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

For a third straight week, Democrats at the Arizona Legislature are attempting Wednesday to repeal the state’s near-total ban on abortions, again spotlighting an issue that has put Republicans on the defensive in a battleground state for the presidential election.

Republicans have used procedural votes to block earlier repeal efforts, each time drawing condemnation from Democratic President Joe Biden, who has made his support for abortion access central to his campaign for reelection.

Arizona Republicans have been under intense pressure from some conservatives in their base, who firmly support the abortion ban, even as it’s become a liability with swing voters who will decide crucial races including the presidency, the U.S. Senate and the GOP’s control of the Legislature.

The vote comes a day after Biden said former President Donald Trump, his presumptive Republican rival, created a “healthcare crisis for women all over this country,” and imperiled their access to health care.

The Arizona Supreme Court concluded the state can enforce a long-dormant law that permits abortions only to save the pregnant patient’s life. The ruling suggested doctors could be prosecuted under the law first approved in 1864, which carries a sentence of two to five years in prison for anyone who assists in an abortion.

A week ago, one Republican in the Arizona House joined 29 Democrats to bring the repeal measure to a vote, but the effort failed twice on 30-30 votes. Democrats are hoping one more Republican will cross party lines on Wednesday so that the repeal bill can be brought up for a vote. There appears to be enough support for repeal in Arizona Senate, but a final vote is unlikely May 1.

The law had been blocked since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion nationwide.

After Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, then-Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, persuaded a state judge that the 1864 ban could be enforced. Still, the law hasn’t actually been enforced while the case was making its way through the courts. Brnovich’s Democratic successor, Attorney General Kris Mayes, urged the state’s high court against reviving the law.

Mayes has said the earliest the law could be enforced is June 8, though the anti-abortion group defending the ban, Alliance Defending Freedom, maintains county prosecutors can begin enforcing it once the Supreme Court’s decision becomes final, which is expected to occur this week.

If the proposed repeal wins final approval from the Republican-controlled Legislature and is signed into law by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, a 2022 statute banning the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy would become the prevailing abortion law.

Planned Parenthood officials vowed to continue providing abortions for the short time they are still legal and said they will reinforce networks that help patients travel out of state to places like New Mexico and California to access abortion.

This past summer, abortion rights advocates began a push to ask Arizona voters to create a constitutional right to abortion.

The proposed constitutional amendment would guarantee abortion rights until a fetus could survive outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks. It also would allow later abortions to save the parent’s life, or to protect her physical or mental health.

Republican lawmakers, in turn, are considering putting one or more competing abortion proposals on the November ballot.

A leaked planning document outlined the approaches being considered by House Republicans, such as codifying existing abortion regulations, proposing a 14-week ban that would be “disguised as a 15-week law” because it would allow abortions until the beginning of the 15th week, and a measure that would prohibit abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they’re pregnant.

House Republicans have not yet publicly released any such proposed ballot measures.