Marquette transfer Dawson Garcia announced Thursday via Tipton Edits that he will be continuing his college career with the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Garcia was also considering Arizona, Illinois and a return to Marquette. He visited the UA on July 4 weekend.
Marquette transfer Dawson Garcia has committed to North Carolina, he tells @On3sports. pic.twitter.com/C2byWIzeAb
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) July 8, 2021
Garcia is a big addition to North Carolina’s frontcourt. The 6-foot-11 forward and former McDonald’s All-American averaged 13.0 points and 6.6 rebounds as a freshman in 2020-21 while shooting 48 percent from the field, 36 percent from 3 and 78 percent from the free throw line.
Arizona has two scholarship slots available for the 2021-22 season. And while head coach Tommy Lloyd said it’s unlikely the Wildcats will fill both, they will continue searching for avenues to do just that.
Arizona is thinnest in the frontcourt where Azuolas Tubelis, Christian Koloko and Oumar Ballo are the only traditional big men on the roster.
Oral Roberts transfer Kevin Obanor, a 6-foot-8 forward who averaged 18.7 points and 9.6 rebounds as a junior, has been linked to Arizona.
“Traditionally in the past, I’ve been really comfortable playing two bigs together and so having another guy might give us a little more depth and more opportunities,” Lloyd said last Thursday. “But if we don’t, I feel like we have guards with good size. We could play our own version of small ball and I think we’d be pretty good at it.”