After court eligibility ruling, Arizona expected to target Clemson transfer RJ Godfrey

News surfaced that a U.S. District court judge in Colorado had issued a class-wide injunction ordering an additional year of college eligibility in 2026-27 for all high school class of 2022 athletes.

Several lawsuits have been challenging the NCAA's new "five-in-five" rule, including one involving potential UA recruiting target RJ Godfrey, since it allows all athletes a five-year window to play after their high school graduations -- except those who just finished their fourth year of college athletics.

The ruling could be especially critical for the Wildcats, who are expected to target Godfrey to replace NBA Draft pick Koa Peat, even though Lloyd remained somewhat measured Friday about his next move.

After the Wildcats finished practice at the Richard Jefferson Gym, in preparation for their three-game exhibition tour of Lithuania in August, Lloyd said staffers were helping him keep up to date on the dizzying changes to the recruiting landscape this summer.

"I don't get caught up too much in the weeds and all that stuff because I think if you did, you could drive yourself crazy," Lloyd said. "My job is to take whatever's allowed and make sure that we're doing the best job we can and put our program in an advantageous situation. I don't overthink it too much."

After Friday's ruling, UA's advantage this time could be in picking up Godfrey as a potential starter at power forward.

The 6-7 forward from Georgia, who is one of 16 plaintiffs in a Georgia lawsuit challenging the five-in-five rule, has spent the past two seasons as a high-major starter, for Georgia in 2024-25 and upon his return to Clemson last season.

While playing his first two college seasons at Clemson in a reserve role, Godfrey scored seven points in the Tigers' 2024 NCAA Tournament win over the Wildcats.

"We're going to be opportunistic," Lloyd said in general of adding another player. "If there's an opportunity to do something like that, hopefully we can put ourselves in position. There's been no secret that we would love to add another guy to this roster but we've just got to make sure that it's the right thing."

Still, regardless of what happens next, the Wildcats already have a roster of 12 scholarship players that include four freshmen and four transfers to join returning starters Motiejus Krivas and Ivan Kharchenkov. UA also has two players who redshirted last season, forward Mabil Mawut and guard Bryce James.

"Sometimes it works in reverse," Lloyd said of his roster building, "where you're recruiting some of your young high school kids first before you know how things are going to look. Obviously we feel good about the high school kids that we were able to bring in, both domestically and internationally. Then it's what veterans can you get back? Once you kind of have an idea there, you fill in the gaps with some transfers.

"We feel we feel like we were successful in all three areas, and now it's about putting it together and having no assumptions."

The Wildcats started putting things together in June, then took a midsummer break before resuming small-group and team workouts last week. On Friday, they held a video session and practiced for about 90 minutes in front of media at Richard Jefferson Gym (practices are normally closed).

Eleven scholarship players were fully available for Friday's workout, plus walk-ons Jackson Cook, Addison Arnold and Joaquin Rigdon, another new arrival who is the son of former UA guard Dylan Rigdon. Former UA guard Evan Nelson, who has moved into a graduate assistant role, also practiced along with Lloyd's son, Liam, a former GA who is now a full-time staffer.

Guard JJ Mandaquit was the only scholarship player sitting out full-contact drills Friday because he is still recovering from a foot injury he suffered at Washington last season. But center Ugnius "Oogie" Jarusevicius has returned from back issues that limited him to just one game at Nebraska last season.

"Oogie's been basically a full go for the most part, and he's making good progress," Lloyd said. "JJ didn't do much today, but he has had days where he's practiced pretty close to full, so he's made a lot of progress.

"With JJ it's about just getting his his feet under him, literally -- getting his legs stronger and building for more."

Lloyd said he wasn't sure yet if Mandaquit would play on the Lithuania trip, but he is expected to be back fully by September and October preseason practices.

On Friday, Mandaquit mostly stood on the sidelines while the Wildcats ran through a series of half- and full-court drills. Under NCAA rules for teams taking summer exhibition tours, they have been granted 10 extra full practices on top of normal off-season workouts.

"I'll take all the time I can get," Lloyd said. "We love playing basketball. We love being on the court together, and we love trying to figure it out.

"I know it's going to be a long season. We've actually already done a lot this summer, and we still have a lot more to go."

Lloyd said he prefers to run more five-on-five drills now, then break things down in more detail after the Wildcats' exhibition tour, during which they’ll face the Lithuanian and Ukrainian national teams, as well as Lithuania's second-tier national team.

Among the opponents Arizona is expected to face include former Wildcat forward Azuolas Tubelis, who is playing for the Lithuanian national team and recently spent time working out at UA.

"We're going to obviously going to play some really good teams on this trip, so we want to be prepared to play some five-on-five basketball and get a feel for that," Lloyd said. "When we get back in September, we'll kind of analyze where we're at and ... and do a lot more teaching and the basics. But for right now, we're kind of looking at more of the big picture."