 230 points)
2. Arizona State (13, 207 points)
3. Utah (4, 170)
4. Arizona (1, 140)
5. UCLA
6. Colorado

And the voting for the North:

1. Oregon (29, 239)
2. Stanford (13, 220)
3. Washington
4. Oregon State
5. California
6. Washington State

Oregon was picked as the overall champ, appearing as the choice on 28 ballots. Stanford received 11 votes as champion. ASU picked up three votes. USC is ineligible for the postseason.

Later today, Arizona coach Mike Stoops and senior quarterback Nick Foles will be put through waves of interviews for TV, radio, print and internet outlets, likely repeatedly answering questions about these three main topics.

1. The five-game losing streak to end last season.

2. The tough schedule to begin this season, including three likely preseason top-10 teams in September (Oklahoma State, Oregon, Stanford).

3. Juron Criner’s status.

Pac-12 Media Day kicks off our coverage of the college football season on Tuesday.

I’ll be in Los Angeles for the media festivities, filing throughout the day, which will be the beginning of what will be daily coverage (or really close to it) of Arizona Wildcats football from me and the rest of the TucsonCitizen.com Sports Network.

(So, there is no better time than to start “liking” the TucsonCitizen.com Sports Network on Facebook or following me on Twitter or following our entire roster of writers on Twitter.)

You can watch for yourself Tuesday as Pac-10.org will have streaming live video of the main press conferences. Here is the schedule:

9 a.m.: Commissioner Larry Scott opening remarks
9:05 a.m.: California – Coach Jeff Tedford/WR Marvin Jones
9:20 a.m.: Oregon – Coach Chip Kelly/TE David Paulsen
9:35 a.m.: Oregon State – Coach Mike Riley/S Lance Mitchell
9:50 a.m.: Stanford – Coach David Shaw/QB Andrew Luck
10:05 a.m.: Washington – Coach Steve Sarkisian/RB Chris Polk
10:20 a.m.: Washington State – Coach Paul Wulff/WR Jared Karstetter
10:35 a.m.: Break
10:45 a.m.: Arizona – Coach Mike Stoops/QB Nick Foles
11 a.m.: Arizona State – Coach Dennis Erickson/QB Brock Osweiler
11:15 a.m.: Colorado – Coach Jon Embree/QB Tyler Hansen
11:30 a.m.: UCLA – Coach Rick Neuheisel/RB Johnathan Franklin
11:45 a.m.: USC – Coach Lane Kiffin/QB Matt Barkley
Noon: Utah – Coach Kyle Whittingham/OT Tony Bergstrom

The Pac-12 media poll will be released in the morning. Here is how I predict the races in each division.

ASU quarterback Brock Osweiler celebrated in Tucson after beating Arizona last season; can the Devils capture bigger prizes this season? Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

The expanded and re-branded Pac-12 will hold its football media day Tuesday in Los Angeles … so it’s prediction time.

There is a certain “sameness” to many of the league predictions, a certain it-makes-sense-on-paper logic to it all. But for the Pac-12 South in particular, there is a larger-than-usual range of options for the teams, if only because all of them all flawed and none seem truly worthy of being a frontrunner.

But the picks must be made, even if there is no rock-solid conviction behind them, so here we go:

Pac-12 South
1. USC
2. Arizona State
3. Utah
4. Arizona
5. UCLA
6. Colorado

OK. I have been going back and forth between the Trojans (who are ineligible to participate in the new conference title game because of NCAA sanctions) and the Sun Devils. The tipping point for me: Matt Barkley over Brock Osweiler at quarterback.

When in doubt, go with the better, more experienced quarterback.

The Sun Devils, because of their high number of returning starters — including linebacker Vontaze Burfict — have been the default pick in the South for many. But they likely would be the pick of only a few if Arizona hadn’t dropped about five potential interceptions against Osweiler in last year’s regular-season finale.

Instead, of being a major question mark, Osweiler came out of that game looking like a gritty winner.

As for the Wildcats?

They might not be much more than a .500 team but could meander their way to the South title with the right combination of victories in this weak division. But it’s never wise to give the benefit of the doubt to a team that has only one returning starting lineman — defensive tackle Justin Washington — on both sides of the line of scrimmage.

We’ll go with Utah for third place ahead of Arizona, if only because of the schedule. The Utes miss Oregon and Stanford in the crossover schedule against the Pac-12 North. The Wildcats have to play both of those preseason top-10 teams.

In any case, I think the window of opportunity is open for four teams in the South, while the same is true for really only two teams in the North.

Pac-12 North
1. Oregon
2. Stanford
3. Oregon State
4. Washington
5. Cal
6. Washington State

There are three tiers here, with Oregon and Stanford at the top. Either makes sense as the division favorite.

Then, mix up Oregon State, Washington and Cal in any order. We’re going with the Beavers as the best of the second tier because Ryan Katz is in his second season as the starting quarterback … and quarterbacks in coach Mike Riley’s system usually make a big jump in production in their second year.

Then, there’s Washington State. Improving, especially because of tough-guy QB Jeff Tuel, but still … it’s Washington State.