For UA women’s hoops to hit ceiling, Breya Cunningham needs to be on the floor

Arizona coach Adia Barnes said it best this week regarding talented but foul-prone sophomore center Breya Cunningham: “We are better when she’s on the floor.”

By several measures, Cunningham is the Wildcats’ best player. She’s also their most likely player to get into foul trouble.

Cunningham has improved in that area since her freshman year. But old habits are hard to break. Cunningham still has lapses.

She played a season-low 11 minutes in Arizona’s win over Texas Tech on Tuesday. Cunningham got called for her second foul with 4:44 left in the first quarter. She got her third halfway through the second. Her fourth foul came with four minutes left in the third quarter — after just 57 seconds of action in the period.

The Wildcats won anyway. But Barnes knows their odds of winning are much greater if Cunningham is available.

“The magic potion to keep Breya ... out of foul trouble? I don’t know,” said Barnes, whose team concludes the regular season at Arizona State at 4 p.m. Saturday. “It’s just being smart and not taking chances in certain situations, and that’s experience.

“Understanding that if you get an early foul, you have to have the discipline, the self-discipline, to not go for that second block. To be really intentional. Palms have to be really straight up in that situation to not allow the ref to have a chance to make the call.”

As Barnes noted, Cunningham has gotten better in these areas. Barnes called it “progression, not perfection.”

Last season, Cunningham averaged 7.1 fouls per 40 minutes; this season, that figure is 6.2.

In conference play, Cunningham averaged 8.0 fouls per 40 minutes as a freshman; as a sophomore, that number has dropped to 5.9.

If we define “foul trouble” as four or more fouls in a game, Cunningham has been in trouble much less this season. She had four or five fouls in 25 of 34 games last season, or 73.6%. This season she’s had four or five fouls in 15 of 29 games, or 51.7%.

“But they’re just in bunches, like three games in a row, and she clearly, no doubt about it, is frustrated,” Barnes said. “You have to learn, and you have to not take those chances, which is hard as a competitor.”

Cunningham played just 13 minutes in February road losses to Colorado and Oklahoma State. She fouled out of both games.

Cunningham had 11 points, eight rebounds and four blocks in 28 minutes in Arizona’s win over BYU on Feb. 19. She followed that up with 17 points and a career-high-tying 15 rebounds in 38 minutes in the UA’s win at Houston last Saturday. The minutes were the second most she’s played this season.

Per Sports-Reference.com, Cunningham has the highest PER (Player Efficiency Rating) on the team, the most win shares, the most win shares per minute and the best box plus/minus (an estimate of points per 100 possessions a player has contributed above a league-average player).

Cunningham ranks second on the team in scoring (11.0 ppg) and first in field goal percentage (56.9%), rebounding (7.2 rpg) and blocks (1.7 bpg). She leads the Big 12 in defensive rebounding percentage (27.1%).

Cunningham also leads the league in total fouls (102).

Barnes said most of them come from Cunningham being out of position, and that’s what they’re continuing to work on.

“She’s tired of hearing about it,” Barnes said. “But we’ll run film. This, this and this. And sometimes it’s like, ‘Well, that’s not a foul.’ It’s not. But you can’t be in a situation where they can call it.

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“It’s just moving when the ball moves and (having) the discipline to do that, and she’s not there yet. But what I can say is, she’s improved so much. Now we’re talking about a few games compared to every single game last year.

“She’s gotten better defensively. Last year she could not play defense, and this year she’s had some stellar defensive games. So there is improvement. But it’s not where she needs to be to be a top post in the country.”

Dew likely out vs. ASU

Arizona will need Cunningham to be at her best Saturday because the Wildcats likely won’t have the services of forward Montaya Dew.

Dew hurt her surgically repaired left knee early in the fourth quarter vs. Texas Tech. Barnes said Dew didn’t suffer any structural damage but has some swelling in the knee.

Asked specifically about Dew’s availability for ASU, Barnes said: “Probably not.” Even if Dew were questionable, Barnes said she’d err on the side of caution.

Barnes knows what it’s like to come back from a torn ACL. She suffered the injury in 2003.

“It takes like two years mentally,” Barnes said. “Your first year, you’re just getting your legs back. She is an athlete, and it changes your timing and jumping.

“When anything like that happens, it could be a bone bruise, it could be broken scar tissue. It is scary, because you just spent 10 months rehabbing to get back. And then the thought of having to do that again is really hard.

“In your mind, when you go down like that, you automatically think, ‘Oh my gosh, is my graft OK?’ That’s a normal reaction.

“I’d say for like the year after my ACL — and I had never had an injury, I never missed a game in college, in the pros — I was scared to death to do layups.”

Barnes is hopeful that Dew will be back for the Big 12 Tournament, which could start as soon as Wednesday for Arizona, or the NCAA Tournament, if the Wildcats make it. Dew was in the midst of her best all-around game — eight points, eight rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block — when she went down.

“She was playing so well,” Barnes said. “That’s finally a game where she came out of her shell.

“I’m just sad that she had the injury, because she finally was more aggressive and came into the way Montaya needs to play. That’s the hard thing.”

Rim shots

– Guard Paulina Paris played in her first UA-ASU game on Feb. 8. But it wasn’t the first rivalry game for the North Carolina transfer. “I’m somebody who came from a Duke-UNC rivalry, and it was huge,” said Paris, who grew up in the Northeast. “I’m not really familiar with the West Coast as (much). It’s definitely a different rivalry for me. It’s something that is fun to be a part of, coming from a rivalry as big as that last one. But I’m excited because I heard that their fan base will be there, and then a lot of our fan base, too.”

– Three buses for UA fans have been sold out for the game in Tempe. Fans are encouraged to arrive at 10:45 a.m. The buses will stop at the team hotel in Tempe before arriving at Desert Financial Arena. The Arizona matchup was ASU’s highest-attended home game last season (3,907).

– Arizona will be either the No. 8 or 9 seed in the Big 12 Tournament. Colorado and UA are tied with 9-8 league records. CU has the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Buffs visit Texas Tech at 1 p.m. Saturday. Whoever finishes ninth will face last-place Houston at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday in Kansas City. The winner of that game will face the No. 8 seed at the same time the following day.

– Arizona was the second team out in the latest NCAA Tournament Bracketology posted Friday on ESPN.com.