Arizona guard Shane Nowell enters NCAA transfer portal

Shane Nowell decided to give Arizona’s new coaching staff a try, but after one season it appears the fit wasn’t right.

Nowell, a 6-foot-6 guard who played in 19 games for the Wildcats as a freshman, has entered the NCAA transfer portal.

A 4-star prospect in the 2021 recruiting class, Nowell signed with the UA in November 2020 to play for Sean Miller. When Miller was fired in April 2021 it prompted fellow 2021 signees Shane Dezonie and KJ Simpson to ask out of their NLIs and sign with Vanderbilt and Colorado, respectively (though Dezonie has since transferred to St. Joseph’s).

Nowell averaged 3.5 minutes in his 19 games with Arizona, contributing 15 points, 15 rebounds, six assists, four steals and two blocks. He scored a career-high 5 points at Cal on Jan. 23 and pulled down a career-best four rebounds against UT-Rio Grande Valley last November.

With the NCAA transfer portal unofficially closing on May 1—players must be entered in the portal by then in order to be eligible to play in 2022-23—Arizona is returning either six or seven scholarship players from the Pac-12 champion/Sweet 16 team. The question mark is wing Dalen Terry, who has entered the NBA Draft but has retained his college eligibility and has until June 1 to decide to stay in the draft or return to school.

Arizona has also signed 7-foot Phoenix-area center Dylan Anderson and has a commitment from 6-8 Serbian forward Filip Borovicanin, leaving it with four available scholarships (five if Terry doesn’t return). The UA did not use all 13 scholarships in 2021-22, and may do the same this upcoming season, as it anticipates pending NCAA sanctions.