An extremely long 606 days separated the last time Arizona’s fans could enter McKale Center to when the Wildcats beat Eastern New Mexico 84-25 in an exhibition on Thursday night.
So much happened in between that last game against Cal on Senior Day on March 1, 2020 (lost by the Wildcats in an upset) to when Adia Barnes’ team won the tip as the 5,948 filed in on Thursday.
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COVID-19 … Barnes giving birth to a daughter (who turned 1 on Sept. 15) … Aari McDonald’s last season with no fans in the stands because of the pandemic … a historical and magical run to the national championship game … Sam Thomas delighting everyone announcing she will return for a fifth season … Cate Reese adding to the elation saying she will take advantage of the extra year of eligibility and play two more seasons for Barnes.
When Arizona played its first exhibition game two years ago, also against Eastern New Mexico, the attendance was 1,933. https://t.co/kKmF3i6XC6
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) October 29, 2021
McKale’s fans also had their first glimpse of Taylor Chavez in an Arizona uniform. The Surprise Valley Vista High School graduate transferred from Pac-12 rival Oregon during the off-season. She joined two other newcomers from Power 5 schools — Ariyah Copeland of Alabama and Koi Love of Vanderbilt.
Aaronette Vonleh, a freshman from Portland, was in the first wave of reserves showing she came to Tucson meaning business.
Although it was an exhibition — the regular-season opener is Nov. 9 against Cal State-Northridge at McKale Center — the evening still carried a lot of meaning because of the anticipation of Barnes’ return to McKale with her program one of the best in the nation.
Some of the top takeaways:
— It appears Arizona’s top nine rotation will likely include Shaina Pellington, Bendu Yeaney, Lauren Ware, Thomas, Reese, Chavez, Copeland, Love and Helena Pueyo. They rotated into the game and played most of the game together. Love left in the first half after bumping heads inadvertently with an Eastern New Mexico player. She suffered a mouth injury in which her teeth pierced her tongue. She played only five minutes.
The starters were Pellington, Yeaney, Thomas, Reese and Ware. The second wave of players included Chavez and Helena Pueyo as the guards, Love on the wing and Vonleh and Copeland at the post. The final five were Derin Erdogan, Madison Conner and Anna Gre Asi as a three-guard lineup with Gisela Sanchez and Semaj Smith occupying the paint.
Barnes and her staff utilized all 15 scholarship players wisely to view different combinations, playing all of them in double-digit minutes except for Love and Semaj Smith (seven minutes).
.@_taylor_chavez on her first McKale experience playing for Arizona: “It was unreal.” pic.twitter.com/P7tFwVG5qj
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) October 29, 2021
— Chavez requested the right uniform number — 3. The 5-foot-10 sharp-shooting guard made her first three 3-pointers and finished with four made beyond the arc. Chavez showed why she was the Sixth Player of the Year in the Pac-12 with Oregon in 2019-20. She made 47.4 percent from 3-point range that season. On Thursday night, she had 12 points, two assists and two rebounds in 16 minutes.
— Yeaney made all four of her shots from the field and her one 3-point attempt to finish with nine points. Barnes mentioned she has worked a lot on her shooting in practice and on her own.
Adia Barnes comments on @Benduyeaney1’s diligent work on her shot translating to 4-of-4 shooting from the field, including a 3-pointer in the exhibition win over ENMU. pic.twitter.com/LDLiWp3Rnp
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) October 29, 2021
— Arizona’s defense again will be suffocating. Eastern New Mexico had 37 turnovers compared to only nine field goals made (9 of 48). The Wildcats also had 21 steals and six blocked shots.
— Ware has the green light to shoot from anywhere, showing her versatility at 6-foot-5. She made her first 3-point attempt and did not bat an eye after. It was the only shot she made in 18 minutes of playing time (tying Yeaney for the most).
— Conner, who also has the green light, continues to develop into a valuable player for Barnes because of her play on both ends. She was comfortable enough to take a team-high 14 field-goal attempts with five made, two of them 3-pointers, to finish with 12 points. She also had three of Arizona’s steals, showing her development on defense.
.@madiconner2 on her adapting to the defensive requirement to play in Adia Barnes’ program. “To play for Arizona you have to play defense,” Barnes said earlier tonight, referring to the Wildcats’ trademark D shown against Eastern New Mexico. pic.twitter.com/DYiyClWAnI
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) October 29, 2021
— Take the exhibition for what it’s worth. When Arizona played Eastern New Mexico in an exhibition to start the 2019-20 season (the season after the WNIT title), Arizona’s only scorers in double figures in an 85-38 rout were McDonald (14 points) and 6-foot-4 Turkish post player Sevval Gul (10 points and seven rebounds). Gul, who played a game-high 26 minutes, transferred to St. Louis following that season after playing sparingly in only 16 games and never reaching double-figures in any of them. That was then, however, and this is now. Arizona has turned the corner, completely off the road of uncertainty.
.@_taylor_chavez and @madiconner2 talk about what it is like to play for @ArizonaWBB after growing up in Arizona and playing in HS in the state – Chavez at @VVHSgbb and Conner at @LPumaBasketball and @AZCompassGBB. pic.twitter.com/sd7IWGkhsk
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) October 29, 2021
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator five years ago and is presently a special education teacher at Gallego Fine Arts Intermediate in the Sunnyside Unified School District
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