Evaluating Loss of Guard KJ Lewis and Impact on Arizona

Arizona basketball is coming off a season where it found itself in the Sweet Sixteen falling 100-93 in a close game against No. 1 seed Duke. Despite trailing by double digits multiple times throughout the game, the Wildcats battled back and got the game within one possession.

However, the comeback attempt fell short, thus bringing the 2024-25 season to an end. After the year, Arizona was able to rebuild its roster by welcoming the nation's No. 1 recruiting class featuring seven total prospects.

Meanwhile guard Caleb Love and forward Carter Bryant left for the NBA Draft trying to make it at the next leave.

Overall, Love scored 2,704 points while shooting 38% from the field in five seasons between North Carolina and Arizona during his career. While in Tucson, he scored 1,304 points while shooting 40% from the field.

Against Duke in the Sweet Sixteen, Love went out fighting and kept Arizona in the game by scoring 35 points and shooting 52% from the field.

To put it in basketball terms. Love is simply a hooper. The man is pure basketball and understands the art of scoring.

Plus, Arizona will be trying to replace Bryant, who was one of the top defensive players on the roster with the ability to guard 1-through-5 at the college level.

But, it wasn’t just Love and Bryant that Arizona will be missing.

Arizona lost guard KJ Lewis, who entered the transfer portal after spending two seasons with the program he grew up cheering for before moving to El Paso.

Last season, Lewis had highs and lows on the court with most of the inconsistency coming on the offense end. He averaged 10.8 PPG, 4.6 RPG and 2.9 APG while playing 25 minutes per game while shooting 42% from the field.

After starting in six games, coach Tommy Lloyd moved his role to a sixth man off the bench, which seemed to at times help with his offensive issues. See, Lewis struggled from the 3-point line shooting 18%, which was nearly 20 degrees lower than his freshman season and he was turning the ball over at a high rate.

While with Arizona and despite the offensive issues, Lewis was a highly regarded defensive player who seemed to always create issues for the opponents and cause havoc when playing tight on his offensive assignment.

However, Lewis wasn’t starting and with the new incoming freshmen, it was hard seeing him as a starter with a squad as deep as Arizona. So, he transferred to Georgetown, which has been struggling for a number of years now.

It is the perfect spot for Lewis to find starters minutes with a program that needs his toughness to help spark what has been a lackluster basketball team over the last couple of years.

Will Arizona miss Lewis’ defense?

Without question. However, the offensive struggles didn’t seem to have an end in sight if he continued to play loose with the ball.

In all, Arizona will miss Lewis, but it's a loss that the program can and will overcome.

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