Trey Townsend officially committed to Arizona in late April, three weeks after entering the transfer portal and just over a month after he helped lead Oakland to only its second NCAA Tournament win in school history. But the groundwork for his eventual arrival in Tucson began a year earlier.
Going into his fourth season with the Golden Grizzlies, where he began his career as a walk-on and ended as one of the most prolific scorers in school history, Townsend told coach Greg Kampe about his plans for the future.
“I wanted to graduate from Oakland to get my degree from there,” Townsend said Thursday in a media session for local reporters. “Both my parents played there and my dad played for Kampe, so I always wanted to have that moment. And fortunately, I was gifted the extra year because of COVID. So, in my mind, I wanted to explore that. If I didn’t have an extra year, I would have finished my career at Oakland. But since I was blessed that opportunity, I decided I wanted to take it and that was something we had talked about before the season.”
Townsend, a 6-foot-6 wing, was the first of Arizona’s three transfer pickups, committing on April 24 ahead of pledges from ex-Tennessee forward Tobe Awaka and former Campbell guard Anthony Dell’Orso. He picked the Wildcats over Louisville, Michigan State and Ohio State as well as the NBA, having gone through the draft process but opting to return to school like new teammates Jaden Bradley, KJ Lewis, Caleb Love and Dell’Orso did.
The fact that Townsend had such choices never seemed possible when he walked on at Oakland, picking the school where his father Skip and mother Nicole also played basketball over what he said were “one, one and a half” scholarship offers from Division II schools in Michigan.
“It was such a different thing for me, because coming out of high school ... I had no recruiting experience or anything like that,” he said. “So being on phone calls with a bunch of these power conference schools was something that I never really imagined would be possible. It was a cool experience for me, and it’s part of the reason I wanted to go through that was because I never had that coming out of high school, like a lot of these highly recruited guys. At times it was a little stressful, but it was what I wanted to go through and that’s a part of the whole process. I think I made a great decision.”
Most of those phone calls Townsend had were with assistant coaches, but not Arizona. He got the boss man, a sign of the “determination” the Wildcats had in recruiting him.
“I talked to Coach Lloyd the first day that they started recruiting me over the phone, and a lot of schools had just like assistant coaches or not head coaches reach out to me,” Townsend said. “So when Coach Tommy Lloyd, head coach at Arizona, contacts you, that’s a special thing.”
Townsend said he saw how Arizona helped Keshad Johnson expand his game, particularly from the 3-point line, and parlay that into a two-way deal with the Miami Heat. He believes he can fill that same role.
“I kind of see myself being that rebounding, 3-and-D guy,” said Townsend, who averaged 19.0 points, 8.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game last season at Oakland but attempted only 32 3s (making 12).
Townsend has scored 1,813 points in his career, and barring injury will give Arizona a pair of 2,000-point scorers along with Love this season. He’s played and started 129 games, the kind of experience can only help the Wildcats in the postseason, as it did for Townsend’s Golden Grizzlies.
Sporting an 8-man rotation that included a 6th-year senior (Jack Gohlke) and five others in their fourth or fifth year of college basketball, Oakland upset a Kentucky team in the first round that featured three NBA Draft selections including two lottery picks. Townsend had 17 points, 12 rebounds and four assists in that win, then followed that up with 30 points and 13 boards in an overtime loss to eventual Final Four participant North Carolina State.
Because of that run, as well as helping lead Oakland to its first Horizon League regular-season title, Townsend said he felt he’d accomplished everything he could there. And he believes Kampe, whom he calls a family member, agreed.
“Obviously from his perspective, it’s tough to lose a player that you’ve grown and seen grow through all the years,” Townsend said. “And I feel our relationship maybe would have been a little more shaky if this kind of came out of nowhere ... but the idea was there, I talked to him in the spring of ‘23. To do everything that we had last year made it easier.
Kampe is the longest-tenured coach at any Division I school, having been at Oakland since 1984. The 68-year-old is one victory shy of 700, a mark only nine other active D-I coaches had achieved.
“He’s just a great role model and inspiration for me as a player, he gave me the opportunity to walk on there,” Townsend said. “Even if it maybe was a favor to my dad at first, it ended up he believed in me and put me in a position to (succeed). I started every single game that I played at Oakland. Just because he gave me the opportunity he allowed me to work for, and nothing was given to me and he kind of instilled that hardworking mindset, helped me get to where I am today. So I have a lot of admiration and give a lot of credit to him to where I’m at.”
Since arriving in Tucson six weeks ago, Townsend has been getting used to the extreme heat while also working with strength coach Chris Rounds to “sculpt” his frame to reduce body fat. Being slimmer in that respect should help him with Arizona’s faster tempo, which he said has been among the biggest adjustments to make.
The UA was 16th nationally in adjusted tempo in 2023-24, per KenPom.com, at 72.2 possessions per 40 minutes. Oakland was 248th, at 66.5, and in six games against power-conference opponents averaged 64.3 possessions.
“The group of guys that we have been coming together really well,” Townsend said. “They’ve helped me adjust to playing this level. And even the younger guys are teaching me everyday. No complaints at all, having a blast.”
