Arizona forward Lauren Ware dries to the basket while being defended by Oregon forward Kylee Watson (22) and guard Taylor Chavez (3) in the first half Thursday. The Wildcats used runs in the first and third quarters to log their first statement win of the season.
Womenβs basketball in the Pac-12 is so good itβs menacing. Itβs like being stuck in the SEC West football division with Alabama, LSU and Auburn, or in ACC menβs basketball opposite Duke and North Carolina.
Letβs start with the team picked to finish 12th in the league this season, Washington State. The Cougars are No. 25 in the current national rankings, good enough to beat then-No. 7 Arizona a few days ago.
βA lot of people are going to lose to (WSU),β UA coach Adia Barnes said after the 11th-ranked Wildcats flattened No. 10 Oregon 57-41 Thursday evening.
Itβs not like those seemingly forever stuck behind Stanford, Oregon, UCLA and ASU arenβt trying. The picked-to-finish-last Cougars hired coach Kamie Ethridge, who led Texas to an NCAA championship, was a key part of Team USAβs 1988 Olympic gold medal and is in the womenβs basketball Hall of Fame.
After the Cougars beat Arizona, Ethridge used the word βstatementβ four times in her post-game interview, as in βthis was a statement win.β
βI love the thought that we might be in the mix,β said Ethridge. βBut we also know how fast this could crash.β
About the last team youβd expect to crash is Oregon. The Ducks went 97-12 the last three seasons and brought in the nationβs No.1 recruiting class this year. All five players were McDonaldβs All-Americans.
On Thursday, those five All-Americans were greeted by Arizonaβs in-your-grill defense and combined for just 16 points.
Crash. Sure enough, both Barnes and senior Sam Thomas used βstatementβ to describe the UAβs long-sought win over the Ducks.
At halftime, Oregon coach Kelly Graves, who has been the Pac-12 coach of the year three years in succession, told an ESPN interviewer βwe lost our composure, including me; the reality is, theyβre beating us.β
Arizona led 36-22. The game was never in doubt.
Barnes wasnβt about to celebrate, squeezing the words βtough life for usβ into her post-game Zoom conference, a reference to what lies ahead for the No. 11 Wildcats. Hereβs Arizonaβs upcoming road schedule:
Jan. 31 at No. 8 UCLA
Feb. 7 at No. 10 Oregon
Feb. 22 at No. 1 Stanford
Feb. 28 at always-worrisome ASU
Arizona beat Oregon with defense, grit and with senior point guard Aari McDonald, the Pac-12βs most feared opponent. McDonald leads the league in scoring and assists and is third in steals. If anyone kept official totals for deflections, she would be Nos. 1. 2 and 3. Sheβs not just a pest to opposing offenses, she is a pest.
But Barnes knows the Wildcats have a hole in their game: 3-point shooting. Stanford and Oregon have combined to make 170 3-pointers. Arizona has made 60.
βWe go through (scoring) droughts,β said Barnes, who has wisely deployed a pressing, McDonald-led defense to make up for those droughts. βWith a player like Aari, Iβd be a stupid coach to not press.β
On offense, itβs not as simple.
On the final possession of the first half Thursday, leading 34-22, Barnes called the best play in her book. McDonald dribbled into the frontcourt and, predictably, saw four Ducks squeezed into the paint, blocking her path. Daring her to βbring it.β
The fifth Duck played McDonald head-up. It was almost as if Oregon didnβt bother to guard the other four Wildcats.
βWe donβt have a team that can spread the court,β said Barnes. βEveryone sits in the paint and waits for Aari.β
Somehow, McDonald sped past the first three defenders, dashed into the paint, ignored the hands in her face and the bodies in her path and made a twisting layup.
Not one to be intimidated, McDonald said βwe lace up our shoes just like Oregon does.β
Arizona is worthy of a top-10 ranking and is a sturdy Final Four contender, but many analysts would say the Wildcats are a player short.
A 3-point shooter.
To her credit, Barnes shrewdly took advantage of the unique NCAA regulations during a COVID-19 season to the UAβs immediate benefit. Instead of sulking after losing Sunday at WSU, Barnes used the rest of the day to add a valued 3-point shooter to the roster.
It was like an NFL general manager scanning the waiver wire for immediate help.
Barnes discovered itβs permissible to activate the top recruit from Arizonaβs class of 2021, Phoenix guard Madison Conner, as soon as she passes COVID-19 protocols. Conner, who has earned her high school degree and qualified for admission to the UA, could be on the floor as early as Arizonaβs game against Utah next Friday.
In her first three years of competition at Gilbert Perry High School, Conner made 181 3-pointers. Arizona, which is shooting 28.5% on 3s, has nothing to lose by giving Conner a shot.
If it helps Arizona avoid a crash on the difficult road ahead, Barnes will have made a statement that sticks.