Former Arizona forward Paulius Murauskas transferring to Saint Mary's

With the Gaels, Murauskas is expected to join fellow Lithuanian Augustas Marčiulionis, who was named the West Coast Conference's Player of the Year, and likely find much more playing time than he had as a seldom-used freshman at Arizona last season.

The Gaels lost forward Joshua Jefferson to the transfer portal and have little returning experience in the frontcourt.

"Should be a major contributor in the WCC," ESPN's Jonathan Givony said of Murauskas on X.

With the Wildcats, the 20-year-old Murauskas spent most of last season on the bench despite being what Givony said was "one of the top international prospects in his age group" and having a promising season in Lithuania in 2022-23.

Playing for Lietkabelis that season, Murauskas averaged 6.6 points while shooting 38.4% from 3-point range. He also played 18 high-level EuroCup games, averaging 4.4 points while shooting 23.3% from 3-point range.

But at Arizona last season, Murauskas appeared in just 23 of UA’s 36 games, with only a sprinkle of minutes since December when the game was on the line. He was Arizona’s top 3-point percentage shooter (51.9) but took only 27 3s while averaging just 5.0 minutes in the games he played.

Murauskas debuted with the Wildcats during an exhibition game in Tel Aviv in August, scoring 17 points while making 5 of 7 3-pointers against Israel Select. He then had three regular-season games of double-digit minutes in November before playing only spot minutes the rest of the way.

During the Pac-12 Tournament, Murauskas said college basketball was totally different than European professional ball but expressed no doubt in his abilities.

“I’m really confident in myself,” Murauskas said. “I think my time will come and we’ll see.”