Growth is never a straight line up.
Some days it’s clicking along in the right direction — forward — but most days it’s a slog.
Never has this been more evident than this year’s Arizona women’s basketball team.
During the nonconference season, with games coming one right after another — at one point in the month of November, there were four games in eight days — it’s hard to keep learning at a fast pace.
That’s why UA coach Adia Barnes kept breaking things down into small bite-sized pieces and having her Wildcats watch lots of game film to help them see how to cut down on the miscues, while still learning the system.
Once December rolled around and there were fewer games bunched together, it seemed like many of these lessons were sticking.
Two games where you can clearly see the before and after growth as a team and as individual players was the 69-66 loss to GCU on Dec. 5 and the 57-53 win over BYU on Dec. 21.
In the GCU game, the Wildcats went stagnant on both ends of the court with just under three minutes left in the game. The exact opposite happened against BYU, as scoring and defense stepped up and carried the Wildcats to the win.
Granted, against GCU the Wildcats weren’t at full strength with Isis Beh out with a concussion and Sahnya Jah not available, but there is more that went into figuring out a way to win against BYU and not having that answer for GCU.
Some of it is purely knowing that the Wildcats should have won that GCU game and let it slip through their hands. That’s enough to carry any team.
However, Barnes thinks most of it comes down to time.
“People figuring out their roles a bit more,” Barnes said. “I think just time for that. Two weeks is a long time in basketball, and we had, like, a week and a half without any games. It was like finals and stuff, but still practice time. I think you have time to get better.”
Arizona (10-4, 1-0) hopes the growth continues in the right direction on Tuesday as the Wildcats host Utah (10-2, 1-0) in the Big 12 home opener at noon.
Barnes also said that she saw the confidence building over the 16 days between the GCU and BYU games. Most likely, that came from holding CSU Bakersfield under 40 points on 29.2% shooting. And a trio putting up career performances against Weber State — Jada Williams scored 24 points (4 from long range), Sahnya Jah getting her first double-double (22 points, 10 rebounds) and freshman Mailien Rolf going a perfect 5 for 5 for 11 points.
Then, there are the little things that started to click. The offense was flowing better, and the defense got tighter. Whether it was switching from zone to man-to-man, pressing, trapping or hedging, the pieces started to fall into place. The Wildcats were handling the ball better and finishing more on transitions.
Of course, it’s still a work in progress — in the second quarter at BYU, with Skylar Jones and Breya Cunningham on the bench in foul trouble, the Wildcats let freshman Delaney Gibb go off for 13 points.
Yet, when it mattered the most Cunningham came up with the points and big stops — a block and disrupting an inbounds play — and Mailien Rolf pulled down a key defense rebound to seal the victory.
“(Breya is) getting more confidence as time goes on, getting more confidence in her team, having some success, just all these games in a row,” Barnes said. “I think now she’s playing a high level because she’s feeling good and she sees that we’re depending on her. We want to get the ball to her. And she’s an unselfish player. She’s barely ever double teamed and doesn’t score.”
Cunningham is still shooting 67% — first in the Big 12 and fifth in the nation.
Barnes said a lot of this improvement comes down to buying into the system more and more. It’s about doing it, succeeding and having a “Wow, it does work” moment.
“I think you buy into it when you see it work,” Barnes said. “We’re still not great. … It takes thousands of hours to make adjustments. If you’re used to doing one thing, it takes so much time (to change).”
One example Barnes pointed is teaching Jah to reverse the ball. Barnes said that she might have a one-on-one early in the shot clock, but if she waits until it’s off the sixth pass — instead of the second one — it might be easier not running into three defenders.
Or even Jones who wasn’t jump-stopping on drives early on, but once the coaches made it a focus, she started doing it every time. When she does this, her shooting percentages go up.
“It’s just thousands of hours of repetition on bad habits,” Barnes said. “Aari (McDonald) was a good defender but she was out of position 80% of the time. But she was so fast she could be out of position and still get to the right spot. Other players can’t do that, so the habits are important. It takes a long time to break them.”
