Aari McDonald stands in the Unity circle with her teammates and her opponents before every game and does the same thing.
Shes says a little prayer, balls up her fist, kisses it and taps her tattoo.
It’s the Arizona Wildcats star’s way of honoring her maternal grandfather. Roger Rodgers, known as “Pops,” was one of the biggest influences in McDonald’s life.
She won’t stay in the moment too long. There’s a game to play
Basketball is McDonald’s safe haven, a place where reality gets suspended for 40-plus minutes.
“I’m handling my business,” she says. “I’ll get in my zone and do what I do best.”
Three years ago, during McDonald’s freshman season at Washington, “Pops” was battling cancer. He got to watch the Huskies’ run to the Sweet 16 before he died.
McDonald’s family didn’t tell her how sick her grandfather was because she would have worried and not focused completely on basketball. As a freshman, she averaged 13.7 points and four rebounds per game; McDonald had five steals, five assists and two blocks in the NCAA Tournament.
McDonald transferred to the UA a few months later, and has since turned around the Wildcats’ fortunes. Though she was still grieving her grandfather’s death at the time, McDonald knew Arizona was the right place for her.
The Wildcats’ new coach, Adia Barnes, had known McDonald she was 15 years old. She recruited the fiery point guard to Washington when Barnes was a Huskies assistant.
Barnes cares about McDonald beyond basketball. She even sent flowers to McDonald’s grandma.
“That meant a lot. I was like, ‘This is the place to be,’” McDonald said.
“Coach Adia and I didn’t really have that conversation until the year to the day (“Pops”) died. I came in and I was a mess. I called her and was like, ‘I need somebody to talk to.’ I went to her office and she sat me down and said, ‘I know what you are going through. It’s not easy.’ She gave me words of encouragement and sent me home.
“She was like, ‘take a day off. You need it.’ That’s love right there.”
That’s in part why McDonald has entrusted Barnes with her continuing evolution as a player. McDonald passed the 2,000-point mark Friday night, joining a group of elite players. But McDonald is about more than her offense. The senior considers herself a point guard who shoots — but one that can pass and play smothering defense, too.
Those who are just now noticing that McDonald can direct traffic on the offensive end and help get her teammates in position to score “are coming late to the show,” she said.
A native of Fresno, California, McDonald comes from a basketball family. When she was still in a rocker, she would watch family members play pickup games in her grandparents’ driveway. She remembers watching a Los Angeles Sparks game as a kid and thinking “this is what I want to do when I get older.”
Arizona guard Aari McDonald runs the ball up court during the Wildcats’ win over USC earlier this season.
McDonald played her first organized games at age 7, taking part in the Police Activities League. Her mom, Andrea, was her coach.
“I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off,” McDonald laughed.
Even then, McDonald said, she was the fastest player on the court.
She attended summer basketball camps put on by fellow Fresno native and former NBA defensive specialist Bruce Bowen. McDonald’s high school game tape reveals the same form that’s familiar to UA fans, though she is quick to point out that her technique is different.
Her attacking approach — finding a little sliver of daylight with multiple defenders collapsing on her — is the same, too.
“It’s just the fearlessness and the mindset I have — no one can stop me,” McDonald said. “That’s where it all started. If people are not going to stop me, I’m just going to keep going until somebody stops me until they make me do something different.”
Now, McDonald is fine-tuning her game for the next level. Early WNBA mock drafts have McDonald going as high as No. 2 overall to the Dallas Wings.
“It’s hard to improve, because, like, when you’re in the moment, you do what works,” Barnes said.
“Aari has grown. Aari is a very unselfish player, she’s a player that wants to win at all costs. If that means scoring less, taking less shots, she’ll do whatever it takes to win. That’s just who she is.
Arizona Wildcats guard Aari McDonald (2) hits the winning drum following a game against the USC Trojans at the McKale Center, on Dec. 6, 2020.
“For her to improve her assist-(to)-turnover ratio, that’s one of the most important things for her to continue her career and be a professional. That’s awesome. For her to have more assists, that means she’s creating points for her teammates. That’s more important even than her couple points. If you go down four points and create 10 more points, you’ve improved.
“She’s became a better point guard. She’s a better leader, she’s more vocal, she tells people where to go. She didn’t do that a couple years ago. She’s evolving into the best point guard in the country and one of the best overall players.”
McDonald’s desire to improve comes back to “Pops.” It’s quite literally in her DNA.
“Everything I do … I just try to glorify him,” she said. “I know that if he was here, he’d be very proud of me and what I’m doing.”
Rim shots
• Before the postponement of Sunday’s game, Arizona had a tenuous hold on first place in the Pac-12: Friday’s victory over Utah and No. 5 Stanford’s loss to No. 6 UCLA moved the UA a half-game up on Stanford. UA hasn’t held the top spot in the league standings since the 2003-04 season.
- Freshman forward Marta Garcia has a slight ankle sprain, Barnes said. She was spotted wearing a boot on her right foot after Friday’s game.
- Center Semaj Smith was cleared after a concussion kept her out of last weekend’s games. She played two minutes Friday night against Utah.
- Bendu Yeaney tweaked her ankle on an awkward screen Friday night, but returned to play seven minutes in the second half. Barnes took Yeaney out in the fourth quarter when the UA was up by 19.
- Reserve guard Mara Mote played five minutes Friday and took advantage of it, playing tight defense, grabbing a steal and finishing on an inside basket after a long pass from McDonald in transition.
