In 1999, Arizona’s women’s basketball program was coming off three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and had so increased its recruiting appeal that it got a recruiting visit from Diana Taurasi, then a senior in Chino, California, and the nation’s No. 1 prospect.
Taurasi ultimately whittled her final choices to Arizona, UConn and UCLA before playing at UConn and becoming one of the top women’s basketball players in history.
Now UA coach Adia Barnes has taken it to a Taurasi-type level in recruiting.
Lauren Ware, a 6-foot-5-inch forward from Bismarck, North Dakota, is spending the weekend visiting the UA. Ware announced last week she is considering Arizona, Minnesota, UCLA, Texas and Tennessee.
There’s a catch: Ware is an elite volleyball and basketball prospect and wants to play both in college. After Ware was named one of the five top players at the recent Nike Nationals, averaging 19.9 points and 12.6 rebounds per game, Barnes and Arizona volleyball coach Dave Rubio assured Ware that she can play two sports at Arizona.
Could that work? Volleyball season runs from late August to mid-December. Basketball season opens in early November.
The UA has had two notable multi-sport women’s athletes the last 25 years. In 1996, Sahuaro High School grad Heidi Bomberger Bruschi (she is Tedy Bruschi’s wife) completed her UA volleyball career by playing in 426 sets, which still ranks No. 9 in school history. After her junior season, she was part of Arizona’s powerful softball team, playing in 17 games.
From 1997-2000, Felecity Willis was a rotation player on Joan Bonvicini’s basketball teams. As a junior, she started 44 games for Mike Candrea’s softball team.
The most notable Pac-12 player to do the volleyball-basketball double was UCLA’s Natalie Williams, 1990-94, who was a consensus All-American in both sports. Over her UCLA career, Williams missed 27 basketball games while still playing volleyball. By 2000, she was a star on Team USA’s Olympic gold medal basketball team.
Stay tuned.
