Arizona hosts Weber State to wrap up non-conference: Scouting report, Jones' foot, 2 Wildcats

Arizona Wildcats (8-4) hosts Weber State Wildcats (3-5) l 6 p.m. Monday l McKale Center l ESPN+ l 1400-AM

He said it

Arizona assistant Anthony Turner on Weber State: “Weber State is interesting. That was a school I was at just previous to coming here. But they're completely different. They only have one player on their team who I recruited. That player is number 20, (Taylor) Smith, who is actually their best player right now, leading scorer. She had 20 points at Seattle (Saturday). That was a really good game to watch, because defensively, Seattle does a lot of the same things that we did and they made some adjustments in their press break and in their offensive attack that we're going to have to really pay attention to, but we understand that offensively, they struggle with pressure. They don't really have a true point guard. Their point guards are more shooting guards who are really good feet set shooters. We're emphasizing really pressuring them trying to get turnovers.

“I'll let you in on a secret, one of our game goals is to force them into more turnovers than made field goals. (For) the year, they are averaging 24 made field goals and 20 turnovers. We want to flip that. That's our mindset going into the game and what we want to do defensively Now, conversely, on their defensive end, they're going to do some things to try to disrupt us. They're going to be really physical with us try to keep us out of the post with our post players. They're going to try to keep our guards from setting screens by jamming us up. We talked about having a strong mental approach. The quote that we gave the kids today is ‘Never stand begging for that which you have the power to earn.’ When they're clutching you, grabbing you, holding you, don't look at the referee someone is out there fouling me. We jab, fake, get off of it and get to what we need to get to, because we're strong mentally — understanding that nobody's going to bail us out and we can't beg for anything.”

On the sidelines

More tape: Skylar Jones thought her right foot was just sore and she was just playing through it. That is, until UA’s trainer Bart Jameson saw her limping after returning from the Thanksgiving tournament in Palm Springs.

Turns out Jones has plantar fasciitis.

“I didn’t want to sit out of practice, so I didn’t say anything,” Jones said.

Jones has been using a boot when she’s not practicing or playing in games to keep pressure off her foot. In addition, she’s getting treatment, sleeping with her foot in a sling and rolling out her foot on a ball. Jones even has new insoles.

This week, her coaches and Jameson had her sit out for a few practices to rest her foot – they knew she would just keep going. Jones was back on Sunday and said that “My foot was still on fire; hopefully it goes away.”

For games, Jones goes through a lot of tape on her right foot. It’s taped all the way past her ankle and as she says, “It’s like a fat cast. Normally, I just get my ankle taped, but this goes all the way up my whole foot.”

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“It feels much better like this than if I didn’t have the tape,” Jones said. “I want this to go away.”

A first: This is the first time since Adia Barnes signed on to coach the Wildcats that there have been four players averaging double figures. Breya Cunningham leads the way with 13.6 points, Jada Williams has 10.5 points and Skylar Jones and Paulina Paris are each averaging 10.3 points per game.

Taking a little break: With finals, which brings a lot of stress, Barnes had a few light practices this past week. On Thursday, she decided to do something fun and surprised the Wildcats by taking the whole squad to Snooze for brunch.

Two for two for two for two: Weber State coach Jenteal Jackson, in her second year as head coach, played basketball and golf at BYU and Westminster College. At Westminster, she led both teams to a pair of Frontier Conference Championships.

In high school (Salt Lake City Skyline), she was named Miss Basketball and was a five-time Utah Junior Golf state champion.

A tale of two Wildcats: Arizona and Weber State are both the Wildcats.

So, who came first?

That would be Arizona in November of 1914, gaining the nickname from an L.A. Times columnist who wrote after a game against Occidental College, that Arizona, “showed the fight of Wildcats.”

Weber State’s nickname arrived in 1925 when a local sportswriter in Ogden, Utah, wrote that the team was “scrappy as a bunch of Wildcats.” And it is also tied to a player, Wallace Morris, who was called "Wildcat" Morris.

By the numbers

9: Arizona has held its opponents under 40 points nine times during Barnes’ tenure at the helm. The most recent coming last Tuesday against CSU Bakersfield, 76-39.

10: This is meeting number 10 between these two programs. Arizona has a slight 5-4 edge in the win column. The last time these two teams played was in 2012 when Arizona came away with a win at McKale Center, 81-49. Ring of honor member, Davellyn Whyte, led the way with 19 points (7 of 9 from the field, 4 of 5 3’s), three steals and seven rebounds.

5: Weber State has five returners, five transfers and five freshmen. The returners are Kendra Parra, Kennedy Eskelson, Margarita Satini, Taylor Smith and Amanda Edwards.