Arizona Women’s Basketball fans might sell out McKale vs Oregon Feb. 4th

There’s nothing like controversy to get fans’ butts in seats, and Arizona Women’s Basketball fans better get their seat before the game is sold out!

Just days ago, ZZ Contributor Kenny Lindberg stated his opinion in his post titled, “Faced with Adversity, Arizona Women’s Basketball looks to Bounce Back”:

“This is one thing I do know, and it’s that there are 355 other coaches in Division 1 Women’s Basketball, and there is not a single one that I’d rather see leading the Wildcats, as Barnes is quickly ascending to one of the premier coaches in NCAA Basketball.”

Per Head Coach Adia Barnes, she wishes to see all the hoopla over, or better yet, the ‘communication’ between her, her players, and Oregon Head Coach Kelly Graves, to be in the past. So, we will not rehash what went down.

Just know that Arizona Wildcat Shaina Pellington, who played against Oregon and was a witness in the Wildcats’ overtime loss to the Ducks. Shaina backed her coach’s claims, even giving some credence to what had gone on. Props to her for standing up and saying something.

Barnes responded on Twitter about the disrespect, and even apologized for her actions but not for sticking up for her and her team.

She added this, “That’s my prerogative what I choose to do. When I don’t respond well or yell at official, that’s not my character. That’s why I apologized for the way I behaved. I know I’m a role model … but I’m not perfect. And I’m going to make mistakes and I’m going to get emotional and I’m passionate, but I always have to conduct myself in the right way.”

The game seemed skewed to Arizona fans because Oregon was called for 15 fouls while Arizona was called for 23 fouls. Only eight more, but fouls called against Arizona came late in the game when it makes a difference in momentum and strategy.

Let’s face it, this win for Oregon was a “game-changer” for the team. It put them on the map as a contender, at least that’s what the Pac-12 announcers stated after the clock ran out in Eugene. Oregon also knocked off No. 9 UCONN at home by a large margin (72-59) on January 17th, just two days after beating then No. 7 ranked Arizona by two points at the buzzer, 68-66.

A person intimately familiar with Pac-12 sports media and operations told me anonymously, “Honestly, I love the heat and hot tempers. Let’s compete! Let’s fight. Let’s show the nation and the world that Pac-12 WBB will kick your ass and spit in your face. No wimps allowed. This is real basketball.”

His point of view is that the person who gets caught isn’t necessarily the guilty party, but nothing was caught on tape for Graves, so those are the facts everyone has to go on.

Oregon fans are strongly supporting their coach, saying that he is completely innocent because no one heard or paid attention maybe to what he says during a game. Since there is no proof, it seems the Pac-12 will not admonish nor do anything about any reported or corroborated actions that might have taken place.

Graves finally spoke about the communication issue that night, he wants to move on, “I think whatever happened after, I think has kind of been blown up, to be honest with you,” Graves said, “I don’t think it was anything more on either side that competitors do, you know what I mean. We compete and sometimes that’s not always pretty. I think that was kind of blown out of proportion.”

Barnes made some great points on Thursday. “Players hear a lot of stuff in games,” Barnes said. “I’m probably called a lot of names, but I’ve been called a b-i-t-c-h before. It’s not gonna be the first, it’s not the last, and that really doesn’t bother me at all. It’s like, whatever.”

“You know we’re competitors. Things get extremely competitive when you are in the game — I think everything got really out of proportion — There’s no hard feelings, I have always had respect for Coach Graves and Oregon, and the Pac-12 we back each other,” said coach Barnes on Thursday. Media wouldn’t let it go, so she spent a while answering more questions.

Whatever the case, Barnes and Graves would like to move on, and Arizona fans are obliged to do just that!

We don’t know at this time if the game on Feb. 4th is sold out, but when you go to buy a single seat it looks like only 400-500 seats are left in the lower bowl. Wildcats fans cannot wait for this rematch!

Fans are ready to go, and hopefully, the ZonaZoo will do their thing as well. McKale is Adia Barnes Coppa’s house, and the fans are 1000 percent behind her and the team. We would love to see the game sold out.

Javier Morales, ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com won’t be surprised if Oregon doesn’t want to feel the heat at McKale. Only time with tell.

Oregon will or may travel to Tucson for a rematch at McKale on Feb 4, and tickets are going very fast, if not sold out by now, so do yourself a favor and go get you one!