Arizona remains in a hiring freeze as part of the steps that were taken to help make up for losses during the time of the current health crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. That hiring freeze includes the school's athletic programs yet there are spots that still need to be filled by the time preparations for the season resume.

UA's volleyball team has two positions on the coaching staff that still need to be filled while Sean Miller still needs to fill a vacant spot on his bench that was left earlier in the spring when assistant coach Justin Gainey left Arizona to become the associate head coach at Marquette.

When speaking with local reporters during a virtual media session on Thursday, UA athletic director Dave Heeke said that the moves to fill those positions and others within the athletic program will take place when the picture about a return to play begins to clear up.

"Generally overall we are on a hiring freeze across the entire university and that includes athletics," Heeke said. "However, in our key positions, coaching positions, as we get to a point where we know we're going to have student-athletes start to come back we'll fill those positions on the coaching line.

"So, every one of our positions we'll evaluate in a unique way depending on the circumstances, but generally we are in a hiring freeze across the board for those vacant positions."

Arizona has already identified former UA star Jason Terry as the primary candidate for its open assistant coach position, but because of the hiring freeze he has not been able to officially come on board. In the interim David Miller, Arizona's director of on-campus recruiting and basketball analytics, has been serving as the team's third assistant coach allowing him to actively recruit and participate in building UA's roster more actively than would normally be permitted under NCAA rules because of the absence of a full-time coach.

The men's basketball team's situation is just one of many within the department that need to be addressed at some point, and Heeke believes that time will come soon.

"We have a number of those in athletics to the tune of, I'd say, 20 positions that are vacant at this point," he said. "We'll determine as we go along the need and the appropriateness of bringing those back. We have two coaching positions in volleyball and certainly in men's basketball that are vacant, and we're looking at both of those in the near future to fill."

The feeling has been that when the fiscal year expires in June the hires can be made official.