Arizona Wildcats news: Gilbert no longer with WBB, Softball sweeps invitational, more

Oregon State v Arizona
Oregon State v Arizona | Rebecca Noble/GettyImages

The morning after a late-night win always feels great, doesn't it? Especially when that win secures the season sweep over Arizona State. With all the excitement — and some underlying panic — surrounding Arizona Basketball right now, some other news may have flown under the radar.

Perhaps most consequentially, Arizona Women's Basketball head coach Adia Barnes publicly stated on a radio show that Kailyn Gilbert is not a member of the team anymore. Arizona Baseball doesn't bring any better news, as they've been knocked down a peg and gone 1-3 in last week's games. However, Arizona Softball is slowly climbing the rankings after continuing to dispatch teams left and right, while Arizona Women's Swimming is jockeying for a podium finish in the Pac-12 Championships.

Adia Barnes announces Kailyn Gilbert no longer with Arizona WBB

A season that has seen Arizona Women's Basketball's roster get decimated brought another wrinkle: guard and leading scorer Kailyn Gilbert is no longer on the team. Adia Barnes made this information public in a conversation with David Kelly of Wildcats Radio 1290 AM on DK with the Sports Tip.

"We're rolling with our seven, and then we just added a walk-on, so [Brooklyn Rhodes] will be our eighth for the rest of the season."
Adia Barnes

Despite being out of the lineup, she still leads the team in scoring with 348 points — a full 30 points ahead of Esmery Martinez, who sits at No. 2. Gilbert, whose playing status has been a topic of conversation over the last two months, has been a healthy scratch in five of the last nine games and only played for a handful of minutes in the 3OT win over Washington. Barnes called the decision "addition by subtraction" as the 'Cats are riding a four-game hot streak.

Arizona Softball sweeps Hillenbrand Invitational, rises in rankings

After starting the season 10-1 with the sole loss coming to No. 15 Arkansas, No. 19 Arizona Softball kept the roll going by sweeping the competition when hosting the Hillenbrand Invitational to move to 16-1 on the season. The 'Cats started off by rolling through Drake and Indiana (for the first time) with a pair of matching 6-3 wins. In the first matchup against Marshall, Arizona poured it on and only needed six innings to seal a 12-4 victory.

Indiana tested Arizona heavily in the second game, taking it to 14 innings before Jasmine Perezchica walked it off with an RBI single to seal the 10-9 win. Immediately afterward, Arizona had to play Marshall a second time and laid a 10-2 beatdown in just five innings. The final game of the invitational was against Central Michigan, and this game also went to extra innings before walking it off with a 5-4 win in the bottom of the ninth. Arizona moved up to No. 19 in the NFCA Poll for their efforts.

Arizona Baseball hits rough patch early

After starting the season 3-1, Arizona has fallen back down to Earth after going 1-3 in its next four to level out at 4-4 on the season. It was a rough road showing for the Wildcats, who took a trip to play San Diego on the road in a three-game series before heading East to play No. 5 TCU in Fort Worth. Arizona will remain in Texas to play in the Frisco College Baseball Classic this weekend against No. 25 Dallas Baptist, No. 16 Alabama, and No. 20 Indiana.

The 'Cats lost the first two games against San Diego, each by 2 runs. The first was a 10-8 failed comeback attempt, and the second was a 6-4 loss punctuated by four San Diego runs in the seventh inning. The sole win came in the final game, where Arizona rallied back for a 10-9 win after finding themselves in a 6-run hole early. The good vibes didn't last for long though, and the final game before the Frisco Classic saw Arizona get shellacked 6-1 by No. 5 TCU.

Arizona Swim and Dive in 3rd place after Night 1 of Pac-12 Championship

The first night of the Pac-12 swimming and diving championship is in the books, and the Arizona Women's Swimming team sits in 3rd place with 104 points. They are two points ahead of UCLA in fourth, and two points behind Arizona State for second. The women's 200m medley group finished their event in fourth place, but a disqualification bumped them onto the podium and into third place. Meanwhile, redshirt freshman diver Gage DuBois earned a third-place podium finish in his debut in the Pac-12 championship.

The women's swimming and both genders of diving competitions are underway, taking place at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way, Washington through Saturday, March 2. The Men's Swimming events won't be taking place until Wednesday, March 6, and will conclude on Saturday, March 9.

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