Arizona Wildcats star Aari McDonald will participate in Senior Day activities Sunday afternoon at McKale Center.
What it means — or doesn’t — about McDonald’s future is still unclear.
UA coach Adia Barnes said Wednesday that McDonald, who will graduate in May, has not yet decided whether to return for her senior season or enter the WNBA draft. McDonald is an academic senior, and told her coach that she wanted to “walk” with teammates Dominique McBryde and Tee Tee Starks on Senior Day. The three players all arrived at Arizona as transfers together nearly three years ago.
The 13th-ranked Wildcats (22-5, 11-5) will wrap up regular-season play this weekend with games against No. 4 Stanford on Friday and Cal on Sunday.
Barnes said “everybody walking is graduating,” including McDonald.
“This isn’t by any means, ‘is she leaving because of that?’ No, she always planned on doing that,” Barnes said. “There isn’t a decision yet — that will be her decision to make, but not for a while.”
McDonald has more pressing matters to deal with anyway. The do-everything guard missed both of last week’s games, a win at Utah and loss at Colorado, with what the UA is calling a lower leg injury.
Barnes said she expects McDonald to play Friday — though she was similarly optimistic last week, and McDonald didn’t suit up for either game.
“She’ll play,” Barnes said. “I’m not going to play her 40 minutes, but she’ll play her normal minutes and she’s feeling good. There wasn’t a good time to rest her, but that was the best time, if any. … She’s way better now. She’ll be 100%. But we have a lot of basketball ahead of us, so it’s important figuring out what’s important.”
McDonald transferred to the UA in June 2017 after playing one season at Washington. She sat out the 2017-18 season per NCAA transfer rules, then took the Pac-12 by storm.
McDonald started all 37 games last season, averaging 24.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game while leading the Wildcats to a WNIT championship. She scored 890 points, the most by any UA men’s or women’s player in history. Khalid Reeves of the men’s team held the previous record at 848.
She earned All-America status, and became the first player since Maya Moore in 2000 to finish a season with 800 points, 200 rebounds and 150 assists.
McDonald is averaging 20.5 points, 6.0 assists and 3.6 rebounds this season for the Wildcats, who are ranked for the first time in a decade and have earned a first-round bye in the Pac-12 Tournament. She is in contention for six prestigious national awards, including those given to the best guard, best player and best defensive player in the country.
McDonald does it all with a nonstop motor. Pac-12 Networks analyst Joan Bonvicini, a former UA coach, has called her one of the best finishers in the country.
Guard Aari McDonald, left, hugs teammate Cate Reese earlier this season. McDonald has missed the last two games because of a lower leg injury.
UCLA coach Cori Close was thrilled to limit the UA star to 19 points, seven rebounds, six assists and two steals earlier this season in Los Angeles.
“That’s a heck of an assignment when you’re really pleased that you hold someone to … 19?” Close said. “But she’s just that good, right? She’s just such a creative scorer. Her conditioning is marvelous. I watch her on film, and I keep waiting for her to slow down and she just never does.”
UA’s Reese hospitalized twice on road trip
While McDonald sat out last weekend’s game, another player dealt with a health scare. Sophomore forward Cate Reese, who is diabetic, was rushed to the hospital in Salt Lake City after finding her blood sugar numbers “through the roof,” Barnes said.
“We didn’t know why — the elevation, the travel, the stress or fighting the flu or something,” Barnes said.
Reese’s numbers returned to normal, and she was cleared to play against Utah. Reese finished with 11 points.
Reese’s numbers skyrocketed again Saturday, shortly after the team arrived in Boulder, Colorado. Reese returned to the hospital, where she stayed until nearly midnight. And while she was cleared to play in a loss to the Buffaloes, Reese wasn’t her usual self. She hit just 1 of 11 shots and finished with five points in 27 minutes.
“The next day she was exhausted — if you saw her play, she was fighting,” Barnes said.
Reese has been consulting with her doctors in Tucson this week. She is expected to play this weekend.
Extra points
- McBryde and freshman guard Tara Manumaleuga are fighting the flu, and other players have been taking Tamiflu after being exposed to the virus.
- Arizona has won 11 conference games for the first time in 15 years. The program record for conference wins in a season is 14, accomplished in both 1997-98 and 2003-04.
