TUCSON, Ariz. — During the off season, Arizona Men's Basketball got busy. Head Coach Tommy Lloyd and his staff landing the fourth best recruiting class in the country, all while entering a new era of college athletics.
"It's college basketball," Lloyd said. "There's a lot of moving parts in an off season now. You talk about transfer portal, NIL, the house settlement but you work yourself through it and you're trying to do the best job to set your next team up for success."
While the Wildcats will have multiple returning players, the program will be seeing many new, and young, faces for the 2025–2026 season.
"At some point you got to recruit some younger players and the one thing we did know going into this season was that this was going to be the fifth season post COVID," Lloyd said. "We knew those kids that were granted that automatic waiver for the extra year of eligibility, that was going to dry up."
Along with four returning players, Jaden Bradley, Anthony Dell'Orso, Tobe Awaka and Motiejus Krivas, the Wildcats bring in seven new players, six of them being freshman.
Joining Arizona are three 5-Star recruits, Dwayne Aristode, Brayden Burries and Koa Peat. Two international players, Mabil Mawut and Sidi Gueye. A transfer from Harvard, Evan Nelson, and rounding out the additions, 3-Star recruit, Bryce James.
Even in the changing landscape of college athletics while recruiting Lebron James's son, Lloyd had no hesitations when it came to Bryce.
"Sometimes I think it's unfair to a kid like Bryce," Lloyd said. "Their are people kind of making decisions on his future. Not his family's future, Bryce's future, just based on who his parents are. He's a 17-year-old kid, he's just moved away from home and he's running his own race. Let's give him some space and let him develop into his own man."
Lloyd and his staff building this roster in the heat of NIL and the NCAA house settlement that will now allow schools to pay it's players directly.
"I'm a coach," Lloyd said. "I'm somebody who, you let me know what the rules are, and I'm going to figure out how to work with the rules to make our program successful."
Arizona Athletics announced its five-year plan, the Bear Down Blueprint, hoping to give direction when the house settlement is implemented.
"That's all I care about," Lloyd said. "My team is judged on our performance and so I have to focus on how to make our team perform better. We have a staff that's a lot smarter than me within this athletic department at figuring that stuff out and I'm just going to follow their lead."
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Erin Patterson is a reporter for KGUN 9. She's agraduate of the University of Alabama with a Bachelor’s in News Media with a Sports Concentration. Erin recently obtained her Master's Degree in Sports Journalism from Arizona State University at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, where she gained experience a sports reporter, anchor and producer. Share your story ideas and important issues with Erin by emailing erin.patterson@kgun9.com.
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