Partly because future NIL deals face scrutiny if the House settlement is approved, college basketball’s transfer portal merry-go-round ran faster than ever this spring, with cash spinning out in unprecedented amounts while everyone raced to beat the deadline.
Overall, NIL budgets spiraled drastically higher, with 247 reporting in April that eight programs had reached the $10 million mark, while individual spring acquisition costs soared. College basketball analytics guru Evan Miyakawa said six programs spent more than $6 million each on spring transfers, with Michigan leading the way at $8.8 million.
To all that, the Arizona Wildcats gave a collective shrug … and still didn’t lose any of their standing.
Finishing at No. 15 in the postseason Associated Press Top 25 poll, the Wildcats were placed between 11-23 in the flood of “Way Too Early” media top 25 posts immediately after the Final Four.
Then, after the furious transfer portal and NBA Draft testing season that just passed, they landed between 13-19 in the updated Top 25 posts over the past week.
ESPN ranked Arizona No. 13 on its updated Top 25, up from 17th in April, while SI moved them from 19th to 17th, though the Athletic slipped UA from No. 11 in April to No. 19 this week.
Essentially, the Wildcats barely budged despite what could be considered net losses to the NBA Draft and transfer portal.
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd discusses the Wildcats' second-round NCAA Tournament win over Oregon, saying how much fun they had and how much he thought of performances by Anthony Dell'Orso, Tobe Awaka and Caleb Love.
UA lost forward Carter Bryant to the draft and regained guard Jaden Bradley as expected. The Wildcats also were what CBS called one of the “losers” of the spring portal season, considering they lost KJ Lewis (Georgetown), Henri Veesaar (North Carolina), Emmanuel Stephen (UNLV) and Conrad Martinez (High Point), yet picked up only guard Evan Nelson of Harvard.
But UA balanced those losses out with a strong returning core and the nation’s third-ranked recruiting class.
The Wildcats still return three starters, two more than they did a year earlier, plus a would-be starter in Motiejus Krivas, who was a projected first-round NBA pick before he sat out most of last season with a foot/ankle injury.
Arizona forward Tobe Awaka (30), left, and guard Jaden Bradley (0) put the double team on BYU center Keba Keita (13) in the first half of their Big 12 game in Tucson on Feb. 22, 2025.
Meanwhile, their newcomers make up the No. 3 recruiting class in 2025 in 247’s composite rankings, with five-star freshmen Koa Peat and Brayden Burries likely to fill those two starting vacancies. The team rankings don’t even count recent commitments of well-regarded German-Russian wing Ivan Kharchenkov, who is expected to play a significant role in the rotation, and high-potential developmental forward Mabil Mawut.
In all, between the Wildcats’ final day of the season (March 27) and this week, the Wildcats lost four players to the portal, added five incoming freshmen to earlier commits Dwayne Aristode and Bryce James, while re-signing four returning players and landing one transfer. They also replaced retiring assistant coach Steve Robinson with former Texas aide Brandon Chappell.
Here’s a look back at how it all went down:
March 27: Five-star forward Koa Peat announces his commitment hours before Arizona’s season ends in a Sweet 16 loss to Duke.
March 29: Guard KJ Lewis enters the transfer portal.
March 31: Henri Veesaar and Emmanuel Stephen enter the transfer portal.
April 2: Conrad Martinez enters the transfer portal.
April 4: Veesaar transfers to North Carolina.
April 5: Stephen transfers to UNLV.
April 6: Lewis transfers to Georgetown.
April 8: Arizona ranked No. 15 in Associated Press postseason Top 25.
April 9: Five-star freshman guard Brayden Burries announces commitment on ESPN. Lloyd’s “playing style, I feel like it fits me perfectly,” he says.
April 10: Arizona Board of Regents approves reworked five-year contract for coach Tommy Lloyd that gives him the ability to establish a budget for player compensation in conjunction with UA officials.
April 11: Harvard transfer Evan Nelson, a former Salpointe Catholic standout, commits. “It was totally a dream,” he said.
April 11: Arizona announces starting center Tobe Awaka has re-signed.
April 14: Arizona announces starting wing Anthony Dell’Orso, starting guard Jaden Bradley and center Motiejus Krivas have re-signed to return.
Basketball player Koa Peat sits with his father Todd, left, and mother, Jana, during National Signing Day at Perry High School in Gilbert on April 16, 2025.
April 16: After signing for Arizona at Perry High School’s official signing ceremony, incoming freshman Koa Peat says he’s “super excited for the class that’s there to build great chemistry and just build a great team.”
April 17: Lloyd says he expects Bryant and Bradley to test the NBA Draft, but that both have signed revenue-sharing contracts to return to Arizona if they decide to play college basketball.
April 14: Arizona formally announces the retirement of assistant coach Steve Robinson, who had been at Arizona for all of Lloyd’s four seasons. “After more than 40 years of coaching and mentoring young men from around the world, I feel it is the right time for me to step away,” Robinson says.
April 25: Martinez announces he is transferring to High Point.
April 29: NBA’s official early draft entry list of 106 players includes Bryant and Bradley, despite neither player having announced their intentions.
April 29: Real Madrid big man Sidi Gueye of Senegal commits.
May 2: Our Savior Lutheran forward Mabil Mawut of South Sudan commits. “I loved it out there,” Mawut said of his spring visit to Tucson.
May 5: Arizona announces former Texas assistant Brandon Chappell, once a staffer under UA associate head coach Jack Murphy at NAU, has been hired as an assistant coach. “He would work as hard as anybody,” said Murphy, the Lumberjacks’ head coach from 2012-13 to 2018-19. “He was an integral part of our team success.”
May 10: Former Arizona guard Caleb Love participates in G League Elite Camp.
May 12: Bryant participates in the NBA Combine but does not play in scrimmages.
May 19: Arizona announces that its cactus logo will return to the McKale Center floor, and asks fans to vote on one of four renderings.
May 30: The NBA announces the official withdrawal list of players who pulled out before the NCAA’s May 28 deadline. The list includes Bradley but not Bryant, confirming he will remain in the draft even as he made no formal announcement.
June 2: Eurohopes reports that German/Russian wing Ivan Kharchenkov has committed. Considered one of the top international players born in 2006, Kharchenkov is expected to play a significant rotation role. “He is shredded and is not a youngster that more experienced veterans can punish physically,” SI’s Andrew Bernucca wrote.
June 3: Bryant posts a goodbye to Tucson. “God bless the dream chasers,” he says.
