Editor's note: This story appears in the Star's NCAA Tournament preview section, which you can read in its entirety by clicking here.
One year ago, Arizona checked off major milestones — advancing to the NCAA Tournament after 16 years and then making a run to its first Final Four and the national championship game.
Fast-forward to this week, and the Wildcats are at it again. They’ll host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament starting on Saturday, the first time they’ve done so since 1998. They’re playing in their second straight NCAA Tournament, something the program hasn’t done for 16 years.
That may be where the comparisons between last year and this year end.
Gone is UA star Aari McDonald, who is now playing for the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream. The speedy guard led the Wildcats on a magical ride to the NCAA title game last spring, then scored 22 points in her final game as a Wildcat. Her potential game-winning attempt against Stanford — fighting a triple-team, no less — rimmed out.
This year, there is no McDonald — or even a McDonald-ish player — to put the team on her back. The Wildcats’ roster boasts veterans Sam Thomas, Cate Reese, Shaina Pellington, Bendu Yeaney, Helena Pueyo and Lauren Ware, all of whom played in the title game last spring. There are incoming transfers and newcomers and a pair of sharp-shooters.
But there is no star. This year’s team is built on balance.
“We have a lot of really good players that can fill different roles at different times,” UA coach Adia Barnes said. “You can’t just hone in on one person and shut them down. If you look a lot of teams that have one superstar, you can have multiple people guard them. I think when you have a team like Stanford, where five people (score) in double digits consistently … if you shut down one, someone else does something. I think that that’s what really good teams do: They have balance, and they have different people to step up at different times.”
The Wildcats fit that bill.
Pellington had two buzzer-beating, game-winning shots against Vanderbilt and Oregon State. Yeaney took over in overtime to lead the Wildcats past Louisville. Thomas dropped 25 against Utah and five days later scored 19 against UCLA. Reese averaged 16 points per game in Pac-12 play, scoring in double figures in 13 of the 14 league games before suffering a dislocated shoulder. Ware posted a double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds) in the last regular-season game and blocked 17 shots in the first seven games of the season. Taylor Chavez also scored 18 points, knocking down five 3s, in the final regular-season win over USC.
“Everybody has played better (this year); I think everybody has improved,” Barnes said. “I think everybody’s just in a better place — hungry from going to the championship last year and I think just wants something more. I think now it’s just shifting the mentality and knowing we can do that without an All-America player.”
Forward Lauren Ware has been stepping up with Cate Reese (shoulder) sidelined.
Each of the starters have improved offensively over the previous season. They had to. The question from the beginning of the year centered around how the Wildcats planned to replace McDonald’s offense. McDonald averaged 25 points per game in last year’s NCAA Tournament and 20.6 for the entire season.
Each of this season’s starters has improved their scoring averages from last year.
Reese averaged 10.9 points per game last season; this year, she is up to 14.6.
Thomas averaged 7.3 points per game last season; this year, it’s 8.5.
Pellington averaged 5.8 points per game last season; this year, it’s 10.9.
Yeaney averaged 4.1 points per game last season. This year: 6.3.
Ware averaged 3.9 points last season. This year: 5.8 points.
Arizona forward Cate Reese (25) and guard Helena Pueyo (13) celebrate a foul called against Washington State in the second half of their Jan. 7 game.
That adds up to an output of 14.1 more points from last year. Add in the bench points from Madi Conner (5.3 ppg, up from 1.0 last spring), grad transfer Ariyah Copeland (4.6 ppg), junior transfers Koi Love (5 ppg) and Taylor Chavez (2.4 ppg), and the Wildcats have adequately replaced McDonald.
At least on paper.
Barnes said the offensive jump happens “when you have time to develop your players in the offseason — in the summer — it pays dividends for the year, because you are ahead of where you should be.”
“We’re prepared and ready, and we’re not working on the basic things in September. We are working on them in June and July. So, development in the offseason is critical to your success,” Barnes said.
It’s so critical to Barnes’ approach that her plan is for even more offseason work this summer.
Looking ahead to Saturday’s opening-round game of the NCAA Tournament, Barnes said that the Wildcats are in a good place.
“No one has a tremendous amount of pressure to score 30 points a game,” she said. “Everybody just has to do their job and do a little bit more — the stakes are higher. This is where everybody is playing extremely hard because their season is over if they don’t win. I think now it’s time for everybody to step up and give them more. And I think this is a fun time. This is when you show up, you’re ready. It’s a whole new season.
“Our team should have confidence from the momentum that we got last year and our approach and what we did. We can most definitely do it again.”
— Coach Adia Barnes
