Arizona baseball had won five of its last seven games, which included three road wins, entering Friday evening’s matchup with Kansas State.
Arizona
Oakland star Trey Townsend has decided where he’ll play his final season
The Trey Townsend mystery tour has reached its final destintation.
Townsend, who starred for Oakland for four years and recently helped lead the Golden Grizzlies to the best season in program history, will finish his college career at the University of Arizona. Townsend and Oakland head coach Greg Kampe both confirmed Townsend’s next stop to The News on Wednesday.
Townsend, 21, had made multiple official visits as one of the hottest transfer targets on the market, including to Arizona and Ohio State. His final choice came down to those two schools.
Townsend also made an unofficial visit to Michigan, to meet with new head coach Dusty May, and he spoke on the phone with Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, but he canceled his visit to East Lansing this week. Michigan State was interested in both Townsend and fellow forward Frankie Fidler from the University of Omaha; Fidler committed to Michigan State on Tuesday, a day after Townsend’s visit to MSU was canceled.
Townsend had significant interest from at least a dozen other schools at the power-conference level.
At Arizona, Townsend will help fill the void left by forward Keshad Johnson, who averaged 11.5 points and 5.9 rebounds as a senior. Johnson is expected to be a second-round pick in the NBA Draft.
Townsend, 6-foot-6 and 225 pounds, is coming off a stellar fourth season at Oakland, averaging 17.3 points and 8.1 rebounds in being named the Horizon League player of the year. He also was named MVP of the Horizon League tournament, after scoring 38 in a championship-game victory over Milwaukee to earn the Golden Grizzlies their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2011. In the NCAA Tournament, Townsend posted double-doubles in a win over Kentucky and an overtime loss over N.C. State, to draw significant interest in the transfer market.
Townsend is an Oxford native whose parents, Skip and Nicole Leigh, both played basketball at Oakland. Since the age of 8, Townsend wanted to play for Kampe, and he did for four years. He earned his degree, and his No. 4 someday will hang from the rafters at the O’Rena.
After this season ended, Townsend declared for the NBA Draft and hired an agent, to test the process, but he always was expected to play a fifth collegiate season and take advantage of his Name, Image and Likeness opportunities. Townsend, who averaged 16.5 points as a junior and 13.3 points as a sophomore, was expected to get an NIL deal worth well into the six figures by transferring to a power conference.
Arizona, coached by Tommy Lloyd, will play in the Big 12 Conference next season. The Wildcats are coming off an appearance in the Sweet 16, falling to Clemson as a No. 2 seed.
Townsend, who was named the Lou Henson Award winner as the top mid-major player in college basketball, is one of several big roster losses for Oakland this offseason, along with Blake Lampman, Jack Gohlke and Rocket Watts, who have graduated and have exhausted their college eligibility.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
In these four-round projections, the Arizona Cardinals don’t get a tackle until the fourth round.
We are just days away from the 2026 NFL draft, and that means some final mock drafts. What direction will the draft take the Arizona Cardinals?
Draft Wire’s Curt Popejoy put together a four-round mock draft for the Cardinals. They go defense early but rebuild the offense for 2026 and moving forward, including landing their potential franchise quarterback.
Cardinals 4-round mock draft
Here are the players in the first four rounds Popejoy projects for Arizona.
- Round 1: Ohio State EDGE/LB Arvell Reese
- Round 2: Alabama QB Ty Simpson
- Round 3: Clemson WR Antonio Williams
- Round 4: Florida OT Austin Barber
What we think of the picks
The Cardinals want to trade out of the third pick and draft a tackle, so not getting a tackle until Round 4 seems unlikely, although they did meet with Barber. They do have options at right tackle for 2026 already on the roster.
Reese would be a great pick if they don’t trade back, as they badly need pass-rushing help off the edge.
Drafting Simpson seems inevitable at this point, so it has to be in a mock draft, although the feeling is they will need to go up into Round 1 again to get him.
Williams has speed and is almost six feet tall, but he does have short arms.
Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.
Due to significant injuries to the CB position last year which includes a shoulder surgery for Terrion Arnold, the Lions CB position scored a 6/10 need on my Lions Defensive Draft Need Rankings. Thus, an early-round selection of a young, healthy prospect like Keith Abney would not come as a surprise. He enters the draft with very low medical concern level.
Here is the excerpt from my medical report on Keith Abney:
(Ages in parentheses are at start of 2026 season and are factored into the concern level. Injury info and ages based on available public information are unverified and subject to update. Games played data courtesy of sports-reference.com.)
Keith Abney, CB (21) – Arizona State
Projected round 2-3. #43 on Jeff Risdon board Feb 19.
Concern level 0/10
There is an isolated report of a hand injury but no corroborating information. Even if the hand injury is true, that’s of minimal to no long-term concern.
His availability in his final two seasons has been perfect. Overall, Abney appears to be medically clean and is at an excellent age.
He finished college with 6 INT and 21 PBU.
For more Lions coverage, follow us on X, @TheLionsWire, and give our Facebook page a like. Follow Jimmy on X, @JimmyLiaoMD
In the first game of the series, Arizona (14-23, 5-11 Big 12) battled in a low-scoring affair but fell short in a 2-1 loss to Kansas State (24-12, 8-8 Big 12). The Wildcats from Tucson held the Wildcats from Manhattan at bay for a good majority of the night.
Given that Kansas State leads the Big 12 in conference play in batting, on-base percentage, and slugging, Arizona had a rather good performance, but it was not enough.
Owen Kramkowski pitched seven scoreless innings before allowing the first Kansas State run in the top of the eight. He finished with six strikeouts and kept the high octane Wildcats at bay.
“I thought the defense played well behind him too,” said head coach Chip Hale. “There’s a lot of ground balls, and we made plays where we were positioned in good places, and he was pitching in the eighth inning. That’s unbelievable.”
Garrett Hicks (3-1) came in to try and stop the bleeding for the Wildcats and did so by not allowing Kansas State to take the lead in the eighth. It was in the ninth when the lead was surrendered.
It took until the sixth inning but the first run was scored by Arizona. Andrew Cain singled to left field and after Maddox Mihalakis flew out, it was Beau Sylvester bringing Cain home with a triple through right center field.
Sylvester extended his hitting streak to eight games and it proved to be not enough to get Arizona to the finish line.
Kansas State tied the game at the top of the eight when back to back singles got runners on at first and third. Then a passed ball allowed the third base runner to come home.
Arizona had a chance to retake the lead in the bottom of the ninth after Cain singled to deep right field. With Sylvester back at the plate, it seemed like it was a perfect set up.
A wild pitch nearly got past Kansas State and Cain tried to take advantage of it and steal home. However, Kansas State was able to corral the pitch and get Cain out at home.
AJ Evasco started the ninth inning with a double for Kansas State and back to back fly outs eventually got him home to give Kansas State the lead and the win.
With eight players being left on base, Arizona will need to bring those runners in more often than not if they want to tie the series Saturday afternoon.
As a young team, the Wildcats have had to walk a very tight line between disappointment and dejection and will need to continue handling these losses with grace if it wants to turn a corner.
“It’s the way it goes, it’s baseball,” said Hale. “If we don’t handle it, we will come out tomorrow and won’t be ready to go, so hopefully they handle it.”
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