How a key transfer spurred the Wildcats’ turnaround
TUCSON, AZ — When Arizona’s celebrated freshman class arrived on campus in the Summer of 2018, head coach Adia Barnes joked with the media that her incoming McDonald’s All-American, Cate Reese, was going to break all of her coach’s records.
“And I want her to,” Barnes said back then.
Fast forward to Berkeley in late Feb. 2019. As the Wildcats battled California in what would turn into an overtime loss, the first of Barnes’ old records fell. But wasn’t Reese who broke it. It was Aari McDonald.
After 21 years, the Arizona media guide would no longer say that Adia Barnes held the single-season scoring record for the Wildcats with 653 points in 1998. For Barnes it was good news.
“Twenty-one years is too long,” she said.
Barnes set that record in in 30 games over a season that ended in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet Sixteen. McDonald not only seized the record in the Wildcats’ 27th game, she blew past it.
Now in the third round of the WNIT, the redshirt sophomore has amassed 809 points. She also has 150 assists. The only other player in Pac-12 history to amass at least 800 points and 150 assists is McDonald’s former teammate, Kelsey Plum, who did it twice.
The transfer from Washington was originally recruited by Barnes when she was an assistant coach for the Huskies. Barnes left after the 2015-16 season to take the head coaching job at her alma mater, so she wasn’t in Seattle when McDonald arrived in the fall of 2016. But the ties remained.
At the end of McDonald’s freshman year, Mike Neighbors left Washington to return to his own alma mater. McDonald opted to transfer. Arizona is glad she did.
McDonald has been a revelation in Tucson. While Barnes has insisted all season that McDonald is a pass-first point guard, that hasn’t been the role Arizona has needed her to fill. They needed someone to take over games on both ends of the court.
McDonald has done just that. Not only is she third in the nation in scoring with 24.5 points per game, but she’s second on her team in rebounds. At 6.4 rebounds per game, the 5-foot-7 guard trails only Reese, a 6-foot-2 forward, who secures 6.9 rpg. When the ball goes up, fans watch McDonald pop into the air, springing out of a crowd of trees to secure the board.
She doesn’t take defensive assignments off to save her offense, either. McDonald is a tenacious on-the-ball defender who averages 2.6 steals per game. That’s good for No. 35 in the country.
She has dished out 4.5 assists per game — good for No. 78 in Division I — despite sharing point guard duties with junior Lucia Alonso.
“No one thought Aari was going to be like she is,” Barnes said. “She’s just awesome. But she’s also in a system where she can be very successful. So, she’s taken on her role extremely well. It’s a first for Aari, because Aari’s role at Washington was very different. But we’ve asked her to do a lot, and she’s done amazing. She’s just a fighter, and that’s just her character.”
That fight may be the most important thing McDonald has given to her team. She never thinks a game is out of reach, and she’s not afraid to take her team on her back. She is not afraid to take a beating, driving to the hole, where she is routinely hacked.
In the Wildcats’ second game of the season, they hosted Loyola Marymount. The Lions had just beaten UCLA, so they were confident. They showed it, too.
Arizona came out in a fog. They scored only nine points in the opening quarter while giving up 20. They allowed a 14-1 run to end the period. While the Wildcats played the Lions even for the next 20 minutes, they couldn’t cut into the lead.
When McDonald’s team couldn’t overcome as a group, she took it into her own hands. Driving to the hoop again and again, scoring or getting fouled. She went to the line 23 times. She scored 39 points to tie Arizona’s single-game scoring record.. After trailing by 11 to start the fourth quarter, she brought her team back to within two.
After the game, she was asked when she realized that she would have to be the one to do it.
“I would say the second quarter,” she said. “I saw that we were low on energy, and I took it upon myself to get my teammates together, just try to be a leader out there.”
The Wildcats demonstrated two things in the 66-64 loss that day. First, McDonald would take them as far as she could. More importantly, they needed to help her.
Heading into the third round of the WNIT, those early lessons are bringing Arizona late-season success.
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