Arizona women's basketball hosts Cal: Scouting report, home court advantage, Heeke like 'family'

California (13-6, 3-4) at Arizona (10-9, 2-5) | McKale Center | 7 p.m. Friday | TV: Pac-12 Arizona | Radio: 1290-AM

She said it

Arizona coach Adia Barnes on Cal: “Cal is good. Every team has gotten better. (The Golden Bears) shoot it better. They’re better inside. I think it’s gonna be a tough game for us, but we need to win some games at home.

“They’ve added shooters — a four-shooter and they have a guard that can really shoot it. They’re just better, (have) more depth and just had have added better players. That’s why the portal is so important for all of us, because you can get good pretty fast. Losing (Jayda) Curry, and I haven’t followed her at Louisville, but you add the pieces and there are pieces that helped them score. I think transition defense is an area that we can exploit so we can be good offensively in transition, but they’re good and they’re confident they’re winning games.”

On the sidelines

The 3: In honor of the last go-round of the Pac-12, here’s three questions with a league coach. This week: Cal coach Charmin Smith.

Q: Who do you think is the X-factor for your team?

A: “(Our) X-factor is and always has been (senior forward) Michelle (Onyiah, who is averaging 6.4 rebounds per game and has 17 total steals).”

Q: Could you have predicted that you’d be right in the mix with USC, WSU, Utah — all with 3 league wins right now? And what do you think are the keys to your improvement this year?

A: “I think we are right where we need to be in terms of our conference record. Our team understands the importance of every single game in getting to postseason play. We aren’t really looking at anyone else and how they are doing because we can’t control that. We just need to focus on what we can control and, in this moment, that’s being the best we can be in the desert. And trying win on the road. If we do that, I think we will like what happens in the standings.

“The keys to our improvement this year are, first and foremost, our depth. We have much more talent this year. With key transfers having a significant impact and returners expanding on their roles from last year, we’re, simply put, a better team. However, we still have a ton of room to keep growing even at this point in the season. We need to keep improving.”

Q: What are you seeing in Arizona right now?

A: “Arizona has some talented players that we have to figure out how to defend and we have to be ready for their defensive pressure. We must take care of the ball. I imagine they are excited to be back at home. We need to be ready for a team that’s hungry for a win and we need to be just as hungry.”

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Family, indeed: Earlier in the week, UA announced that it has parted ways with Athletic Director Dave Heeke.

While Heeke did not hire Barnes — that was a Greg Byrne move — he was always in her corner.

“He supported me from day one. He’s the one who’s always believed in me,” Barnes said. “I will maintain a relationship with him and I love him as family.”

His support showed up in both the big and the little moments. Heeke and his wife, Liz, attended all Barnes’ home games and when he couldn’t attend, he always texted Barnes after the game.

During the WNIT run, Heeke made a commitment to bid for all six of the games the Wildcats ended up playing in en route to the championship round. Keeping those games at home in McKale Center with the growing support of the community helped the Wildcats win the title.

Just two years later, during the 2021 NCAA championship run, the Wildcats traveled and stayed in a bubble in San Antonio throughout the full run — a span of more than three weeks. Most programs across the country did not allow their head coaches and assistant coaches who were moms travel with their young children.

Arizona stood out as a program that did. Barnes, with the backing of Heeke, brought both children — her son Matteo, who was 5-years old at the time and her then-6-month-old daughter, Capri, who she was nursing.

Home games count: Pac-12 teams are beating each other up every game. Taking a look at the standings, only 11 conference games have been won on the road, which makes it even more important for teams to take care of home court.

No. 3 Colorado is the only team that hasn’t lost a road game. No. 2 UCLA’s losses were on the road to No. 11 USC and No. 16 Utah. No. 6 Stanford’s only loss in league play was at Colorado. All three of USC’s losses came on the road to UCLA, Utah and Colorado.

No. 25 Oregon State only has one road win at Cal. Arizona has one road win at ASU.

By the numbers

100: Esmery Martinez checked off another milestone this past weekend with 100 blocks in her career. She swatted the ball once at UW to earn 100 and added three more against WSU. She has also scored 1,418 points, grabbed 1,170 rebounds and picked 218 steals.

3: Helena Pueyo is averaging three steals per game for the top spot in the Pac-12 and 15th in the nation. She needs two steals to move into fourth place on UA’s all-time steals list passing Reshea Bristol (260). As a team UA is 11th in the nation, averaging 12.1 steals per game.

8.2: Cal takes an average of 8.2 three point attempts per game and makes 31% of them.