Projecting Arizona Basketball's starting five for the 2024-25 season

4: Power forward

Starter: Trey Townsend (5th year)

Townsend capitalized on the national exposure Oakland got during their March Madness run where the Golden Grizzlies toppled the mighty Kentucky in the opening round. After spending four years as a fixture in Oakland's lineup to no national acclaim, he landed at Arizona via the transfer portal. He has one year of eligibility left and will use it to both ring-chase and boost his NBA draft stock.

Townsend is the reigning Horizon League Player of the Year after averaging a team-leading: 17.3 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 1.3 steals per game. Standing at 6-foot-6 and a few biscuits shy of 230 pounds, his frame is a bit on the smaller side for the position. However, that hasn't stopped him from leading Oakland in blocks for three years from 2020-23.

Townsend is a bona fide two-way player who matches the type of game Bradley and Lewis like to play emphasizing keeping the defense just as sharp as shooting. Lloyd is doing his best impression of last offseason, where he poached Johnson from mid-major SDSU to spend a final year in the red and blue as a key member of the gameplan.

Backup: Henri Veesaar (RS Sophomore)

Veesaar's size profile lends him to being the only other player on Arizona with 4/5 flexibility, standing at an imposing 7 feet tall — a full four inches taller than Townsend. Townsend's presence will allow Veesaar to be eased in after missing the entirety of the 2023-24 season with a shoulder injury.

Thankfully, Veesaar used a medical redshirt and will return to action for Arizona with three more years of eligibility remaining. Two recruiting cycles are enough to make people forget about the pedigree, but he was graded as a four-star prospect and the best player coming out of Estonia in 2022 and has had two seasons now to soak up how Lloyd draws up the game plans.

He showed his ceiling against Texas A&M - Corpus Christi, when he notched 16 points, four rebounds, and a block. One of the more intriguing things was his willingness to pull up and shoot the long ball as a big man, and he nailed both of his 3-point attempts against the Islanders. Veesaar is an intriguing prospect who could see his play time increase as the season goes on.