This is the Arizona Wildcats’ first season in the Big 12, but their toughest conference game was against fellow Pac-12 refugee Utah. While the Wildcats have shown promising stretches against the other top teams in the Big 12, the Utes came into McKale Center earlier in January and controlled UA in all aspects of the game.
Arizona scored just nine points in both the first and third quarters when Utah came to McKale. The Wildcats didn’t do much better in the second when they had 10 points.
Only two Wildcats scored in double figures against the Utes. Lauryn Swann had her breakout game, scoring 22 points in 22 minutes. Jada Williams scored 11. Other than Williams, none of the starters scored more than two points. Paulina Paris didn’t score at all.
Utah tends to be a great offensive team but has not been widely known for defense, especially during the Lynne Roberts era. New head coach Gavin Petersen is trying to up the ante on the defensive side, but that was still a huge accomplishment for the Utes.
The Wildcats seem to have put their offense together since that game. Their only sub-50 game since then came against Kansas State, which still had Ayoka Lee at the time and was one of the top defensive teams in the country. Arizona has scored 70 or more points in five of its seven games since playing Utah.
Arizona head coach Adia Barnes has made a number of starting lineup switches since that game against the Utes. It has primarily focused on getting the best combination of guards and wings on the floor together. Freshmen Mailien Rolf and Swann have made several starts. Sophomore Skylar Jones has shifted in and out of the starting lineup. She’s also had some nice performances off the bench. Paris has also gone in and out of the group of starters.
The scoring has become more balanced as the conference season has progressed. At least four players have scored in double figures for Arizona in four of its seven games since Utah came to town. A fifth game had three in double figures and one with nine points.
The biggest improvement has been sharing the ball and limiting turnovers. Both were huge problems early in the season, even on some of the easier dates on the schedule. While the Wildcats had 23 turnovers against West Virginia and 17 against Cincinnati, both are aggressive defensively and live off the steal. Against WVU, many of the turnovers were travels that didn’t allow the Mountaineers to get out and run in transition the way they like.
Arizona averaged 18 turnovers per game in nonconference play. That included 23 against UC San Diego, 20 against Chicago State, and a whopping 27 against Grambling State. The Wildcats have slashed that number to 14.8 in Big 12 play.
The problem against Utah wasn’t turnovers, though. Arizona had just 12 in that game, tying for the third-fewest in Big 12 play.
The problems were shooting 34.5 percent from the floor while Utah hit 52.2 percent of their shots and getting outrebounded 40-22. That’s the most rebounds given up by the Wildcats in a regulation game during league play. It tied for the second-most given up in a regulation game this season. The 46 they surrendered to Baylor came in an overtime game.
The Utes also made a living at the line against Arizona. They went to the charity stripe 16 times to just four for the home team. The Utes hit 12 of their free throws. Arizona wasn’t hitting even when they got the rare whistle, knocking down just one free throw in the game.
Utah hit a bit of a skid after playing in Tucson. They dropped three conference games, primarily to the same teams Arizona lost to. The Utes fell to K-State 71-47 in Salt Lake City. They went to Baylor and lost 80-71. Then, they dropped a game at TCU by the score of 81-73.
Those losses came with some shifting lineups. Starting guard Kennady McQueen missed the Utes’ games against Kansas State, Houston, Baylor, TCU, and Kansas. Utah went 2-3 over that stretch. McQueen returned for 11 minutes off the bench in the last game against BYU.
The game is about more than revenge and pride, though. Standings in the Big 12 and possible byes in the conference tournament loom large.
Arizona is one of three teams sitting in eighth with 5-4 records. It holds a tiebreak over Cincinnati and has not yet played Colorado.
Utah is tied with West Virginia at 6-3. Those are the 5th-best records in the league. Those two teams have played yet.
The Big 12 tournament includes all 16 teams. The top four receive double byes into the quarterfinals. Teams sitting 5-8 will receive a bye into the second round. Those who finish 9-16 open the tournament on day one.
The Wildcats were picked to finish seventh in the Big 12 this season and is well within striking distance of doing at least that well. They have improved their NET to No. 58, a jump of 24 places since the day before they played Kansas State. Beating the teams ahead of them is the goal now, both for their conference tournament and the NCAA postseason hopes.