{"id":712967,"date":"2026-04-18T05:51:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T05:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712967\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T05:51:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T05:51:24","slug":"1-transfer-portal-target-arizona-must-sign-to-get-back-to-final-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712967\/","title":{"rendered":"1 transfer portal target Arizona must sign to get back to Final Four"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arizona basketball<\/a> walked into the Final Four envisioning ending its near three-decade national title drought. The Wildcats now must reload after becoming obliterated by Michigan<\/a>. \u2018Zona immediately turned to the College Basketball Transfer Portal<\/a> to address the Wolverines romp.<\/p>\n

Head coach Tommy Lloyd<\/a> and company added two future Arizona guards already:<\/a>\u00a0Derek Dixon (North Carolina) and JJ Mandaquit (Washington) arrive to the desert. Both look ready to replace Brayden Burries and Jaden Bradley.<\/p>\n

Except \u2018Zona needs another portal addition to top off the roster. Plus reignite the Wildcats’ chances of getting back to the round of four and this time, winning it all.<\/p>\n

Lloyd can turn in various directions here in the remaining portal market. That includes finding a big to replace the team’s top rim protector Motiejus Krivas. Or also immediately line up the replacement for Koa Peat, who’s still mulling the NBA Draft.<\/p>\n

Finding frontcourt help sounds intriguing. But this high-profile shooter is still available and linked to Arizona.<\/p>\n

Arizona must lure this transfer star in\"WisconsinTroy Wayrynen-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Big 12 champs landed on the short list of Wisconsin shooting guard John Blackwell.<\/p>\n

He remains one of the nation’s most coveted transfer portal entries. Except now he appears to be closing fast on a decision.<\/p>\n

Blackwell originally announced a final six consisting of Alabama, Illinois, Duke, Louisville, UCLA and Arizona. But it looks like some of these options are ready to fall off.<\/p>\n

Illinois added to its European pipeline by swopping up Stefan Vaaks of Providence, who plays Blackwell’s position. Louisville landed Jackson Shelstad via Oregon and hosted Karter Knox of Arkansas Monday<\/a>. Landing Knox solidifies the Cardinals’ backcourt and will present little room to add Blackwell.<\/p>\n

Louisville, though, hasn’t pulled out<\/a> of Blackwell’s race yet per Travis Banham of 247Sports. UCLA is one more aggressive suitor for Blackwell.<\/p>\n

Arizona still needs to add star power post Burries and Bradley.<\/p>\n

Why Arizona fits John Blackwell<\/p>\n

Burries’ departure opens an opportunity for someone else to take over lead scorer duties in Tucson.<\/p>\n

But there’s one more reasoning why Blackwell fits here: Lloyd runs a guard-heavy system even with having a loaded frontcourt this past season.<\/p>\n

Burries and Bradley averaged more than 13 points per game under Lloyd. The head coach’s offense works best playing at a fast pace. Both guards penetrated inside quickly before the opponent set up its defense.<\/p>\n

Blackwell attacks in a straight line through the paint. He’ll even play through contact down low. And Arizona adds a kickout shooter on the perimeter if the Wildcats win him over.<\/p>\n

Yet even with two guards already on board, Blackwell rises as the early No. 1 option for Lloyd if he commits to \u2018Zona. The now former Badgers star could be that missing championship piece to hand the school its first basketball title since 1997.<\/p>\n

Arizona basketball walked into the Final Four envisioning ending its near three-decade national title drought. The Wildcats now must reload after becoming obliterated by Michigan. \u2018Zona immediately turned to the College Basketball Transfer Portal to address the Wolverines romp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arizona basketball walked into the Final Four envisioning ending its near three-decade national title drought. The Wildcats now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[9763,7,217,8042,231,772,1544,22055],"class_list":{"0":"post-712967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-arizona-basketball","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-college-basketball-transfer-portal","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-basketball","14":"tag-ncaab","15":"tag-tommy-lloyd"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116424153052390238","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}