Arizona had big plans for its sizable frontcourt going into the 2024-25 season. Those aspirations didn’t make it a quarter of the way through the campaign.
A lower leg injury to center Motiejus Krivas limited him to only nine games in his sophomore season, one that beforehand saw him listed as a possible first round pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. His absence did pave the way for Henri Veesaar to have a breakout year, one he parlayed into a big payday when he transferred to North Carolina.
Down the stretch Veesaar and Tobe Awaka formed a solid 1-2 frontcourt duo, though more often than not they split duties at the 5 with only a small percentage of time together on the court. But it was still more time than Awaka and Krivas had together in game action last season.
Not counting exhibitions, the 6-foot-8, 250-pound Awaka and 7-2, 260-pound Krivas were in action at the same time in just over seven minutes spanning three nonconference games. All told, Krivas played 125 minutes over the first nine games before getting shut down in December and having surgery not long after.
“He’s one of the best moving bigs I’ve ever been around,” Awaka said of Krivas.
Fully healthy—“practicing in full force, feeling great so far,” he said Thursday—Krivas heads into his third college season with a chance to be a major focal point of Arizona’s offense. He showed glimpses of that as a freshman, when he averaged 5.4 points and 4.2 rebounds in 12.1 minutes, with seven games in double figures including a career-high 20 against Belmont; and in three of his last four games before the injury last season he scored 10 or more.
Unable to play, Krivas turned to both a teammate (Veesaar) and a coach who had missed seasons due to injury. Graduate assistant Przemek Karnowski, who works with Arizona’s bigs, played only five games at Gonzaga in 2015-16 before undergoing back surgery, and when he returned the following season the Bulldogs made the NCAA title game (with Lloyd on the bench as an assistant).
“He said it was hard, but he said it helped him a lot,” Krivas said of Karnowski missing a season. “When I was injured we went through a plan with him, how I view myself as a player and what he views and what we need to do to get to that point.”
Krivas said he also used the time away from playing, when not rehabbing or in the weight room, to become a student of the game and not take for granted that he’ll always be healthy.
“I learned that my body is my source for this career, and it’s really important thing to take care of it,” he said.
With Arizona going heavy on freshmen on the 2025-26 roster, there’s a good chance Krivas and Awaka will both start depending on the size of an opponent’s frontcourt, or at the very least both average more 20 minutes. That could mean the Wildcats would be able to form a high-low pairing like they had in Tommy Lloyd’s first few seasons with Azuolas Tubelis and either Christian Koloko or Oumar Ballo.
“I don’t see why not,” Awaka said when asked about being paired up with Krivas. “I think it would be a great one-two punch, one-two combo. The coaches have their game plan, and that might be more matchup-oriented. But I’m sure Coach has a has a lineup for any kind of situation.”
Awaka quickly established himself as an elite rebounder following this transfer from Tennessee, recording three double-digit rebound tallies and two double-doubles in his first five games. He finished the year averaging 8.0 points and 7.8 boards, his 17.3 offensive rebounding percentage fourth-best in Division I and his 26.9 percent defensive board rating also in the top 20 nationally.
Expanding his offensive game is the next step for Awaka, who said his comfort level with Arizona—“I felt like I had a coach that trusted me in Coach Lloyd and a great supporting staff as well—kept him from considering a return to the transfer portal. He shot a team-best 64.6 percent last season but roughly 80 percent of his shots were at the rim or in the paint, many on putbacks.
Awaka was 2 for 5 from 3 and sees that somewhere that his game can grow.
“It’s been a big area of focus, getting reps in,” he said. “On the move, stationary. I think that would make it easier to facilitate (a bigger lineup).”