Wildcats are 'fighting, and we're hungry' with postseason fate hanging in the balance

As the calendar flips to February and the second half of the Pac-12 season hits full swing, questions are swirling about the Arizona Wildcats’ women’s basketball team.

And that, believe it or not, is a good thing.

Arizona is relevant for the first time in years and in the midst of the biggest turnaround in program history. The team has 14 wins, already eight more than in all of last season. The Wildcats have beat a pair of ranked teams in Cal and Arizona State. They are allowing only 60.7 points per game in the Pac-12 and 37.7 percent shooting, both third-best in the conference.

The team that was picked to finish 10th in the preseason poll might even make the postseason. NCAA Tournament bracketologists viewed Arizona (14-7, 4-6) as a bubble team for most of January. The Wildcats will need to play better in the second half of the conference season to make The Big Dance. They’ll take on Washington (8-15, 1-10) in Seattle on Thursday night.

“One test for us is winning in Washington,” UA coach Adia Barnes said. “If you make postseason play, you have to win against teams you are supposed to beat. It’s hard. And it’s hard on the road. …

“For us, it’s about learning to win — we’re not there yet. If we were, we would have closed out (a triple-overtime loss) against UCLA. We would have reacted better against Oregon. We’re getting there, but we’re not there yet. We have not arrived. With more experience, we’ll be a lot better.”

The Wildcats this season have developed a reputation for being relentless. They alter shots, deflect passes and get steals. They rarely give opponents space to create. Arizona ranks second in the Pac-12 with 9.1 steals per game in league play, with Aari McDonald (2.6) and Sam Thomas (1.9) leading the way. As recently as early January, the Wildcats ranked in the top 10 nationally in scoring defense.

Dominque McBryde said the Wildcats have “an attack mentality and just want to shut teams down.” And when the Wildcats struggle, they often bounce back.

In each of its six Pac-12 losses, Arizona had a stretch in the third or fourth quarter when it made a run. It outscored ASU 22-14 in the third quarter of Friday’s loss in Tempe; on Jan. 13, the UA outscored Stanford 21-16 in the fourth quarter. Though Arizona lost both games, the hot streaks at least were encouraging.

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“We have some competitors who don’t want to quit, and they just find a way,” Barnes said. “When you have a will, you are not giving up and you fight through things.

“I’m extremely proud of them. We’ve had a really good year so far. We’re a young, inexperienced program that hasn’t won in a long time. Our culture has completely changed in the last three years. We’re showing we are made for it, we’re fighting and we’re hungry.”

If Barnes and the Wildcats could get one game back, it’d likely be the 98-93, triple-overtime loss to UCLA on Jan. 27. The Wildcats in regulation almost found a way to overcome a 58-48 rebounding deficit and 16 missed free throws — and without McBryde, who fouled out in the second quarter.

Arizona led by two points when UCLA made a second-chance basket off an offensive rebound and scored with five seconds remaining in regulation.

Even after consecutive losses to UCLA and the Sun Devils, Barnes believes the Wildcats “control their own destiny.” And, really, there isn’t much to lose.

Arizona has averaged 12.3 overall wins per season — and just 4.1 wins per year in the Pac-12 — since Joan Bonvicini left at the end of the 2007-08 season. This year’s team has surpassed the overall win total with eight games left on the schedule. One more victory — No. 15 — would clinch a .500 record, good enough to at least qualify for a spot in the WNIT.

Barnes took part in that tournament as a player, helping Bonvicini’s Wildcats to a 1996 WNIT title. Barnes believes the lessons Arizona has learned in the first half will pay off in the remainder of the season.

“Now it’s about getting better at the small things,” Barnes said. “We are not a championship culture yet. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. We’ve won some 100-meter races, and we’ve gotten smoked a couple of times.

“But we’re getting faster, and making the tournament would be a tremendous achievement. … We’ve had a great year so far, and if it ended today I would be so proud of what they’ve done, and we’re going to continue to get better.”