Adia Barnes has said there’s a distinct difference between the top three teams in the nation and the rest of the top 10.
The really, really good teams dictate the tempo and force their opponents play their way.
And that’s exactly what top-ranked Stanford did Friday night in a 81-54 win over sixth-ranked Arizona in McKale Center. Cal (0-8, 0-5 in Pac-12) comes to McKale Center Sunday to face UA (7-1, 5-1 Pac-12) at noon.
The Cardinal used their height and athleticism to force the Wildcats away from their strengths. The UA took shots it normally wouldn’t take and seemed out of sync on offense.
The 27-point loss was an anomaly for a UA team primed to make a deep postseason run.
Last February, Arizona ran into third-ranked Oregon, losing 82-52. The Ducks — with Sabrina Ionescu, Satou Sabally and Ruthy Hebard in their lineup — were coming off a three-week stretch where they beat No. 6 Stanford team by 32 points and handed UConn its worst home loss in program history, 74-56.
At the time, Barnes said that elite teams “make you pay for every mistake.”
“I think top teams don’t have one player you have to stop; they have multiple players,” she said. “They may have one post, one guard, one shooter — it’s just they have so many more weapons, and that’s the difference.”
Barnes said the same thing after Friday night’s loss to Stanford.
“They don’t have really any weak areas … I think that they made us do things that we’re not good at. They just forced us to do uncomfortable things. I think normally we can make teams pay because we hit more shots and we get more transition buckets and we get stops. We couldn’t get stops,” she said.
“They all do their job, and they do their job well. They don’t do anything outside. (Stanford forward Fran) Belibi isn’t trying to shoot 3s — she’s not a 3-point shooter. She’s not trying to shoot 3s. She’s going around the rim. She’s getting the shots she wants and how she wants. (Stanford guard) Anna Wilson isn’t really driving a ton. She’s taking her set 3s and she’s making them. (Stanford guard) Haley Jones, she’s not a 3-point shooter. So she’s not taking 3s, but she’s going coast to coast. She’s doing all the things we knew, but then doing them well. Then she’s rebounding. She (will) back-cut, she’s posting up. We just had a tough time guarding any of them one-on-one.”
Tall trees
Friday’s game featured 6-footers on both rosters. But the eye test showed the difference between the Wildcats and Cardinal.
Arizona’s Sam Thomas, known for her long arms, went toe-to-toe defending Jones down low. While Jones is listed at 6 feet 1 inch, an inch taller than Thomas, she played much bigger. Thomas stood her ground nonetheless, played smothering defense while committing just one foul in 33 minutes.
On offense, the Cardinal packed the paint and used their long arms — not allowing the typical drives from UA guards Aari McDonald and Shaina Pellington or inside shots from Cate Reese, Trinity Baptiste and Lauren Ware.
The Wildcats scored onoly 16 points in the paint. They finished with six second-chance points.
McDonald shot just 3 of 18 from the field and finished with 12 points.
Here comes Cal
The Wildcats host a winless Cal team Sunday.
“You have to have amnesia, because we turn around very fast, less than 48 hours to play another team and some of the scariest teams to play are teams that haven’t won game,” Barnes said.
The coach said that the loss is “not something for us to hang our heads” about.
“But I think this is something that we probably needed,” she said. “I think it’s showing where we’re at, and what we have to work on. We’re not good enough to just walk into a gym and assume a win.”
Cal upset Arizona in last year’s regular-season finale, a game that was played just days after the Wildcats’ win over Stanford — the biggest in program history.
Arizona Wildcats guard Aari McDonald (2) tries to get the ball around Stanford Cardinal guard Lexie Hull (12) during a game at the McKale Center, on Jan. 1, 2021.
Can Arizona bounce back against the Golden Bears? History says yes. The Wildcats have won their last five games coming off a loss. Five days after suffering the home loss to Cal last spring, the Wildcats beat the Golden Bears 86-73 in the Pac-12 Tournament.
Similarly, McDonald rarely posts two bad games in a row.
In a loss to Oregon last season, McDonald scored 13 points, missed all four of her 3-point attempts and went 5 of 13 from the field. She had only two rebounds and turned the ball over seven times.
Days later against Oregon State, McDonald scored 22 points, hit three 3-pointers, grabbed nine rebounds and committed two turnovers.
