When Aari McDonald makes a promise, you can bet she’s going to deliver.
The day she arrived on campus as a transfer from Washington, McDonald told fans she would “bring championships to UA.”
As the Wildcats slogged to just six wins in McDonald’s redshirt year, she promised her teammates they would turn the program around — and fast.
That’s exactly what McDonald has done.
Monday’s NCAA Tournament opener against Stony Brook marks the official return of the UA to the national stage. It’s been a steady progression. In McDonald’s first year in a Wildcats uniform, she led her team to a WNIT title. Last year, the momentum carried through as Arizona was ranked in the Top 25 for the first time in more than a decade. They were on their way to hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament before the pandemic shut it down.
McDonald and the UA has filled the last three years with firsts, none bigger than Monday’s.
“I’m happy and just blessed to be here and I’m pretty sure my teammates can say the same,” McDonald said. “This is what we waited for, a year later, and we’re finally here. It’s just crazy to think we’d be here. But definitely, I’m excited. I’m just ready to play, honestly.”
McDonald played in the NCAA Tournament during her freshman year at Washington. She averaged 13.6 points in three games, adding five steals and two blocks. She had a monster game in the first round against Montana, scoring 15 points, grabbing seven rebounds, dishing two assists and adding one block.
At the time, McDonald was a complementary player — no more than a third or fourth option behind Huskies stars Kelsey Plum and Chantel Osahor.
Now, McDonald is the star and one of the best all-around players in the country. Over the last two weeks, she has taken her leadership role up a notch while the Wildcats prepared for their first NCAA Tournament in 16 years.
“She’s just been a perfect leader, and now we just have to go out there and play for her,” junior guard Bendu Yeaney said. “She’s a senior on this team that has given her all to us. Now it’s time for us to repay her and give her all and try to get her as far as possible.”
When McDonald signed to play for Arizona, UA coach Adia Barnes called her “the total-package kid” and “the type of player you want to build a championship culture around.”
Arizona Wildcats head coach Adia Barnes and Arizona Wildcats guard Aari McDonald (2) embrace during senior day at McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz., on February 14, 2021.
Despite the praise, Barnes had no idea that McDonald would accomplish so much in such a short time.
In just her second game as a Wildcat, McDonald scored 39 points. She was named Pac-12 Player of the Week twice in a three-week span.
McDonald would go on to score 890 points that season, smashing records held by both Barnes and former UA men’s star Khalid Reeves. McDonald became the first player since 2000 to score 800 points, grab 200 rebounds, dish 150 assists and register 90 steals in a single season. The Wildcats went won the WNIT, filling McKale Center along the way.
She followed that up by proving to the nation what those in Tucson already knew — that she was an elite player. McDonald won the Ann Meyers Drysdale award for best shooting guard as a junior while being named the Pac-12’s Defensive Player of the Year. She did it all while enduring a stress fracture in her left tibula. She returned in time to score 20 points and hit the game-winning shot in one of Arizona’s biggest wins in program history, a 73-72 overtime victory against No. 4 Stanford.
After the 2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled, McDonald chose to stay in college for one more year. At the time, McDonald said she had unfinished business: taking her teammates to actually play in the tournament. When she made her announcement, she said that “the best is yet to come.”
It wasn’t all talk; McDonald has backed it up.
The Wildcats have been ranked throughout her senior season, landing in the top 10 in 13 of 17 possible weeks. They swept Oregon on ESPN, finished second in the Pac-12 standings and advanced to the conference tournament semifinals.
McDonald earned Pac-12 Player of the Year and Co-Defensive Player of the Year honors. She is the only player to lead the league in scoring and steals for three consecutive years. Barnes credits McDonald’s speed, something she’s learned to harness as a senior. McDonald knows when to shift into another gear and when to ease up on the pedal and go lateral, weaving her way through multiple defenders to get to the basket.
Said Barnes: “Her way of maneuvering around people is instinctual — you can’t teach that. It separates her.”
Now, McDonald and the Wildcats will try to separate themselves from the rest of the NCAA Tournament pack. They’re seeded third in a region that also includes Southeastern Conference regular-season champion Texas A&M and an NC State team that’s seeded No. 1 for the first time in program history.
Expect the rest of the Mercado Bracket to get Arizona’s best.
McDonald wrote a letter for The Player’s Tribune that she is playing for the seniors who didn’t get to play in the tournament last season and for all of the Wildcats who have come before her in the last 15 years. She is “a little more focused, tuned in and ready to play” as the tournament opener nears, Barnes said.
“It’s extremely special that Aari is the one to lead our team back (to the NCAA Tournament),” Barnes said. “That’s what she came to Arizona for; what she set out to do. She’s a great player — offensively and defensively — who has impacted UA in so many ways. And the community. They’ve embraced her, they love her and she’s one of the most exciting players in the country to watch. …
“I don’t want to see her go. I wish I had 700 games left with her. She’s had a phenomenal career in Arizona. She’s not ready to go home; neither am I. We’re going to cherish every game, do our best.”
