After Maya Nnaji signed her national letter-of-intent to play for Arizona, she tweeted: “signed, sealed, delivered. I’m yours.”
It was music to Adia Barnes’ ears.
Arizona hauled in a three-player recruiting class on Wednesday that will go down as the best in program history. Though rankings weren’t available as of Wednesday afternoon, the last ESPN rankings listed the Wildcats’ class at No. 6 nationally.
Kailyn Gilbert from IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, inked her letter-of-intent Wednesday, giving the Wildcats two prospects to build around as they aim for another Final Four appearance. A third player, Lemyah Hylton of London, Ontario, signed later in the afternoon.
ESPN ranks Nnaji, a forward from Hopkins High School in Minnesota and the younger sister of former Arizona star Zeke Nnaji, now with the Denver Nuggets, as the ninth-best overall prospect and third-best forward in the country. Gilbert is ranked No. 31 overall and No. 9 at guard, and Hylton is the 85th-best player and 26th-best guard.
Nnaji and Gilbert also made the watch list for Naismith’s girls high school player of the year watch list.
Barnes summed up the class with a word: “Great.”
“Maya Nnaji is a player that I’ve had my eye on for so many years — nothing to do with Zeke being here, but because she’s such a great player,” the Wildcats’ coach said. “Maya is 6-foot-4, versatile. She can score in different ways she can play inside and outside. Great player, the highest ranked player we’ve ever had. … She’s going to be an immediate impact player. But, more importantly, off the court, she is a phenomenal young woman. If people love Sam (Thomas, a UA senior), think about just a different version of her. Maya is really smart. She’s a great connector, a really good teammate, a leader.
“She’s coming into Arizona into medical program — a seven-year plan to be a doctor. She’s a very good student all those things. We’re just so happy to have her, I can’t wait to coach her.
“Kailyn Gilbert is a phenomenal player. … She can score in different ways. She’s strong, a great passer but she can shoot and she’s good off, the pick-and-roll. She’s a good defender so she’s going to fit our system really well. Another player that can make an immediate impact. She has a strong body and she’s just scratched the surface.”
Barnes said she doesn’t look at rankings when recruiting player, but said she thinks Nnaji and Gilbert two players are underrated. She was not allowed to discuss Hylton during a Wednesday news conference because she had not yet signed.
Later, in a UA-issued news release, Barnes said Hilton has a “dog mentality” — high praise coming from a coach.
“She’s going to be a better college player than she is a high school player,” Barnes said. “She can play the point or the off-guard position, she can shoot the ball, she’s smart and she’s a great passer. I can’t wait to coach her because she’s a gym rat and fits everything we do here.”
The best is out West
When ESPN listed the top recruiting classes in the nation a few weeks ago, five out of the top six teams were from the Pac-12.
Barnes called the Pac-12 the best conference in the country. More national notice started coming with the likes of former Oregon star Sabrina Ionescu and others. Last spring’s all-Pac-12 national championship game pushed everything over the top, she said.
“I think Stanford and us were on a national stage, I think it helped the Pac-12 (gain) a lot more respect,” Barnes said. “…It’s more desirable and it’s just the sexier league right now. And that’s why you see more kids. Now you’re going to see that more and more. And if we have success again this year, which we can, Stanford’s going to be very good, again, we’ll have some other teams, UCLA, Oregon State, Oregon, us. If we do well in the (NCAA) Tournament, I think you’ll continue to see more.
“But now it’s finally happening. Before if you think the Diana Taurasis, Sue Birds — especially Diana Taurasi, because being from California, all of those players were going to different conferences and going to UConn. I think keeping some of these kids or bringing them from the South or the East Coast to the West Coast, I think that’s big. I don’t think that happened years ago. I love our conference and we will continue to make a lot of noise this year.”
Helena Pueyo played point guard and made an impact on both sides of the ball during Tuesday’s win.
Puey … Oh!
Helena Pueyo stuffed the stat sheet in Tuesday’s 87-44 win over Cal State Northridge. She played 21 minutes, the most of any Wildcats, and finished with five points, three assists, three steals, five rebounds and one block.
Pueyo was an integral part of both the offense — she played point guard — and the defense. Barnes said it may be early but expect Pueyo to have a bigger role this year.
“Helena is a very good player,” Barnes said. “She has an extremely high basketball IQ. She has natural gifts you can’t teach. You can’t teach someone vision on the floor. She’s a phenomenal passer. She’s like Ricky Rubio (of the Cleveland Cavaliers) — I joke with her about that. She can play the 1,2,3,4 — she knows every position. She knows where people could be, and she is one of the best at finding people. I mean guards lick their chops when they are in the game with her because they’re confident, because they know they’re going to get shots and the posts are going to get the ball.
“She puts the ball in the right place at the right time all the time. I put her at the one (point guard) a lot (in home opener). Because I think she’s a 6-foot player that can be a really good one. She shoots the ball well; she can drive it. She’s a good defender. …
“I think people like to play with her. They’re confident with her and the ball moves well, it doesn’t stick with her. And I like that.”
One more for the rafters
Aari McDonald was just one of the 6,154 in attendance at Tuesday night’s home opener to watch her former teammates. She arrived to find her name in the McKale Center Ring of Honor, along with former UA men’s basketball players Zeke Nnaji and Josh Green.
An official ceremony will be held in January to honor McDonald.
Thomas acknowledged that having McDonald watching the Wildcats play was “a very weird feeling.”
“Then seeing her stand up with the whole crowd until the other team gets their first point is very different, seeing her from that side of the court,” Thomas said. “I’m really happy for her. She’s doing great things. I feel like we’re navigating as a team without her. We’re doing our best because we miss her, but at the same time, we’re just trying to go back to where we were last year and hopefully accomplish the mission this time.”
