Arizona women’s basketball had a brief stay in Tucson before heading back out onto the road for the Acrisure Holiday Invitational in Palm Springs, Calif. on Sunday. First up for the Wildcats (6-1, 0-0 Big 12) will be the Vanderbilt Commodores (6-0, 0-0 SEC) on Tuesday before facing either California (6-0, 0-0 ACC) or Michigan State (6-0, 0-0 Big Ten) on Wednesday.
Arizona’s biggest opponent may be itself and a lack of fundamentals that is leading to high turnover rates this season. The Wildcats average 20.1 turnovers per game against less-than-stellar competition so far this year. They turned the ball over 27 times against Grambling State in their last game.
Arizona has not averaged that many turnovers in the 15 years covered by Her Hoop Stats. It’s a jump of more than five turnovers per game compared to last year, which at 15.0 turnovers per game was the highest under current head coach Adia Barnes prior to this season.
“Yesterday, we worked on simple things like V-cut, get open, jump stop, front pivot, pass, but we were turning the ball over in those basic fundamentals,” Barnes said. “So that tells me we need to do that every day because we’re just young.”
Barnes said what was supposed to be a six-minute drill dragged on for about half an hour because the players continued to turn the ball over.
Youth is definitely part of it. Arizona’s most experienced ballhandlers are sophomore Jada Williams and junior Paulina Paris, who was out with an injury for much of last season before transferring to Arizona this year. Williams currently averages 2.7 turnovers per game. Paris sits at a much more manageable 1.6. Paris has a 1.0 assist-to-turnover ratio while Williams is at 0.81.
While the Wildcats have depth that they lacked last year, that depth is much, much younger. Many of Arizona’s primary reserves—Montaya Dew, Lauryn Swann, Mailien Rolf—are playing their first season of college ball. The “experience” is almost all among sophomores with Isis Beh and Paris providing the only primary rotation players with more than one year of college basketball under their belts.
The move from high school or international play can be a shock. Rolf is adapting to something many internationals have to learn. Namely, one-handed passes are often turnovers because the players in U.S. colleges are more athletic.
“They’re young, but a couple times, like a one-armed fling to the other side,” Barnes said. “We don’t do that. I was in film like, ‘This isn’t a pass we’re gonna make.’ But it’s the habit. You can do that in high school or you can do that in Europe. You can’t do a one-arm fling to the other side of the court (in college).”
Barnes is especially concerned about the turnover issue against Vanderbilt. She notes turnovers and transition buckets as “1, 1A” in her list of concerns with the Commodores. They average 13.0 steals per game and force an average of 24.5 turnovers.
“They’re really athletic,” Barnes said. “They’re gonna throw different presses at us. They’re gonna throw 1-2-2, different full-court presses, trapping in the quarter court. They’re hard to play against. I think for us, we have to take care of the ball. That’s a huge thing because they’re gonna really try to turn us over. And we can’t have a ton of people in the backcourt, because when we watched film when you’re in the backcourt, they swarm you.”
She’s also a bit concerned about the way the Commodores play because while they don’t have a lot of size, that just means that Arizona’s bigs have to guard smaller, speedier players. With both Breya Cunningham and Beh being traditional fives who struggle with fouls, that can be a big ask.
The two games are opportunities to get ready for the Big 12. The conference hasn’t been as strong in nonconference play as expected. Baylor dropped out of the rankings this week after picking up its second loss of the season. No. 15 Iowa State dropped seven spots in the AP poll after losing to Northern Iowa and needing a late shot by Audi Crooks to beat Drake at home. Arizona State has already lost to both Arkansas State and GCU.
“I’m gonna tell you, the Big 12 is nothing like the Pac-12,” Barnes said.