For the first time in her UA coaching tenure, Adia Barnes has real depth.
This is a good thing — except when it isn’t. It’s taken a while for Barnes to determine the best rotations and for the Wildcats to get their chemistry going.
On Wednesday, Barnes and No. 6 Arizona (6-0, 5-0 Pac-12) will play their second and final nonconference game of the season. The game against Idaho (3-2, 2-0 Big Sky) tips off at noon.
The Wildcats’ rotation got a little clearer following last weekend’s road sweep of Colorado and Utah.
Helena Pueyo hit back-to-back 3-pointers and knocked down a free throw to cut Colorado’s first-quarter lead to 18-15. She added two more points on a layup in the second frame. She also grabbed a steal and picked up two key defensive rebounds.
In the fourth quarter, Shaina Pellington was aggressive driving to the hoop and either scoring or drawing fouls. All seven of her points came down the stretch when the Wildcats needed them. Arizona prevailed, 62-59.
Pellington is starting to find her groove. She slipped three defenders to score in Arizona’s 77-60 win over Utah, and finished with nine points and three rebounds in 20 minutes.
Arizona’s “big three” of Aari McDonald, Cate Reese and Sam Thomas led the way against Utah, but Pueyo, Pellington and Lauren Ware weren’t far behind. The trio combined for 24 points, eight rebounds, three steals and one block.
Pellington and the other new Wildcats are starting to gel with the returnees, Barnes said.
“(Shaina’s) chemistry with Aari and Sam is really good and it’s getting better,” Barnes said.
“It’s not great yet, but you figure Sam, Aari and Cate’s is great because they’ve been together longer. Now Cate and Trinity (Baptiste) are getting that chemistry. It’s Aari, Sam and Cate that are building that — it’s developing. It’s getting better every game, as you notice.
“Shaina enables Aari to go off the ball and someone else to create. … We have players that can create shots for her, you’re going see her percentage continue to go up, because she’s going to take higher-percentage shots and not have to work so hard for them. So that’s the objective later, and I think you’ll see it later.
“When they get into their groove, and that chemistry develops more and more — you’ll see it, I’d say, in the next month — you’ll see a big difference and it’ll be more evident. Shaina helps us — she makes us better.”
McDonald named player of the week
McDonald was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week on Monday, her first honor of the year and the sixth of her career. She averaged 22.5 points per game over the weekend and was perfect from the free throw line, going 13 for 13. Against Colorado, she scored 21 of her 24 points during the second half. She scored 19 points against Utah, adding six rebounds, six assists and six steals.
Barnes said McDonald impacts the game in all ways — not just by scoring.
Arizona guard Helena Pueyo, left, and forward Lauren Ware celebrate guard Aari McDonald’s 3-pointer against ASU.
“There are a lot of good players in the country. But what separates the good from the great is being able to play on both ends,” she said. “There’s not a lot of players in the country that can play great on the offensive end and play great on a defense. She is and that’s why she’s special. That’s why she’s up for Player of the Year — National Player of the Year.
“I think that she’s the catalyst of our offense and she’s a catalyst for our defense. She’s the one pressing, she’s the one getting steals, making tough plays, and our team feeds off it because she’s doing that. She’s pumping up the team – yelling, celebrating. I love that and they feed off it. … She’s the one that ignites us.”
Not satisfied
Arizona is 5-0 in league play for the first time in program history and ranked higher — sixth in the country — than ever before.
While Barnes was quick to highlight the positives from the weekend sweep, she’s still not satisfied.
“It’s not about winning and losing for us — we’re trying to get better every game and we want to play our best basketball,” Barnes said. “… We’re happy we got to sweep here, but we know we’re not playing our best basketball. We know we what we have to improve on, and it showed this weekend. For us, it’s being the best version of ourselves and working on the little things.
“There are still some things we have to get better at if we want to be great. If we want to just be good, we don’t. We’re happy, but we’re not satisfied.”
