Arizona women’s basketball players (from left) Lauren Fields, Lemyah Hilton and forward Esmery Martinez record themselves during Friday’s media day event at McKale Center.

 Rick Wiley, Arizona Daily Star

Adia Barnes is excited to get to work.

A new season always brings hope and anticipation of what the season will bring. Yet, as Barnes enters her seventh year as Arizona’s head coach, the excitement seems a little different than in years’ past.

There are plenty of reasons why.

For starters, All-Pac-12 forward Cate Reese is ahead of schedule as she returns from offseason shoulder surgery.

β€œIt’s always going to be Cate’s team,” Barnes said at Friday afternoon’s media day at McKale Center. β€œThis is Cate’s program. Cate’s been on the face of this program for so long. I rely on her.”

Reese isn’t the only player Barnes can rely on this season. Returnees Lauren Ware, Shaina Pellington, Helena Pueyo and Madi Conner have come back focused and ready to lead the young players.

Add transfers Lauren Fields (Oklahoma State), Esmery Martinez (West Virginia) and Jade Loville (Arizona State) to the highest-rated freshman class in program history, and the Wildcats have a roster capable of making a deep postseason run.

Senior forward Cate Reese poses for Arizona Daily Star photographer Mamta Popat during Friday’s media day event in McKale Center.

β€œAdding Jade Loville, who was the second leading scorer in the Pac-12 (last season) and a really good perimeter player will add consistent 3-point shooting and toughness and size on the perimeter,” Barnes said. β€œLauren Fields, a phenomenal defender from Oklahoma State who brings winning and experience. You look at as Esmery Martinez, who is a stretch four. A really good 3-point shooter, a gamer (and) one of the best offensive rebounders in the country. …

β€œThen you add … a great freshman group … I’m excited to put that together. Now on paper … you’re like, β€˜Oh, we should be good.’ Well, you’ve got to put the puzzles together. And that’s the challenging part of (being a) coach. And I think that’s the exciting part.”

Developing the four freshmen

Barnes will focus much of her energy on developing freshmen Maya Nnaji, Paris Clark, Kailyn Gilbert and Lemyah Hylton so that can contribute in 2022-23 and beyond.

β€œThese freshmen are better than our freshmen were a couple years ago,” Barnes said. β€œIf you look at Maya, she’s versatile, she has potential to be a really well-rounded versatile player with three-point range. If you’d look at Lemyah … is a really good athlete. She’s long and lean. She’ll be a great defender and she’s really good at slashing for the basket. If you look at Kailyn, she’s a fierce competitor. She can shoot she can take it off the dribble. She’s got a really good game that she’s got to learn how to run a team because she’ll play the one and the two. Paris will play guard but it’s just her learning the game. The game is faster than in high school. There are some pace things, but she has a great handle, she’s getting stronger. I think they’re going to be they’re all going to be really good and so different. When I look at the future, they are the future.”

Luckily, a miss

Gilbert had a rough start to the week as Hurricane Ian hit her home state of Florida. The Tampa native’s home was right in the path of the storm until the wind shifted.

β€œI was nervous because my grandma (Angela) and mom (Chantha) flew up here (Tucson), but my dad (David) and brother (Zack, who is 10 years old) stayed home,” Gilbert said. β€œ(My dad) and my brother were by themselves β€” I was worried about that. I was calling him a lot just asking him how he was feeling. He’s good. So, I’m good.”

Gilbert has experienced hurricanes before, but nothing like Ian. She called it β€œkind of scary” to watch from afar.

β€œI would rather been there with them,” she said. β€œI’m just a family person, so I would rather have been there with them dealing with it instead of being on my own.”

Mid-range is Fields’ spot

Most players want to slash their way through traffic and score on a layup.

Not Fields.

β€œMy freshman year, I could beat everybody off the dribble, but when you get to college, there’s help defense,” Fields said. β€œI think that was my go-to was learning and developing a mid-range jump shot. Because once I beat the first defender, I could just pull up jumpshot and not get too deep in the paint.”

Fields won’t shy away from layups. The 5-foot-9-inch guard is focused on finishing at the basket.

When she first arrived in Tucson, β€œthe ball was coming off my hands weird when I would go up,” she said. β€œJust the coaches correcting that helped a lot. And then a lot of it had to do with focus to just making sure you’re getting into the gym, doing like just simple stuff like layups and over and over again and just making sure I finish.

β€œBeing here I can tell that we focus a lot on skill development. I would say at my previous school, that wasn’t too big of a thing. It was more team bonding, but (UA coaches) definitely focus on individual skill as well, which I think will help overall for the team.”

Rim shots

Loville seriously elevates when she shoots a jumper. β€œThis is so sexist to say, (but) it’s like a guys pull-up (jumper),” Barnes said. β€œYou don’t see a lot of female basketball players that jump the way she does. You don’t see a jumpshot in women’s basketball. Some pros like (Seattle Storm’s) Jewell Lloyd and some WNBA players (do it), but it’s rare that you can just like stop and rise up and shot. She has that. There not a lot of female players in the country that have that. She’s a great scorer. She’ll be a pro. With her, sometimes she’ll settle for that jumper. When she’s strong, she can get to the rim, too. We’ll work on her improving in both areas.”

Barnes said she would consider having a Red-Blue game β€” similar to what the men’s basketball team does β€” in the future. β€œIf I got feedback that people would love it, I think it’d be fun,” Barnes said.

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