What do you see in store for the Arizona Wildcats in the next decade?
Will there be roses in their future, or cut-down nets? Seasons to remember — or ones to forget?
Looking into the crystal ball, some things appear more certain than others around The Old Pueblo. As right as the monsoon’s rain, we can predict the rise of Arizona softball and women’s basketball. The team’s football fortune? A bit murkier.
Here’s a look at what might be looming in the Roaring ’20s:
Mike Candrea will lead the UA softball team to another softball title
Certainty: 75 percent
Candrea, arguably the greatest coach in the history of college softball, proved he had some air left in those ol’ tires last June, when he led the Arizona Wildcats to their first Women’s College World Series berth since 2010. The Wildcats’ offense ultimately doomed them in consecutive losses, but simply making it to the final week of the season is a weight off this team’s back.
With the addition of Oklahoma transfer Mariah Lopez, a loaded recruiting class and plenty of talent still developing, the Wildcats are emerging as a force once again. Entering his 35th season atop the Arizona program – and his 65th year of life on earth – Candrea would certainly love to take the Cats back to the mountaintop once more. At least.
Sean Miller will make his first Final Four
Certainty: 60 percent
We can’t quite peg the Wildcats for a national title, because those are so random and just so rare, but we feel confident in predicting that Miller will shed the years of frustration and lead Arizona into the Final Four for the first time.
It’ll take a couple adjustments — bringing in reliable players to develop over four years, a la Gabe York and Dusan Ristic, for example — but Miller remains one of the game’s best coaches, and it is downright stunning he hasn’t cracked college hoops’ final weekend quite yet.
Adia Barnes will still be Arizona’s women’s basketball coach at the dawn of the next decade
Certainty: 40 percent
The rise of the program only makes Barnes a too-good-too-be-true candidate for major openings around the country.
Here’s the problem for UA fans: In the next decade, it is likely that UConn, Notre Dame and other college hoops powerhouses will need new coaches. The WNBA is likely to beckon as well, given Barnes’ time playing in the league.
Barnes received a massive raise and extension through the 2023-24 season last summer, meaning she’s likely to stay on the sidelines for at least the next four seasons. Arizona may need to pony up even more to keep her beyond that.
Jay Johnson will rekindle the magic and take the Wildcats back to Omaha
Certainty: 50 percent
Building a regular College World Series contender is no small feat in college baseball, where bats can find fickle times to go south. The fact that Jay Johnson took the Wildcats to within a single of a national championship in his first season only goes to show the strength of the Arizona baseball program.
The Wildcats have since slipped off that perch, missing the NCAA Regionals two years in a row. But with a solid core returning and a top-flight recruiting class coming in, we’re not betting against Arizona finding the right formula once more.
Arizona’s football team will break its Rose Bowl drought
Arizona's first Big 12 home game against Texas Tech will kick off under the lights of Arizona Stadium.
Certainty: 20 percent
Twenty percent might even be a little high, but we’ve just got a feeling that Arizona is going to right its recruiting ship one of these days. Will that righted ship lead to a championship? A Rose Bowl would do.
In more than four decades in the Pac-8/10/12, the Wildcats are the longest-tenured conference team not to make it to Pasadena for New Year’s Day. In order to make it there, huge changes need to take place — most importantly, a focus on local recruiting and an interior-out philosophy that has sorely been lacking.
Arizona lands potential No. 1 pick Mikey Williams in the Class of 2023
Certainty: 20 percent
Predicting where a college basketball prospect will land three years from now is like predicting a lightning strike. You’d need a four-leaf clover — or at least a DeLorean — for that.
But credit Arizona’s coaches for being in on the San Ysidro, California, product early, which should at least keep them in the running for the long haul. You’ve got to like Miller’s chances on this one even if, for now, it remains a longshot.
