Friday and Sunday were big days for Arizona’s women’s basketball program.
So, too, was Monday.
In the morning, the Wildcats found out that they moved up four spots, to No. 12, in the AP Poll. Aari McDonald earned Pac-12 player of the week honors around lunchtime, and later in the afternoon was named a finalist for the Wooden Award, given annually to the nation’s top player.
Monday night, the NCAA Tournament selection committee listed Arizona as the No. 13 team in the country — meaning that if the season ended today, the Wildcats would be hosting the first two rounds.
Oh, and it was Adia Barnes’ 43rd birthday.
The UA coach arrived at her radio show to a mariachi band playing both “Bear Down, Arizona” and “Happy Birthday to You.” She called it “the best birthday ever,” one that sure got better when her husband, UA assistant coach Salvo Coppa, and their son Matteo showed up with flowers and whisked her off to dinner.
“It was beautiful,” Barnes said of her day.
The possibility of hosting the NCAA Tournament would be a perk for an Arizona program that hasn’t been to the Big Dance since 2005. The NCAA Tournament uses RPI to help seed teams, a stat which helps Arizona (18-3, 7-3).
The Wildcats are currently 27th in RPI, with their three losses all coming to top-10 teams. Arizona’s 18 wins help — and so, too, might the appeal of McKale Center. The UA sold out last year’s WNIT championship game and drew 10,160 in last month’s win over ASU.
UCLA’s Charisma Osborne (20) is pushed out of the way by Arizona’s Aari McDonald during Friday’s game at McKale Center. The Wildcats won 92-66 over the then-No. 8 Bruins.
Barnes knows how important hosting can be.
In 1998, Barnes was the best player on a Wildcats team that won two NCAA Tournament games in McKale Center and made the Sweet 16. The UA was ranked No. 7 nationally that season, the highest in program history.
“Words can’t express how special it is to be part of both teams,” Barnes said. “It’s a huge accomplishment from where this program was — I am so happy. Happy for the program, happy for the players.
“It’s my alma mater and all of these things are so important to me. It’s just special here. I didn’t know how good we’d be (this season). I feel like we control our own destiny.”
The Wildcats play at No. 3 Oregon and No. 9 Oregon State this week.
Sweeping LA schools
Arizona’s weekend sweep of UCLA and USC, its first since 2005, was personal for Barnes.
“My sister went to USC and UCLA so I can rub that in a little bit,” Barnes joked. “As a kid — I grew up in San Diego — and my dream school when I was little was UCLA.
“So that’s the school I wanted to go to because it wasn’t far from home and they didn’t really recruit me as hard as Arizona.
“We weren’t able to get sweeps last few years and for a long time. I think it just shows where our program is going. If we can draw — I don’t know what our attendance was — but over 5,000 people on Super Bowl Sunday it says a lot about women’s basketball here.”
Pac-12 standings
At the midway point in the season, the league standings are starting to shake out.
Oregon and Stanford are tied at the top with a 9-1 conference mark, with UCLA trailing at 8-2. Arizona, at 7-3, is a game ahead of both Oregon State and Arizona State. The top six teams in the league are all ranked.
Arizona’s 7-3 mark is something even their coach wasn’t quite expecting.
“This is kind of uncharted territory,” Barnes said. “I think we are playing good basketball. I don’t think we’re playing our best. It’s my job for us to improve in February and be really ready at the Pac-12 tournament just kind of like last year.
“I didn’t know exactly where we’d be looking ahead, but I think that we’re in a situation probably even better than I would have thought. But, now that we’re there we’re hungry for more. Now, I feel we can beat anybody in the Pac-12 tournament or moving forward, whether it’s on the road or at home. Our team feels that way, too. We’re confident, which is good.”
They’ll need that confidence this week: Oregon (20-2) demolished No. 4 UConn 74-56 Monday night. Oregon State (18-4) beat the Wildcats by two points last month at McKale.
Rim shots
- Tuesday morning, McDonald was named Citizen Watch US Naismith Player of the Week for her performance against the Los Angeles schools. She averaged 23.5 points, 4.5 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game in the UA’s sweep.
- Cate Reese tied a season high with 17 rebounds against USC. It was one rebound short of her career high of 18.
“Seventeen is nothing to be disappointed in,” Reese said. “I’m proud. I’m proud of how I played today. I’m proud of how our team played. We did great. We had a lot of people scoring, so I think that’s when we play our best.”
Sunday marked Reese’s first double-double in six games. She now has seven this season and 14 in her career.
Arizona junior
- Shaina Pellington is in Ostend, Belgium, this week with the Canadian Olympic team for FIBA’s Olympic Qualifying event. Canada plays against Belgium Thursday, Sweden on Saturday and Japan on Sunday. Pellington played in the pre-qualifying event in November and averaged 10 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game.
- Former UA standout LaBrittney Jones won her second professional title Sunday as BC Winterthur won the Swiss Basketball League Cup by defeating Fribourg 66-60. Jones scored nine points and knocked down two key free throws in the last two minutes to help seal the victory.
She averaged 22.4 points, 13.9 rebounds and eight assists per game this season. Last season, she won the Patrick Baumann Swiss Cup and Jones was named Eurobasket.com’s All-Swiss SBL first team forward of the year.
