Arizona pointed in the right direction
Under Barnes, long-suffering program shows it belongs
SAN ANTONIO — Aari McDonald’s small shoulders carried Arizona through a rebuilding project to the brink of a national championship.
Then the wild ride out of the desert ended on a last-second shot that bounced helplessly, and heartlessly, off the rim in Texas.
McDonald’s desperate attempt couldn’t carry the Wildcats to the title, but the program that has been routinely overlooked and was on the bottom of the Pac-12 just four years ago fought perennial power Stanford to the end. And despite the 54-53 loss Sunday night, Arizona has served notice the program is a new power out West and one to be reckoned with nationally going forward.
“We want to come back here,” Wildcats coach Adia Barnes said.
McDonald and the Wildcats nearly snatched the title from the overall No. 1 seed in the women’s NCAA Tournament with a late defensive flurry that rallied them from nine points down in the final quarter. But what began as a difficult night for McDonald — 2 of 11 shooting in the first quarter — ended in the player slumped at midcourt after she launched a desperate 3 over three defenders that bounced off the rim at the buzzer.
“I got denied hard, I tried to turn the corner, they sent three at me .... It didn’t fall, that’s what I remember,” McDonald said.
Still, the Wildcats almost did enough to nearly beat a team that handled them easily twice in the regular season. McDonald made two 3s in the fourth and her three free throws in the final minute gave the Wildcats a last chance to win when Arizona forced a shot clock turnover with six seconds to play.
The loss ended a special season for the Wildcats.
A rebuilding project with Barnes at the helm and McDonald on the floor had the Wildcats climb to second in the Pac-12 behind Stanford.
Arizona had been living in the Pac-12 basement before makings its steady climb out once McDonald, a transfer from Washington, started playing in 2018-2019.
Arizona (21-6) made it to its first tournament since 2005, it’s first Sweet 16 since Barnes was a Wildcats point guard in 1998, and beat fabled UConn in the national semis.
“We fought. We weren’t the best team tin the tournament. No one thought we would be here,” said Barnes, the fourth Black female to lead her team to the national title game.
Barnes will have some work to do to get back here. The Wildcats will lose McDonald and two other senior starters. But the lineup can be quickly rebuilt around junior forward Cate Reese and guard Shaina Pellington.
“This should motivate this team coming in next year, just looking at what we did,” McDonald said. “This should make them hungry.”