INDIANAPOLIS — Anthony Dell’Orso only played nine minutes in Arizona’s Regional Final victory over Purdue. He made one field goal, but it was the most important shot of the game.
With the Wildcats on a run, he sprinted to the right wing in transition, and Jaden Bradley fed him an underhand pitch. He calmly drilled a three, putting Arizona ahead by six, and forcing Purdue to call timeout.
That’s one way to sum up Dell’Orso’s role for the Wildcats. The glue that can come through with a big play when needed and can provide a different skillset to many of his teammates. It’s a far cry from his time at Campbell, where he was the main on-ball creator for two seasons before transferring. The numbers may have dipped, but the 19-year-old that walked into Buies Creek nearly four years ago has grown into a 22-year-old veteran looking to bring Arizona its first national championship in 29 years.
When Kevin McGeehan was recruiting Dell’Orso from Australia back in 2022, the Fighting Camels’ season had already ended, but Dell’Orso was still going. It gave McGeehan more time to sink his teeth into the recruitment and the nitty gritty, watching each game that Dell’Orso played.
“We would call him the next day,” McGeehan told Mid-Major Madness. “And we’re talking about the game and feedback. If you’re recruiting a high school kid, they might play on Friday night and you have a game on Saturday, very rarely are you gonna see livestream stuff. I thought it was a unique opportunity because we were keeping up with his current season.”
That commitment to him affirmed Dell’Orso’s commitment to Campbell. Discussing the intricacies of his game helped him translate the way he talked about the game to the way that Campbell talked about the game and gave him an introduction to what college basketball would be like.
So, by the time he got to campus and showed his talent, he was ready to roll.
“To start the school year, he just had that kind of it-factor,” McGeehan said. “Right off the bat, [he had a] real knack for understanding how the pieces fit together and how to impact winning. He’s just a natural, and I was super excited because I thought ‘OK, we really have something here.’”
Dell’Orso started 27 games in his freshman year, scoring 12.5 points per game, and then upped that mark to 19.5 as a sophomore in 2023-24. He made Second Team All-CAA in the Fighting Camels’ first year in the conference in his sophomore season, but it would be the last he played for them.
“He played himself into another opportunity,” McGeehan said.
And he found that opportunity at Arizona, where his role would have to change significantly in order to fit in.
He joined a Wildcats team that had veteran guards in Bradley and Caleb Love as the primary ball handlers. Dell’Orso wasn’t going to take the ball out of their hands, so he had to find other ways to impact the game, and they believed in his jump shot.
But once Arizona lost to Duke in the Sweet 16 last season, Dell’Orso wasn’t sure what his role would look like as a senior. In the offseason, he worked with strength and conditioning coach Christopher Rounds to build a workout plan that would make him a bigger, stronger defender.
“I was about 179 pounds when I got to Arizona,” Dell’Orso said. “I came back this year at around 208 to 210. That transformation was completely different. I could notice it on offense, on defense especially, rebounding, moving the ball, and just moving in general, I felt a lot better.”
Rounds designed a unique workout plan for him, and decided to do it alongside Dell’Orso, who said that his coach didn’t want to teach something that he’d never done.
“It was a different style,” Dell’Orso said about his workout and diets in the buildup to this season. “Talking about eating food, and the way to eat foods, and what type of foods. I just bought in. I had the time to do it in the offseason, and it took off pretty quick.”
It tailored him well to play Arizona’s style this year, which has been defined by its dominant size, rebounding, and interior defense in the frontcourt. Dell’Orso, who has never been known for his defense, has improved in that area, and has had to in order to be on the floor for this team.
The transformation in his body is noticeable through the screen as well.
“He looked like a grown man,” McGeehan said. “I’m sure that was a huge emphasis for him in the offseason. To be able to hang both physically with the wear and tear of that schedule, but also on the defensive end, I’m assuming he needed that.”
“I just knew for my career that I needed to be bigger and stronger,” Dell’Orso said.
Now in the Final Four, he has the chance to help Arizona win the national championship. Against Michigan’s size and physicality, having his ability to shoot the ball could be a big difference maker, like it was in wins against Iowa State, Houston, BYU and UCLA, where he scored 20-plus points.
He’s been a huge part of some of Arizona’s biggest wins, but he’s also had games where he’s not as much part of the picture. Some nights he’ll play 30 minutes, others, he’ll play 15. He’s been mentally strong to deal with the minutes fluctuation and not knowing exactly what he might need to do in a given game, and that’s what it takes to be a champion.
McGeehan has his eyes and ears open to Dell’Orso when he’s watching Arizona, so he notices all the little things that he does on the bench. He mentioned seeing Dell’Orso telling his team to huddle and talk from the sideline after a whistle.
“He’s that grounding force,” he said.
“He’s evolved with their team,” McGeehan said. “I think he’s all about winning. And I’m sure that’s one of the reasons why they value him so much.”
