The Arizona Wildcats are one of four finalists for Marquette transfer Dawson Garcia, according to Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports.
The sophomore was considering sticking in the NBA Draft too but has decided to withdraw. The other schools in consideration are North Carolina, Illinois and Marquette.
Rothstein says Garcia plans to make his decision “soon.”
Dawson Garcia tells me that he is withdrawing from the 2021 NBA Draft and will return to college next season.
Garcia also tells me that he is making a decision soon on his plans for next season.
Final List:
North Carolina
Arizona
Illinois
Marquette— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) July 6, 2021
Garcia, who visited Arizona on July 4 weekend, would be a tremendous add to the Wildcats’ frontcourt. The 6-foot-11 forward averaged 13.0 points and 6.6 rebounds as a freshman in 2020-21 while shooting 48 percent from the field, 36 percent from 3 and 78 percent from the free throw line, earning him Big East All-Freshman Honors.
The Wildcats have two scholarships open for the 2021-22 season and new head coach Tommy Lloyd acknowledged the benefits of adding another frontcourt player.
“Traditionally in the past, I’ve been really comfortable playing two bigs together and so having another guy might give us a little more depth and more opportunities,” he said last Thursday. “But if we don’t, I feel like we have guards with good size. We could play our own version of small ball and I think we’d be pretty good at it.”