Chandler (Ariz.) Basha defensive lineman Anitoni Tahi has named his final six.

And it’s a heavy Big Ten and Big 12 list.

Tahi named a top six of, alphabetically, Arizona State, Illinois, Kansas State, Minnesota, Penn State and Wisconsin.

He broke down those six schools with Rivals.

Arizona State: “ASU is a great school and coach (Vince) Amey and coach (Diron) Reynolds are great defensive line coaches.”

Illinois: “They are a great school and I like how their defense operates

Kansas State: “K-State has a lot of new coaches but I have a great relationship with them and they are also building something good.”

Minnesota: “Their defense is just different and I love how they treat their players. They are building something strong.”

Penn State: “Talking to the coaches, I love how their schemes are and I’m looking forward to seeing the school.”

Wisconsin: “I love how their defensive line plays and I love how the coaches are.”

Tahi has already visited Arizona State, Wisconsin and Minnesota and next heads to Illinois on April 11 for his first official visit then to Kansas State on April 18 for an unofficial.

His official visit slate continues with a visit to Arizona State on May 1, continues with Minnesota on May 28 with Kansas State a week later on June 5, Wisconsin the following week on June 11 and rounds out with Penn State on June 19.

Arkansas guard DJ Wagner plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal, On3 has learned. Wagner spent two seasons with the Razorbacks after beginning his career at Kentucky.

Wagner played under John Carlipari for his entire college career so far. Now, he’ll be looking elsewhere to play during his senior season.

He averaged 7.4 points, 2.4 assists and 1.6 rebounds for Arkansas this past season. He mostly came off the bench this season, though he still averaged 23.6 minutes per game. He went on to start in 19 of 35 games he appeared in after starting in 64 of the first 65 games of his career. On his career, Wagner has played in 100 total games, logging 83 starts with 9.5 points and 2.4 assists per game.

Arkansas finished its season in the Sweet 16 following a 21-point loss to No. 1 seed Arizona. The Razorbacks ended the year with a 29-8 record, including a 13-5 mark vs. the SEC. Wagner helped Arkansas win to the SEC Tournament championship as well.

It was the second-straight Sweet 16 appearance for Arkansas under John Calipari. During Wagner’s lone season at UK, the Wildcats were eliminated in the round of 64 against Oakland.

As for Wagner, he was a highly-touted recruit coming out of high school. According to the Rivals Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services, he was a Five-Star Plus+ guard in the 2023 recruiting class. He was the top-ranked combo guard in his class and No. 7 overall.

With that type of pedigree, Wagner will likely have a number of suitors trying to acquire his services in the NCAA transfer portal this offseason. Where the Camden, NJ native ends up, for now remains to be seen. What is for sure is that Wagner is now looking for his third college basketball home in four seasons.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.

INDIANAPOLIS – Not long after experiencing Michigan’s wrath, Arizona’s Koa Peat reflected on a season while flanked by teammates.

“It means everything to me,” he said. “Being a kid from Arizona, putting on this jersey, having Arizona across my chest. Like I said in the beginning of the season when I put Arizona across my chest, I’m going to go 110 percent every game and leave no regrets.”

For most college basketball teams, the season ends with a loss. Regardless of how well a team’s slate of games plays out, and regardless of conference championship victories, only one team can come out on top in the end. 

Despite securing the highest remaining overall seed in the tournament, Arizona won’t be that team. The Wildcats ran into a juggernaut on Saturday in the Final Four of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium, putting an end to their historic season. 

Michigan dominated Arizona from wire to wire in a 91-73 win, advancing to the title game on Monday where the Wolverines will face UConn, which beat Illinois in the other national semifinal.

It was a season reminiscent of old times within the Wildcats program, pushing the bar of what’s expected, competing for a national championship year in and year out.

“It was an awesome, awesome journey,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “It was as much fun as I’ve ever had coaching basketball.”

This year, although closer than the Wildcats have been in 25 seasons, they still came up short. 

A matchup that was deemed a pseudo-national championship game by analysts was never really close, with Michigan taking it to the Wildcats from the jump, outclassing them at their own game.

For almost all of its matchups this season, Arizona has been the enforcer, the one that pushes its style on opponents, overpowering and outmatching just about every team it faced.

The Wildcats more than met their match Saturday.

“I think a lot of it is simply matchups,” Michigan coach Dusty May said. “When we’ve played this model, this Arizona model this year — and they’re the souped-up version, they’re the steroid version of Gonzaga and these other teams – we just felt like if a team relies on scoring 15 feet and in … because of our size, length, it’s going to be tough to score enough points 15 feet and in — if we’re making some shots and we’re in a decent rhythm offensively.”

Michigan’s Aday Mara was unlike any player the Wildcats have seen this season. The 7-foot-3 big man had a game-high 26 points and looked unstoppable, especially when Arizona’s Motiejus Krivas was on the bench. 

Mara stepped up in a big way with Big Ten Player of the Year Yaxel Lendeborg out for a chunk of the first half with a leg injury.

Lendeborg’s absence was hardly felt thanks to incredible shotmaking and defense from the Wolverines, which speaks to their depth and elite talent.

The rain in the Indianapolis area moved east prior to tipoff inside a filled-to-the-brim Lucas Oil Stadium, but that didn’t stop Michigan from pouring it on in the second half. A seemingly never-ending barrage of 3-pointers left both Wolverines and Wildcats fans with hands on their heads — surrender cobra style — one out of pure euphoria and the other out of agony. 

A 64% Michigan shooting effort from beyond the arc in the second half helped push the lead to as many as 30. 

Despite the innate comeback ability Arizona has shown this season, it was much too difficult a hill to climb against a team of Michigan’s caliber, closing the chapter on a season Lloyd and his bunch will look back on positively.

“I’m just really thankful for the brand and the program for everything they did for me, and these teammates (Jaden Bradley and Brayden Burries) right here,” Peat said. “I’m just super blessed. And it was a special year, and I’m just really thankful for everybody in Tucson.”

The team’s 36 wins are the highest mark in program history. Those 36 wins included a Big 12 regular season championship, a Big 12 Tournament championship and an NCAA Tournament  West Regional championship. 

Success was an everyday thing for this team, a lot of that stemming from the bond the Wildcats have and the culture Lloyd has built. The camaraderie within the group was evident on the court.

The historic season earned Lloyd a five-year extension, further instilling the belief that he’s the man to lead Arizona back to a national championship it has not won since 1997. While this chapter didn’t end how the Wildcats wanted, Lloyd is ready to return to the Final Four next season.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed we weren’t able to get it over the top for (Tucson),” Lloyd said. “But I think we all saw what’s possible again. So now let’s all roll up our sleeves and support each other and see if we can make this a normal thing.”

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.