Arizona 'pro' Henri Veesaar enters transfer portal

Just four days removed from a loss to Duke in the Sweet 16 of the 2025 NCAA Tournament, the Arizona Wildcats have already lost three players. Such is life in the transfer portal era.

Henri Veesaar is the latest Arizona player to enter the portal, officially announcing his intention to transfer on Monday. ESPN's Jeff Borzello was the first to report the news.

A 7-foot redshirt sophomore, Veesaar wasn't expected to play a big role for the Wildcats in 2024-25. Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd had built his team around 7-foot-2 sophomore Motiejus Krivas, and was planning to play through him this season. But when Krivas suffered a season-ending foot injury in December, Lloyd turned to Veesaar.

Veesaar responded with a breakout game in Arizona's Big 12 opener vs. TCU, racking up 15 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists in Arizona's 90-81 victory. He was 6-of-7 from the field and 1-of-2 from downtown.

Veesaar, who started five games this season, was one of the first players off the bench for Lloyd, along with sophomore guard KJ Lewis — who entered the transfer portal on Sunday. Freshman center Emmanuel Stephen is the other Arizona player in the portal.

Veesaar averaged 9.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 20.8 minutes per game this season. He has a high ceiling, and will command a lot of money in the portal. Earlier this season, Baylor coach Scott Drew called him "a pro."

"Their big guy [Henri Veesaar], he's a pro," Drew said. "First time I saw him on film I was like 'he's a pro.' I don't know how Tommy [Lloyd] does it. Year in and year out he finds them dudes, develops them. Does a great job."

Before Arizona's game against Oregon in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, a reporter asked Lloyd if he was "hiding" Veesaar from NBA scouts by not playing him big minutes. Lloyd did not like the question.

"That's insulting. Who are these NBA people? I've never seen them. Are these, like, sources?" Lloyd responded. "Listen, people who say that -- I'll just say this: A lot of people have answers to tests they've never passed. I'm a coach. I'm coaching my team. Anybody that thinks I'm holding a kid back is crazy. But you know what? On a team, you have other players. You have other scenarios, and there's this thing called fouls, there's this thing called fatigue. You don't get to coach a team in a vacuum."

"It literally makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up when people are saying that, because it's coming from a place of ignorance, and it's really disrespectful to say to a coach. To think that I would hide a kid is crazy. So yeah, on that note, thank you guys."

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