The top players and moments as Wildcats navigated roller-coaster season

Coach Adia Barnes and her Arizona Wildcats have had a winding road this 2023-24 season. But here they are, for the fourth year in a row, in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.

As the 11th-seeded Wildcats prepare to open their tourney run Thursday at 4 p.m. against Auburn, also an 11 seed, in a “First Four,” play-in-style matchup in Storrs, Connecticut, Star beat writer PJ Brown and sports editor Brett Fera look back at some of the individuals and moments that stood out as the Wildcats played their way on to the bubble and into the dance.

UA MVP:

PJ Brown: Helena Pueyo — The do-it-all fifth year senior has left it all on the court in the last eight games averaging 16 points — shooting 52% from the field and 40% from long distance — and dishing 4.3 assists. She has developed into one of the best defenders in the country, always defending her opponent’s best player and often shutting them down; along the way she set a new career steals mark (305). Simply put, Pueyo wins games for Arizona.

Brett Fera: Esmery Martinez — How the fifth-year forward goes, especially down the stretch, so goes Arizona. Sure, the UA was 5-5 in its last 10 games, but the Wildcats flipped their season to jump not only onto the bubble, but into the NCAA Tournament with six of those 10 matchups coming against Top-10 opponents. In the five wins, Martinez has averaged 14.4 points and 8.8 rebounds; in the five losses, that dips to 8.2 and 5.6, with her fouling out twice.

Unsung hero:

PJB: Skylar Jones — Skylar Jones is the most improved player this season and the Wildcats wouldn’t be in the NCAA Tournament without her contributions. She senses the moment and delivers with key basket after key basket. She doesn’t only affect the game on offense, but she is aggressive on defense, using her length to trap, disrupt and pick steals.

BF: Jada Williams — There aren’t many players nationally that impacted Selection Sunday more than Arizona’s sparkplug freshman. It’s true. If the UA doesn’t erase a nine-point deficit with four minutes to go to steal a win at No. 3 Stanford on Feb. 23, the Wildcats are in no way a late selection for this year’s NCAA Tournament. On the flipside, Stanford was a top-4 team in the Associated Press poll seven of the last eight weeks, yet ended up a No. 2 seed. Credit “the Jada Williams game” for knocking the Cardinal off the bracket’s top line, too.

Games of the year:

BF: Jan. 12, 73-70 UA loss in double overtime to Oregon State at Gill Coliseum — Resiliency is best shown in defeat. Eight days earlier, Arizona lost by one at home to No. 5 Colorado. The Wildcats then beat No. 15 Utah by one in overtime. In Corvallis the next week, Arizona was up three on a team that would eventually crack the Top-10 inside 15 seconds to go, and failed to get a rebound. The Beavers tied it up with a late 3 before winning in the second overtime. Arizona went 1-4 over a five-game span (including those three outcomes) decided by eight total points. But the message: no quit, clearly, and there really are good losses.

PJB: Feb. 18, 90-82 UA win over Washington at McKale Center — This was the ultimate never-give-up game. Isis Beh had the best game of her career with 29 points and took over in the third overtime, scoring 9 of UA’s 13 points. Helena Pueyo, who played all 55 minutes, had enough spring in her legs to tie the game in the first OT with a 3, race down the court, leap in the air to swat a shot and send it to another extra period.

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BF: Feb. 23, 68-61 UA win over No. 3 Stanford at Maples Pavilion — The obvious answer is often the right answer, and this is certainly one of those times. Arizona’s season, in hindsight, hinged on that trip, and the Wildcats famously delivered. It must be noted that Stanford was without superstar Cameron Brink, the Pac-12’s eventual Player of the Year and top defender. But the Cardinal are loaded, the Wildcats have been shorthanded virtually all year, and it still gave the feeling of a slaying of Goliath.

PJB: Feb. 25, 87-68 UA win over Cal at Hass Pavilion — This game was so important to finish off the first sweep of Bay Area schools in more than 20 years. Arizona could have just skated after beating then-No. 3 Stanford less than 48 hours before, but to soundly beat Cal showed how far this young team had come. Combined with the Stanford win, this gave them even more confidence, knowing that they could beat anyone, anywhere.

BF: Feb. 29, 95-93 UA loss in double overtime to No. 7 USC at McKale Center — Pueyo played 50 minutes — the fifth time this season she’d play at least 40 minutes in a game — going for 21 points, nine boards, seven assists, and three steals. Just as important, Pueyo, often told to guard the opposition’s best player, shut phenom Juju Watkins down as much as anyone could, holding Watkins to 20 points while the freshman fouled out in regulation. Another loss, sure, but Arizona proved again why the Pac-12 deserved seven NCAA bids.

PJB: March 7, 65-62 UA loss to No. 5 USC in Pac-12 Tournament — This beats the two-overtime, two-point loss to USC at McKale Center the week before because UA overcame a 20-9 deficit in the first quarter and outscored the Women of Troy the rest of the way but came up a little short. In the last few minutes of the game, Jada Williams and Pueyo combined for 12 points, but a Watkins circus shot put the game out of reach.

Season turning point:

PJB: The Wildcats came together as one they once only had seven players (dubbed the “magnificent seven; it’s eight now, including walk-on Brooklyn Rhodes). Arizona finished 5-3, including beating then-No. 3 Stanford and coming close to beating then-No. 3 USC twice. The Wildcats also won a triple-overtime game thriller saw Beh go for 29 against Washington, before beating the Huskies again in the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas to solidify their NCAA case. Arizona’s players believed in themselves when everyone else had written them off.

BF: UA coach Adia Barnes went into the season with a plan: a cohesive, small roster. It could have worked, if Arizona could have stayed healthy. But the Wildcats, by and large, didn’t. In a season that saw two players eventually out for the year with knee injuries, and two more leave the program entirely, the shoulder injury to transfer Salimatou Karouma with 39 seconds to play in the UA’s preseason exhibition against Point Loma — a game that didn’t count toward the Wildcats’ resume — feels overlooked. Going in, numerous factors led Barnes’ squad to have just five available players; but the UA athletic department decided the game would go on, presumably because fans have already bought tickets and a payout was expected to San Diego-based Point Loma for visiting Tucson. In the final minute, Kourouma’s shoulder popped out while she was diving for a loose ball (freshman Breya Cunningham, who wasn’t supposed to play, stepped in for the final 39 seconds to finish the game). Kourouma would be back soon enough, and would keep playing for the next two months. But come January, she had to step off the court completely and undergo season-ending surgery to that shoulder. As Arizona has found itself time and again needing more bodies on its roster, the impact of that moment has lingered, whether noticed or not.

Likely NCAA hero:

PJB: Pueyo. The usually understated Pueyo was visibly excited to make the NCAAs in her last go-around. She knows what it takes to go on a magical run as the only Wildcat left from the 2021 national runner-up squad and she’s not letting this moment slip away.

BF: Cunningham: Williams and Jones have received much of the UA’s freshman fanfare of late. But Cunningham staying out of foul trouble and playing big minutes — with, say, 8-10 rebounds — will be needed for the Wildcats’ to see NCAA Tournament success against Auburn and, if they get past that, Syracuse in the bracket’s official “first round.”