As the Arizona Women’s Basketball continues to find success in the 2021 NCAA Tournament, the Wildcats’ biggest detractors are becoming more silent.
With the 2021 Women’s National Basketball Championship game among us, I don’t think you can find a single team having a better Tournament than the Arizona Women’s Basketball team.
Coming in, the Wildcats were considered just a three-seed and would perhaps have the most daunting challenge ahead of them. In a bracket with teams like UCONN, Texas A&M, NC State, and Indiana among others, there’s no doubt Arizona would have a significant challenge.
Arizona Wildcats
Often doubted and counted out, head coach Adia Barnes and her Wildcats have taken that to heart, playing with intensity and with an ‘us versus everybody’ kind of mentality all tournament long.
And with a Final Four victory in hand on Friday evening, all that came to a head when Barnes was speaking to her team following an emphatic, 10-point win over the heavily favored No. 1 UCONN Huskies. Adia was caught in a candid moment with her team, flipping the double-birds and dropping what was clearly an ‘f-bomb’.
No apologies needed, coach! In a tournament where no one gave the Wildcats even the slightest chance, or even forgot about the teams’ entire existence, why wouldn’t the Wildcats feel slighted, or feel like it is “them versus everybody”?
Heck, even as Wildcats’ star point guard Aari McDonald (it’s pronounced Air-e, not Are-e) has had a dominant season and tournament, she still apparently wasn’t good enough in the eyes of the National Media to be named a First Team All-American.
As Arizona controlled and dominated UCONN from start-to-finish, and now play Conference rival Stanford in the Women’s National Championship, everyone is on notice, and the performance has certainly silenced the critics.
Let’s hope come Monday, the Wildcats can silence the critics one more time!