After two months of comings and goings, Arizona men’s basketball’s roster for the 2024-25 season is finally coming into clear picture.
As it stands in early June, Arizona has 11 scholarship players on its roster for next season. Arizona could add up to two more scholarships but doesn’t necessarily have to do so.
In the last week alone, Arizona saw two of its 2024 high school commits back out of their pledge, while guards Caleb Love and Jaden Bradley confirmed they would return next season.
The return of Love, Bradley and KJ Lewis ensures Arizona will have plenty of continuity in its backcourt. The rest of the roster … not so much.
With so many roster pieces changing, here is a look at how Arizona’s team looks.
Backcourt is (mostly) running it back
With the exception of Kylan Boswell transferring to Illinois, Arizona’s backcourt next year will look a lot like it did for most of the 2023-24 season.
Bradley is Arizona’s de facto starting point guard, which comes to no surprise after he usurped Boswell towards the end of last season. Bradley, who is entering his third year of college hoops, averaged 20 minutes both as a freshman at Alabama and a sophomore at Arizona. His workload should increase considerably.
It helps to play alongside an All-American, in this case Love. The former North Carolina transfer will be one of the faces of college basketball next season.
Lewis and Campbell transfer Anthony Dell’Orso will give Arizona plenty of athleticism and size at the wing position. Dell’Orso, a 6-foot-6 Aussie, was one of the top shooters at the mid-major level last season, averaging nearly 20 points a game.
Then there’s backup guard Conrad Martinez. The Spaniard saw limited time last year so it’ll be interesting to see how much Tommy Lloyd uses him in his second season.
New faces at forward
Arizona brings in three new players at the forward position with varying degrees of experience.
Oakland transfer Trey Townsend is a 6-foot-6 senior who should help fill the hole of Pelle Larsson. While Townsend and Larsson are approximately the same size, Townsend is more likely to penetrate to the hoop than rely on perimeter shooting. Townsend also averaged double as many rebounds as Larsson did last season.
Tennessee transfer Tobe Awaka and freshman Carter Bryant are both 6-8. Whereas Awake has played more an enforcer role in his first two years of college, Bryant is known for being able to spread the floor.
Inexperienced inside
In Tommy Lloyd’s first three years at Arizona, he was fortunate to have an all-conference big man each season, whether Christian Koloko, Azuolas Tubelis or Oumar Ballo.
That won’t be the case this season, at least not at the onset.
Motiejus Krivas is Arizona’s top returning center, having averaged 5.4 points and 4.2 rebounds in 12 minutes per game last year. There’s no denying that Krivas’ upside is enormous but he doesn’t yet have the experience of going up against other starting bigs night after night.
Henri Veesaar is back after redshirting last season, and his contributions off the bench will be vital. Freshman Emmanuel Stephen is considered more of a development project at this stage.
Arizona may try to use one of its remaining scholarships to bolster its presence inside.
