Arizona in the Mix for Nation's Top Recruit

In the Big 12 Tournament, the Wildcats made it to the conference title game and fell 72-64 to Houston, which would go on to play for the National Title.

Following the end to the season, Arizona lost star guard Caleb Love to graduation and forward Carter Bryant to the NBA Draft where he went No. 14 overall to the San Antonio Spurs.

Plus, Arizona saw two key players in KJ Lewis and Henri Veesaar leave the program and transfer to Power 4 programs.

Despite that, Arizona will be fully loaded again with four key returners in Jaden Badley, Tobe Awaka, Anthony Dell’Orso and Motiejus Krivas. Plus, Lloyd and his staff signed the No. 2 recruiting class according to 24/7 Sports.

Now, Arizona is locking in on the recruiting trail again and working to put together another high-level class for the 2026 recruiting cycle.

However, this is also the time where coaches begin to look at the 2027 class and start to lay the foundation for their decision dates in the future.

Lloyd and his staff always make sure to turn over every rock and even go back to check on the status of high-level recruits across the country to see if they can get a footing in the recruitment.

The No. 1 recruit for the 2027 class is small forward and five-star prospect Bruce Branch lll, who has a 6-foot-7, 190-pound frame out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where he plays for Prolific Prep.

Well, while on the road for recruiting, Lloyd and his staff made sure to drop by Prolific Prep showing that Arizona is highly interested in the talented wing.

It will be interesting to see when Branch schedules a visit to Tucson sometime for the regular season of college basketball, or during the summer of 2026. If so, it shows that the trip to Florida by Lloyd might’ve helped get the WIldcats in the middle of the action for his talents.