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Terry acknowledged interest in UA’s vacant assistant coaching job on Tuesday, just as those around him and the program say such a move is trending in that direction but is not a done deal yet.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s athletic department is under an indefinite hiring freeze, though athletic director Dave Heeke indicated last week exceptions might be possible once coronavirus-related NCAA recruiting restrictions are lifted.

While retweeting a report saying he had emerged as a leading candidate to join Sean Miller’s staff Tuesday morning, Terry posted “Bear Down� in emoji while adding a “jet� emoji for the nickname (JET) he took in the NBA.

His former teammate and longtime friend, A.J. Bramlett, replied to Terry’s tweet by posting “Yes Sir!!!�

Known mostly as “JTâ€� while playing for the Wildcats, both as a key sixth man for ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s 1997 national champions and an All-American as a senior in 1998-99, Terry has a slew of credentials he could bring back to McKale Center.

Terry played 19 years in the NBA, coached and ran a Dallas-area girls club team and served last season as an assistant general manager for the G League’s Texas Legends.

Terry, 42, also happens to have his jersey hanging in the McKale Center rafters.

Terry earned that honor by being named the national player of the year in 1998-99 by Sports Illustrated, CBS and the Basketball Times, but ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ did not honor him for 15 years after an NCAA investigation found Terry accepted $11,500 from agents while playing for the Wildcats as a senior.

The NCAA’s finding prompted ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ to forfeit $45,363 in NCAA Tournament revenues while vacating its 1999 NCAA Tournament first-round loss to Oklahoma. In 2000, the school made an agreement with the then-Pac-10 Conference to ban Terry from the UA Sports Hall of Fame, with a provision that his jersey would not be retired.

But Terry eventually repaid the $45,363 in forfeited NCAA Tournament revenue and went on to graduate from UA in 2014. The school raised his framed jersey in McKale in 2015.

In 2018, in the wake of the federal investigation into college basketball and an ESPN report saying Miller discussed a $100,000 pay-for-play scheme, Terry emerged as a vocal critic of Miller’s program.

On the day of ESPN’s Feb. 23, 2018, report, Terry tweeted: “BearDown it’s time to clean house and bring home our own bloodlines to carry on Lutes Legacy. We have too much pride, too much tradition to allow outsiders to tear down what we built.�

However, Terry told a Phoenix radio station in April 2019 that he strongly supported Miller and that “we’re in good hands,â€� and in August 2019, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s basketball program tweeted out a photo of Miller, Terry and women’s golf coach Laura Ianello smiling together at McKale Center.

Terry would become the first assistant Miller has hired at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ without previous college coaching experience. But he has connections: Terry has a strong relationship with UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who was a freshman manager during Terry’s final college season. As seniors that season, Terry and Bramlett led an otherwise inexperienced team to a second-place Pac-10 finish and a No. 4 seed.

Terry left ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ to become the No. 10 pick in the 1999 NBA Draft and earned $108 million over 19 years in the NBA. While playing for the Dallas Mavericks, Terry became the 2009 NBA Sixth Man of the Year and won an NBA title in 2011.

Terry’s NBA experience and ties to his Seattle hometown could both be potentially valuable in recruiting. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ already landed a commitment from Terry’s godson, Seattle U grad transfer Terrell Brown, and has made inroads with several members of the Seattle area’s loaded 2021 high school class, including five-star wing Paolo Banchero and four-star guard Nolan Hickman.

Having earlier posted a list of nine finalists, Banchero added ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ suddenly earlier this month.

However, other than what little he is allowed to do as an alum, Terry wouldn’t be allowed to recruit for the Wildcats until he is named an assistant coach, and that could be a while. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s athletic department hiring freeze is indefinite, although Heeke told the Star last week that exceptions are possible in some situations — most likely when the coronavirus-prompted NCAA recruiting dead period is lifted.

“I know how important it is to have a staff member in there for our student-athletes and we’re going to do that when we when we need to,� Heeke said.

“Not yet because you can’t go out and recruit but stability on a staff is important. We’re staying in contact and we’ll make sure we fulfill the need when we need it.�

Rim shots

• Purdue grad transfer Matt Haarms has eliminated ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, with several reports stating the 7-foot-3-inch center is now down to Kentucky, Texas Tech and BYU.
• Class of 2021 guard Isa Silva of Sacramento announced he will play for Stanford, as expected. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ had stopped recruiting him after receiving a commitment from Estonian guard Kerr Kriisa on Saturday.