Another week, another milestone for the Arizona Wildcats.
On Monday, the Wildcats were rewarded for their hot start and cracked the AP poll at No. 24. This is the first time in 15 years they’ve been on the list.
Arizona joins four other Pac-12 schools in the poll this week — Oregon at No. 1, Stanford at No. 3, Oregon State at No. 7 and UCLA at No. 11. ASU got six votes to fall back to what would be No. 31.
UA has started the season undefeated (6-0) for the first time in 20 years and is crushing opponents by nearly 30 points per game.
Aari McDonald — with a program-record 44 points -- led the Wildcats with a defining win against then-No. 22 Texas on Nov. 17. That performance earned McDonald ESPNW, Pac-12, and USBWA player of the week awards. Arizona was named team of the week and ended up No. 24 on the coaches poll.
Still, with all these accolades last week, the AP voters were a little slow jumping on board. UA had to wait one more week and two more wins to find their way onto the poll.
In the meantime, McDonald nearly put up a triple-double on Wednesday against Prairie View A&M — just one rebound short — and tied a program-high of 14 assists. She is averaging 22.5 points, 2.0 steals, 5.2 rebounds, and is shooting 56% and hitting 85% of her free throws.
Sophomore Cate Reese is also putting up big numbers — averaging 14.3 points and 7.7 rebounds. Against Prairie View A&M this week she picked up her first double-double of the season (20 points, 10 rebounds).
Junior Sam Thomas is shooting 63% from the field and 59% of her 3’s —averaging 9.5 points per game.
And there’s one word to describe freshman Helena Pueyo: efficient. In two games this week she made 73% of her three pointers (6 of 8) and was 16 of 21 from the field for a total of 76%. She averaged 13 points in these two games.
According to women’s basketball expert Mel Greenberg, UA coach Adia Barnes is the 14th person to play and coach at the same school when they were ranked and is the 41st to be ranked as both player and a coach at any school.
Next up Arizona hosts UC-Riverside Friday at 4 p.m. at McKale Center.
