Wildcats standout Cate Reese medically cleared after 'really slow' recovery from shoulder surgery

Cate Reese will be on the court with her teammates when the Arizona Wildcats begin practicing next week.

Reese was medically cleared on Monday, nearly seven months after dislocating her shoulder in a Feb. 20 game against Washington State. Reese returned to play in the NCAA Tournament, then underwent surgery to repair a significantly torn labrum and torn tendons.

Reese said her rehab was “kind of mentally exhausting” and repetitive.

“The progress, it happens, but it happens really slow,” she said. “You don’t see changes every day. It’s more like weekly. It’s like you’re going in every day and not seeing differences sometimes. So that can be hard.”

Reese said that everything is healed in her shoulder; now, it’s a matter of getting range of motion back and building strength. That means lot of stretching — every day. Doctors have told her that her range of motion will be 10% less than someone who has never dislocated their shoulder. “But I’ll take it,” Reese said.

“They did a lot of stuff on my shoulder to make sure that it won’t happen again; I just have to be careful,” she added. “Obviously, I’ll be a little bit more wary of a fast-break layup, so people don’t jump in front of me like that, but I think I’ll be pretty much 100%. They said that your shoulder still continues to stretch out even a year after surgery. I have to get as much range of motion as I possibly can now where it feels normal for basketball, and then just go from there.”

Lessons learned

Reese can’t change the fact that she got injured or that the Wildcats lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. But she has taken lessons to heart as she gets ready for her final season in a UA uniform.

“I want to win,” she said. “I think last year, we weren’t the team we were supposed to be. That’s disappointing as a captain. There was definitely some stuff that I could have done to help, and I think that’s just a learning experience — realizing that as a captain, you have to do the hard stuff. I think I could have done a better job of that. This year, I’m definitely focusing on doing the right thing all the time. I think winning, really having team chemistry — just playing well together. Having fun, I think that is one of the most important parts. That’s what I am focusing on this year.

“I’m excited. Everyone wants to get better. Everyone’s always in the gym or working on their shot. That’s exciting to see. I’m excited to play with them. I think we’re going to have really good team chemistry. I think everyone’s completely different, but we all fit in together.”

NIL … for coaches

UA coach Adia Barnes never set out to have a side gig using her name, image and likeness. But here we are.

In March, BreakingT.com started selling a navy T-shirt that reads AZ hearts Adia.

Arizona’s athletic department has a deal with the clothing brand, and sells a few other tees on the site. Arizona gets a 16% cut of every Az hearts Adia shirt that is sold. It gives 8% to Barnes and splits the remaining 8% between the athletic department and marketing department.

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At first, Barnes didn’t know she was supposed to receive any money for the tee bearing her name. After all, she is focused on a few other things — like getting her program ready for the season.

Barnes joked that she has to “buy a few tees for her parents.”

A whirlwind season

Sam Thomas spent her first WNBA season soaking things up from players like Diana Taurasi and Diamond DeShields. The Phoenix Mercury rookie learned a new system, endured the grind of a long season — and heard all about Brittney Griner, the Mercury star who is detained in Russia.

Thomas said she saw up close “how much BG has had an effect on everyone.”

All of it took a toll on the Mercury, on and off the court.

“We kind of had to change the way we play because we were a little bit smaller than those teams, which we weren’t expecting coming into the season,” Thomas said. “Just trying to rally together and get the wins we could — which we did, and we made it to playoffs, which I think was a huge accomplishment considering everything that we’ve went through.”

Thomas will begin playing in Sardinia on Oct. 1.

“I am really excited to see this new style that I’m going to be playing and hopefully I can learn a little bit of Italian on the way,” she said.

Rim shots

Arizona has sold 5,485 season tickets so far — just 22 shy of a program-record of 5,507. Arizona finished sixth in the nation in attendance last season.

Former UA standout LaBrittney Jones is now an assistant girls basketball coach at DeSoto High School in Texas.

The NCAA’s social media team is visiting women’s basketball teams across the country as part of a road trip. Monday, they visited Tucson. They watched the Wildcats in the weight room and at practice, took a campus tour with Reese and, along with guard Shaina Pellington, sampled Arizona’s “drink of the day” at the refuel station. The social media team visited ASU on Tuesday.