Wildcats make history with No. 7 spot in AP's preseason poll; Aari McDonald makes watch list

Tuesday was a big day for the Arizona Wildcats.

The Associated Press released its preseason poll Tuesday morning, and the Wildcats were No. 7 overall — the program’s highest preseason ranking ever. An hour later, senior guard Aari McDonald was named to the Ann Meyers Drysdale award watch list. McDonald won the award last season as the best shooting guard in the country.

Coach Adia Barnes said it felt “so great to make history.”

“I look back at how far the program has come in such a short time,” she said. “A couple of parents texted me and said that people laughed when they heard their daughters were going to Arizona, and look at us now. I am so happy for the players that all their hard work is paying off.”

That said, “it doesn’t mean anything,” Barnes warned. “Now we have a target on our back and have to go out and have a good season.”

The Wildcats are scheduled to open their season Nov. 25 and begin conference play Dec. 4 with a home game against UCLA.

It’s been 23 years since Arizona was ranked in the AP’s top 15 to start a season — the team was 15th in 1997-98, Barnes’ final year as a player — and 16 years since the team was ranked in the preseason poll.

The UA was not ranked to start the 2019-20 season, making its debut four weeks into the season. The Wildcats stayed in the poll for the rest of the season, finishing with a 24-7 record and No. 12 ranking.

Four other Pac-12 teams made Tuesday’s AP poll. Stanford is at No. 2, UCLA is at No. 9, Oregon is at No. 10 and Oregon State is at No. 18. Arizona State received six votes.

South Carolina is ranked No. 1, marking the first time it’s taken that spot in program history. UConn is at No. 3 and Baylor is No. 4.

Fifth-ranked Louisville received 597 votes, and Mississippi State is sixth with 589 votes.

Arizona is 14 votes behind MSU, with 575.

Barnes said she is happy that McDonald is on the Ann Meyers Drysdale list again. She is joined there by four other Pac-12 players: Oregon’s Taylor Mikesell, Stanford’s Kiana Williams, UCLA’s Charisma Osborne and Utah’s Bryanna Maxwell.

McDonald enters her final season at the UA ranked sixth on the program’s all-time scoring list with 1,486 points, and is only 752 points from breaking Barnes’ career scoring record. McDonald has scored in double figures in 66 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the nation.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

With McDonald leading the way, this year’s Wildcats are well positioned for a deep tournament run. Arizona also returns starters Cate Reese and Sam Thomas, and welcomes in transfers Shania Pellington, Trinity Baptiste and Bendu Yeaney.

Returners Helena Pueyo, Semaj Smith, Tara Manumaluega and Mara Mote and newcomers Lauren Ware and Derin Erdogan should all make an impact on one of the Wildcats’ deepest rosters in years.

“We’re getting some national exposure and respect,” Barnes said.

“A lot of times Pac-12 schools don’t have the tradition of Stanford and teams get overlooked. This year is going to be challenging; this will be a different year. I didn’t expect to be here starting my fifth year. It’s a huge turnaround. When I got here, our RPI was around 300. If you would have asked me if I thought we’d be here now, I would have said no. I thought it would happen in Year 7 or 6.”

Rim shots

Southern California’s women’s basketball team has halted all activities after one of its players tested positive for COVID-19.

The school says that after consulting with the Los Angeles County public health department, it was decided that all players on the team needed to be put into quarantine.

USC has reported two positive tests since it last announced numbers from 1,601 tests of athletes from its 21 sports on Oct. 30.

Two sports each had one confirmed positive and those athletes were put into isolation.

The USC women’s basketball team is the school’s third that has had to halt activities due to positive tests. Football and men’s water polo were the others.

• Fifth-ranked Louisville is the preseason favorite to win the ACC women’s basketball title, while senior guard Dana Evans is the pick to become the league player of the year.

The league released its preseason picks Tuesday.

— The Associated Press