Arizona women's basketball (1-0) hosts Tarleton State: Lauryn Swann's potential, no energy suckers

Tarleton State (0-1) at Arizona (1-0) — McKale Center — 6 p.m. Thursday — ESPN+ — 1400-AM

She said it

Arizona coach Adia Barnes on what the Wildcats have been working on to face Tarleton State: “We know that we’ve got a lot of games this week. Mainly we’ve been focused 90% us and 10% them. Not turning the ball over so much, being able to guard different positions on the perimeter and just be a little bit more solid in what we do. If they zone us, we’re going to play better zone offense because we had a struggle against that. But the rest has been working on us, because it’s three games and eight days.”

On the sidelines

No energy suckers allowed: One of the little things (well, it’s really not that little) that bothers Barnes is bad body language. She talks to her players about it all the time. As she has said, on the court you don’t want your opponent to know that you are upset about missing a shot, getting fouled or anything else. This gives your opponent an advantage.

To help certain Wildcats get over this bad habit, Barnes started by ringing a cowbell in practice every time the bad body language appeared, “but it wasn’t annoying enough,” she said.

“I got an air horn; it’s a really loud and annoying one,” Barnes said. “When you get called out for bad body language, the air horn goes off, and you’re on this board, and the board says, ‘Energy Vampire.’”

Barnes said that she has seen some improvement, but after a certain number of points on the board, the Wildcat steps aside and doesn’t practice anymore.

This has happened once and Barnes said, “I am correcting that and it’s a work in progress.”

Big 12 through and through: The Texans head coach, Bill Brock, is truly a Big 12 coach. He won three national championships as an associate head coach at Baylor with Kim Mulkey. He spent 18 years at Baylor and three at Texas Tech. He was part of 605 wins at both schools.

In his first year at Tarleton State last year, he took the Texans to the WAC Tournament – their first postseason in a conference tournament since becoming a Division l team in 2020 – and they beat Abilene Christian, 54-41, in the first round. They also went from winning eight games the previous season to 11 under Brock.

Glimpse of greatness: Barnes sees big things coming from freshman Lauryn Swann or as she said, “the glimpse of greatness.”

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The real first small glimpse came in Monday’s home opener against UT Arlington, Swann had 8 points, drew three fouls (had none), one assist, one turnover and one steal, in just under 15 minutes.

Swann has all the qualities Barnes likes in a player – someone who works hard, fights for everything and has that “I have something to prove” mentality.

“Remember, Lauryn has a different swag to her because she is someone that was always the underdog,” Barnes said.

“Lauryn’s one of the few players in the country who didn’t sign early. She bet on herself. She had really small schools recruiting her in the fall. She bet on herself and said, ‘No, I want to go bigger, because I can.’ She … was the best player that was available in the spring, and she bet on herself, and got a lot of bigger offers, then, came here. She’s someone that always plays as a chip, and I really love that about her. She’s going to be a really good player.”

Freshman genes: Texans’ rookie Mylasia Smith comes from athletic stock as her dad, Frankie, played cornerback in the NFL for nine seasons for the San Francisco 49ers, the Chicago Bears and the Miami Dolphins.

She led DeSoto High School to three state championships in her three varsity seasons, earned First Team All-District, District 11-6A Co-Defensive MVP and Academic All-District honors.

By the numbers

3: With Breya Cunningham’s double-double Monday, the sophomore post now has three in her career.

28%: The Texans shot 28% (5 of 18) from beyond the arc in their season opening loss to UTEP, 52-49. Niki Van Myk and Andjela Bigovic, combined on four of the five 3-pointers.

44: Wildcat freshmen Swann, Mailien Rolf and Katarina Knezevic combined to play 44 minutes. They also combined for 20 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two steals.

0: Barnes hasn’t lost a season opener in her nine-year tenure at Arizona.

— PJ Brown