Even though Aari McDonald's offensive numbers have slightly dipped this season, mostly due to the improvement of Arizona's depth, the Wildcats star guard is still considered one of the top scoring — and all-around — guards in women's college basketball.
McDonald took one step closer to defending her spot as the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award winner, given to the top shooting guard in Division I women's college basketball, and was named a top-10 finalist to win the accolade on Tuesday.
She joined Chelsea Dungee (Arkansas), Christyn Williams (Connecticut), Sonya Morris (DePaul), Dana Evans (Louisville), Ashley Owusu (Maryland), Ariella Guirantes (Rutgers), Zia Cooke (South Carolina), Kiana Williams (Stanford) and Charisma Osborne (UCLA) as finalists.
McDonald, the 2020 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, was the recipient of the award last season after averaging 20.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.3 steals per game. This season, McDonald is averaging 18.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.9 assists per contest. McDonald has posted double-figure scoring in 79 straight games, the longest active streak in the country and the second-longest streak of any Pac-12 player since 2000.
McDonald was also named a Wooden Award Top 20 finalist on Monday.
After not playing the last three games for COVID-19 issues within the program, the Wildcats are scheduled to face Oregon State on Friday at 5 p.m.
