Freshman class of Rolf, Swann, Knezevic shining when Wildcats need them

Arizona’s small but mighty 2024 freshman class has come through at the right times.

If not for the likes of Mailien Rolf, Lauryn Swann and Katarina Knezevic, the Wildcats wouldn’t be in the conversation of making the NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive season.

Each one has taken their own paths this season — both Swann and Rolf have been starters at times — and as rookies go, it hasn’t always been consistent to the finish line of the regular season.

There have been some highlights, including Swann picking up Big 12 All-freshman team honors Tuesday afternoon. She also won a pair of weekly rookie honors this season.

Freshman year also comes with its struggles.

For Swann, it’s been a sore shoulder and a concussion — and she even tweaked her Achilles at the end of the ASU game on Saturday. She’s fine and will play in Arizona’s opening game at the Big 12 Tournament on Thursday.

“I feel like everybody (in our class) stepped up in a big way and we all have just grown a lot,” Swann said. “It’s always a good feeling knowing that you are wanted and needed on the team. It’s just good motivation going into the tournament.”

Arizona (19-12, 10-8) finished eighth in the Big 12 regular season and will face the winner of Wednesday’s matchup between No. 16 Houston and No. 9 Colorado on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. in Kansas City at the Big 12 conference tournament.

The Wildcats need to win one game this week to hit 20 wins for the fifth time in six seasons. Last year, with only six to seven players for the last few months of the season, was the lone under 20-win season with 18 wins.

If the Wildcats hit 20 wins, they most likely will be on target for a bid to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time under Arizona coach Adia Barnes’ tenure. It should have been sixth as they would have made the tournament in the 2019-20 season, however COVID-19 shut everything down.

Rolf has been steady for much of the season. She started 14 games — 13 of 18 Big 12 games. She is also what Barnes has called an invisible stats kid in the past, which puts her in the company of former UA standouts Helena Pueyo and Sam Thomas.

Rolf does all the things that don’t get measured in the stat sheet and thus not recognized by other coaches or media. Yet, these are the things that help the Wildcats win, whether it’s playing the angles on defense, narrowing the passing lanes and disrupting or handling the ball well, dishing a great assist or even running the offensive scheme.

Rolf missed the TCU game with a concussion but was fortunate to only miss one game. As concussions go, Rolf’s was considered mild.

Swann, on the other hand, said her concussion, which she suffered right before halftime of the Cincinnati game, left her “shaken.”

She was going up for a buzzer-beater after scoring 10 points to lead the Wildcats, when she was elbowed in the ear. She was quite woozy as she was helped off the floor.

“I had a cloudy feeling in my head for a while,” Swann said. “It takes a long time for that to go away — three weeks for me to feel like myself completely again and get back to how I was before.”

Swann was a bit rusty when she returned and it was “game by game” to find her shooting touch again.

She scored 12 points against TCU, going 4 of 5 from long range — in just her second game back from the concussion. But it wasn’t until Saturday’s game when it really started to show that she was fully back, making a game-tying six 3s (6 of 8) for 18 points in 29 minutes of action.

Against ASU, Swann said she felt like, “(I was in) a slow state.”

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

“You’re really not thinking about it,” Swann said of getting that hot. “It’s a good feeling inside, especially after the game when you realize like ‘Wow, this has happened.’”

While it has been said that shooters, like Swann, don’t think, they just shoot, Swann works hard to perfect her craft. She might not think about it when she’s on a hot shooting streak or a not-so-hot streak, but her results are based on hours of reps behind the scenes.

Swann is shooting 40% from long range and averaging eight points per game in 20 minutes of action.

Taking her time

Knezevic, on the other hand, has been extremely intentional about how she goes about her business. That extreme focus, consistency and extra work, is starting to pay off as she is taking advantage of her recent opportunities.

After playing sparingly in January, she’s averaged nearly 13 minutes over the last six games of the regular season. Thirty of those minutes came against ASU, where she stepped in to fill in for Montaya Dew, who is out for the rest of the season with swelling to her knee. Barnes has not disclosed the exact injury or the treatment plan going forward for Dew as the doctors are still trying to determine the best route.

In Tempe, Knezevic scored eight points, pulled down five rebounds and had one steal.

There are a lot of things that have gone into her improved play.

For Knezevic, it’s been about staying ready when she’s called upon, and it’s about constant improvement whether it’s on offense or defense, and of course, reps.

“Sometimes when you start working more (intentionally) about everything that you’ve been working on, it just becomes natural,” Knezevic said.

It’s also understanding the system and her coaches better. Knezevic added that now she “hears and understands” what her coach is asking her to do during games. A lot of that has to do with having to translate everything from Serbian to English – which made her a step slow earlier on.

“It’s become so much easier to communicate now,” Knezevic said. “It’s helped me get more minutes and do better on the court.”

Knezevic knows her opportunity has come from a combination of things, including the Wildcats being shorthanded. She’s just making the best of it.

“I just feel that I just have to give my best every time when I step on a court, and it doesn’t matter who’s playing at that moment, who is not playing, because I think that the biggest thing is to actually, try to win as a team,” Knezevic said.

“…We’ve had some problems with injuries and that’s what cost us a lot. …. But as I said, I need to step up. I need to be there for them. I need to be there for the team.”

Rim Shots

— Breya Cunningham picked up Big 12 honorable mention. She was the only other Wildcat to earn a league honor.

— TCU’s Hailey van Lith earned Big 12 Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year. TCU coach Mark Campbell was Coach of the Year. BYU’s Delaney Gibb was Freshman of the Year, JJ Quinerly was Defensive Player of the Year and Baylor’s Yaya Felder was Sixth Player of the Year.