MESA — Just like during any past offseason, college basketball coaches packed into Arizona Athletic Grounds to see and be seen by rising high school seniors and juniors, sometimes even freshmen or sophomores, at a major recruiting showcase over the weekend.
Arizona associate head coach Jack Murphy wore a navy T-shirt with an impossible-to-miss “Block A” while he sat along the baseline to watch La Mirada wing Gene Roebuck play in the Section 7 event, a massive tournament of top-tier high school teams mostly from the West.
Former UA player and coach Josh Pastner wore a dark gray T-shirt with a large UNLV logo to watch Las Vegas Bishop Gorman and many other teams. UCLA coach Mick Cronin bounced around the 16-court facility in a baby blue Bruin T-shirt and UA grad David Miller, now working as an assistant coach under Sean Miller at Texas, wore Longhorn burnt orange, all so prospects couldn’t miss knowing who actually came to watch them play.
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Some things never change. Coaches still need to get in front of players, while connecting to them off the court, selling them on opportunity ahead. That’s still required, even if cash compensation is also now allowed.
“I mean, NIL is cool and all, but my main thing is I want to build a good relationship with the coaches,” said Darius Wabbington, a well-regarded rising junior big man at Phoenix Sunnyslope who has received a UA scholarship offer. “To have a great relationship with them, that’s the most important thing.”

Sunnyslope's Darius Wabbington (21) has received an offer to play for Arizona.
But, at least for elite prospects such as Wabbington, there are also plenty of other things to consider as the transfer-portal-NIL era transitions to the portal-rev-share-and-maybe-NIL era.
Such as: Will the transfer portal be just as active next spring if seven-figure NIL packages aren’t fueling it?
Will NIL all but disappear now that the House settlement has passed with a provision requiring NIL deals of more than $600 to face the scrutiny of an “NIL Go” auditing process that aims to determine if they are “fair market value” and not disguised pay-for-play?
Or will NIL deals, which are typically from booster-funded collectives or commercial businesses, keep going if are successful?
Also, how does revenue sharing happen? That’s supposed to go into effect for the first time this season, when schools can pay up to $20.5 million to athletes directly, with football and men’s basketball expected to receive the vast majority — unless Title IX and other potential legal issues get in the way.
It’s a lot to process, for everyone.
“I was just down at the Top 100 Camp, and one of the things I picked up on was that revenue sharing is different than NIL,” said Goodyear Millennium forward Cameron Holmes, a UA recruiting target. “I’m still learning a lot. I really don’t know a lot on that topic, but me and my dad always talk about stuff like that because my dad is very big on it and he covers a lot of that stuff for me.
“But, yeah, revenue sharing. That’s the one thing I know: That revenue sharing is different than NIL.”

Goodyear Millennium standouts Aden Diggs, left, and Cameron Holmes have some fun during a postgame interview at the Section 7 showcase on Friday, June 20, 2025.
There are so many questions ahead that many of the UA targets the Star spoke to this month at USA Basketball’s U19 training camp and at the Section 7 high school showcase said they likely wouldn’t make a decision until the spring of their senior year.
They still may build relationships with coaches but ultimately won’t pick one of them for a while.
“I’m probably gonna wait because of the portal and things like that,” said Tajh Ariza, a rising high school senior from Los Angeles.
Tampa forward , who recently visited UA and played at Section 7 for Zephyrhills (Fla.) Christian Academy, said he’s also focused on how rosters might shake out by the time he enters college in 2026-27.
“I’m not really worried about the NIL or anything like that,” Bryant said. “The only thing I’m worried about is the transfer portal. So I’m not looking to make a decision for a while.”
Holmes said he also may hold off because of “the way things are going,” even though he has a brother at UA and says he loves Arizona.
“I have a couple visits set up for the rest of the summer, and we’ll see how that goes,” Holmes said. “I was looking for a commitment between December, January. But to be honest, I really have no idea when I’ll commit.”
By next spring, to be sure, the transfer portal will be going again. Players are always looking to find better playing situations or more shots to take, though the added lure of outsized NIL may not be there.
Or it might. A bill has already been in which the state’s schools would actually be prohibited from reporting NIL deals to NIL Go, and other lawsuits are popping up to fight the idea that there should be any sort of limit on college athlete compensation.
There’s also no telling how effective or quick it will be to audit all the potential $600-plus NIL deals anyway.
“The states are saying ‘you don’t have to deal with that,’” Pastner said, referring to NIL Go. “I think there’s only two ways to work it out: Either there’s got to be a federal law, an antitrust law by the federal government, or the only other way is to make is them employees where there’s collective bargaining and all that.
“I don’t know if there’s any other way.”