Entering the second weekend of May last year, Arizona’s 2023-24 roster was barely halfway complete. Alabama transfer Jaden Bradley had committed, and KJ Lewis had been signed since the previous November, but otherwise all the many newcomers were still yet to be revealed.
Compared to a year ago, the 2024-25 roster is in great shape and figures to only get better. The Wildcats signed three 4- and 5-star prospects in the fall, and in the past two weeks have gotten commitments from a trio of transfers, most recently former Campbell wing Anthony Dell’Orso.
“We feel really good about the foundation we have, and then the pieces we’ve been able to add,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said Tuesday at the ‘Wildcat Welcome Tour’ event in Tucson. “We have generally felt like we performed pretty well this time of year and we feel like we’re on track to do that again right now. We expect to be at the same level we’ve been playing in the past couple of years.”
All that’s left to be sorted out is if any of the three UA players from last season’s team who are testing the NBA Draft waters opt to come back, a decision that must be made by May 29.
Bradley, Lewis and fellow guard Caleb Love all put their names into the draft but left open the possibility to return to Arizona. It’s what Pelle Larsson did a year ago before coming back, and now he and Keshad Johnson are in the draft for good this time around.
Read between the lines and it seems very likely at least two of the three will be in a UA uniform this winter. Bradley was not invited to either the NBA Draft combine or the G League Elite camp, which is being held this weekend in Chicago, while Lewis was extended an invite but declined.
Love is expected to participate in the camp, which provides the opportunity for some players to get invited to the combine next week in Chicago. This is his second time going through the draft process, having tested the waters last spring before joining Arizona in late May, and the Pac-12 Player of the Year is considered 50-50 between withdrawing and staying in the draft.
That all may seem stressful from an outside standpoint, but Lloyd referred to the whole process as “anticlimactic” because he has kept in close contact with all three players.
“You have an open line of communication going into the process,” he said. “You know what they’re looking for. Generally there’s been feedback already. And there’s conversations ongoing, between whether it’s us, to them and their family, the NBA teams to their agents or them. There’s a lot of information being exchanged. We’re supportive of our guys. And hopefully, if coming back is the best option for them, we want them to be excited about it. We don’t want them to come back here feeling like this isn’t where they want to be. We feel really good about our guys that are testing, and excited about their futures, and hopeful if things don’t work out for them at that level that coming back here is an option they’re excited about.”
If all three return, Arizona will have filled 12 of its 13 available scholarships for 2024-25. The last could go to 5-star Class of 2025 guard Joson Sanon, who committed in March and reportedly is considering reclassifying to 2024.
Sanon recently showed out at the Adidas 3SSB event, averaging 33.3 points in three games while making 15 of 31 3-point attempts.
Potential 2024-25 Arizona roster
G Caleb Love (5th)
G Jaden Bradley (Jr.)
G KJ Lewis (So.)
G Conrad Martinez (So.)
*G Jamari Phillips (Fr.)
x-G Joson Sanon (Fr.)
*F Trey Townsend (Sr.)
*F Tobe Awaka (Jr.)
*F Anthony Dell’Oro (Jr.)
*F Carter Bryant (Fr.)
C Henri Veesaar (R-So.)
C Motiejus Krivas (So.)
*C Emmanuel Stephen (Fr.)
(names in italics going through NBA Draft process)
*-newcomer; x-2025 commit, could reclassify