PJ Brown: The way Arizona women's basketball lost to UNLV is biggest lesson for young Wildcats

Mama said there would be days like this.

And Adia Barnes meant it.

She said it over and over again that, at times, this season might look ugly for her Arizona women's basketball team.

While she might not have expected exactly how Saturday night’s 72-53 loss at UNLV would go down, she knew all along that with this young team things wouldn’t be perfect.

They never are when you are taking seven new players and teaching them a complex system.

They never are when two of the four “veterans” (Kailyn Gilbert and Maya Nnaji) are only sophomores who played limited roles last season.

And they never are when you are just trying to improve day by day with the goal of playing your best ball at the end of the season.

We all know that when you try to get better at anything — in this case basketball — it isn’t a straight trajectory upwards. It’s full of starts and stops, good days and bad days, great moments and rough moments, as well as ups and downs within all of that.

There will be some days when everything clicks, passes are sharp and balls just float in the hoop. There will be days where everything Barnes draws up is executed and, even if a play is broken by an opponent’s defense, the Wildcats are so in sync that they figure out how to push through it for a positive outcome. In those games, the defense — Arizona’s usual calling card — is swarming, trapping and the Wildcats' hands are active.

Then, there are days like Saturday when the passes are overthrown or dished into the opponent’s hands. Or when it seems like there is a lid on the basket — and it’s hard for any shot inside (15.38% in the second quarter; 37.5% overall) or outside (13.3%) to go down. And no matter what Barnes draws up in the huddle, the Wildcats just can’t do it. On defense, they are out of position, not playing in help or watching their opponent run past them to score.

In the loss to the Rebels, the Wildcats were stuck in the latter. On defense, Helena Pueyo, who was averaging four steals per game (finished with none), was getting some tips, but those weren’t turning into steals as her teammates were out of position.

“We had a hard time guarding them and it wasn’t off of any plays,” Barnes said after the game. “It was off pure guarding the ball; not getting into rotation. And then when you’re in rotation, you are vulnerable on box outs. I think we that we had a really tough time guarding the ball and staying disciplined and sticking to the game plan.”

While things didn’t go to plan on either side of the ball and the loss stings, there were a few good things that need to be mentioned.

Esmery Martinez continues to bring it, even though she is learning a new position (she's playing at the three on some possessions, the four at others and many times it depends on if she is playing offense or defense. If that isn’t confusing just writing and thinking about it, try playing it. Still, Martinez finds a way.

Even when she was still not fully healthy after returning from a migraine kept her out of the second exhibition game, she was all over the floor making things happen.

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This time out, she played consistently all game and kept her teammates going as much as she could. She picked up her second double-double of the season (14 points, 11 rebounds). She scored eight of the Wildcats’ 13 points in the first quarter to try to keep things close. It is important to note that while she also collected two steals, two blocks and two assists, she did have half of Arizona’s 14 turnovers. Nearly all of them came on passes to her teammates who either weren’t in position or weren’t expecting a hard pass. Martinez was just trying to make things happen.

The versatile 6-2-inch forward is also the one who takes it on the chin — or, in this case, head — for the Wildcats. Whether it is a hard screen, an opponent jumping on her back trying to get a rebound, an extra push in the back after the whistle was blown or even a hard knock that has her almost looking cross-eyed like she is trying to shake off those stars, Martinez just pops back up and gets back in position to help her team.

All of this hasn’t gone unrecognized by Barnes. She knows how tough Martinez is and how important it is to have her on the court as long as she can. She played 35 minutes against UNLV and over the last three games is averaging 33 minutes per game.

Barnes said, “She always plays hard and she's one of the toughest kids we have and it was clearly evident (against UNLV).”

Freshman Jada Williams is starting to break through her struggles with her shot. Against South Dakota she scored 13 points — two were three-pointers. On Saturday, she may have only scored five points, but she was more selective and efficient going 2 for 5 from the field and hitting one of the Wildcats’ shots from beyond the arc (the other came from Gilbert). The shot was a rainbow jumper — a term from way back coined by Eddie Doucette, the play-by-play maestro for the Milwaukee Bucks. The shot was from long distance, went high and had a huge arc to it — not an easy thing to do.

As a reminder, Williams, who came in as a good shooter, especially from distance, has had an issue with her Achilles and has been seen walking around in a boot when she’s not playing or practicing. Not having a good step (planting her foot), as well as a good foundation, has affected her entire shot process. As she is healing all of this is and will continue to fall back in place.

And it must be said that a fire was lit under Gilbert in the second half as she put up 21 points, grabbed four of her five rebounds and picked two of her three steals during that 20-minute span. You could see her being intentional in taking her type of shots and standing in the right place to grab a rebound.

The biggest thing that was missing all night collectively as a team was heart. While still trying to find their identity, the Wildcats are known for playing with grit — with hunger. On Saturday, it was UNLV who wanted it more.

“The concern to me is we're not coming up with those 50/50 balls and that's a concern because we're kind of a step late on everything,” Barnes said.

In time, everything will fall into place. It's a process. Williams’ shot will fully come back. The Wildcats will start playing their tight defense and they will start sharing the ball on offense looking for the best of the best shot and knocking it down. In other words, they will play team ball again.  

This was only one loss in the early part of the season. Yet, it was how the Wildcats lost.

As Barnes always says, “you have to control what you can control.”

She means playing with a sense of urgency and playing with heart. Those are the two most important things that were missing on Saturday. Those are the two things that every Wildcat team under Barnes has had.

This will be the biggest lesson this team learns this season. We won't have to wait long — Thursday when the Wildcats face UC San Diego at McKale Center — to see how quickly they pick this up.