The Arizona Women’s basketball team should be able to earn a spot in the postseason if they can pull off some big wins over higher ranking PAC-12 teams.
New chapter. Under third-year head coach and former Arizona Wildcat great Adia Barnes, the Arizona Women’s basketball team should secure themselves a spot in the postseason with a win over the Huskies in Spokane Thursday night 69-59. With an overall record of 15-7 and 5-6 in conference play, they are probably guaranteed to finish over .500, which makes them postseason eligible. Right now, seven teams from the Pac-12 are predicted to make the tournament and Arizona beat two of them so far, Cal and Arizona State. If Arizona can beat a combination of Oregon, Oregon State, ASU again, Cal again and/or Stanford in their remaining games, their chances go up!
Times are changing. With a couple of talented players on this team’s roster. Aari McDonald and Cate Reese and more expected next season, Barnes is slowly but surely bringing back that excitement to women’s basketball at Arizona. This couldn’t have come at a better time for Wildcat fans, as the men’s team is having a rough season, the play of this team has been a bright spot for Arizona Wildcat basketball.
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At one point early on this season, this team had won 11 straight games, which was a school record for women’s basketball, and dominating their opponents. As the Pac-12 season has progressed, the Wildcat had some hard-fought battles against Top 25 schools. They weren’t able to secure the victories, but as the saying goes, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
In her first two seasons as head coach, Barnes and the squad she adopted was not able to finish over .500. This season though, she will. This season her team has a legitimate chance of making some noise in the postseason. Whether it’s in the NCAA tournament or NIT, they will be most probably playing in March. Thinking about our Women’s basketball team playing in March gets us excited. Postseason baby (crossing fingers)!
One of the main reason’s for the team’s success this season is the sensational play of redshirt sophomore McDonald, who ironically enough played for Washington where Barnes was an assistant coach during her time there. McDonald is second overall in the NCAA in points per game with 25.3. She is very confident with her shot and is aggressive on both ends of the floor.
Count the bucket, AND the foul. pic.twitter.com/v1gy8sGPKD
— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaWBB) February 8, 2019
The last team the women’s team made the NCAA tournament was during the 2004-2005 season, when they made it to the second round, losing to LSU. The last time they made it to the NIT was during the 2010-2011 season, where the loss to Utah State in the first round. This season they are probably guaranteed to make one of those tournaments and can hopefully win at least one or multiple games if not go farther.
At Zona Zealots, we would like to congratulate the Arizona Women’s basketball team on achieving a winning the season thus far. Let’s not stop here and continue the success. Bear Down Arizona!