The road to the Final Four begins on Saturday night for No. 4 seed Arizona as it opens up the NCAA Tournament with a first-round matchup against 13th-seeded UNLV at McKale Center.
The Wildcats return to March Madness for the second year in a row as they look to replicate the run to the national championship game where they lost in heartbreaking fashion last year to Stanford.
For the first time since the 1990s, the Wildcats will get the opportunity to host the first two rounds of the tournament and will get two games in front of their fans should they advance beyond Saturday’s matchup with the Lady Rebels.
“March is here,” Arizona head coach Adia Barnes said Friday. “Extremely excited. Second time in history we host a NCAA tournament, and it's ironic that the last time we hosted I was a player. I actually forgot about that until you guys reminded me, but first two rounds in Tucson I think it's extremely exciting.
“One of the best venues in the country and we're playing a really good team, so I think it's going to be great game for women's basketball. So extremely excited that March is here.”
One positive note for the Wildcats as they enter the NCAA Tournament is they will get to see the return of star forward Cate Reese, who missed missed time late in the regular season and the entire Pac-12 Tournament because of a dislocated shoulder.
Her return comes at a much-needed time for Arizona as the team hopes to regroup after a tough stretch in recent weeks. The Wildcats enter the NCAA Tournament having lost three of its last four games.
Reese, who is averaging 14.6 points per game in 24 appearances this season, provides an offensive spark for a team that has struggled on that end of the floor in recent games. UA averaged just 52 points in the games Reese missed down the stretch.
“It’s always nice just to have Cate on the floor with us,” forward Lauren Ware said. “We’re really excited to have her back. She’s a huge part of this team, obviously, so just getting her back on the floor and in practice it helps us out a lot. And, it helps me out as well, just because I learn a lot from her, and she makes me a better player.”
In Reese’s absence, Ware has stepped up in a big way playing two of the best games of her college career heading into Saturday’s matchup with UNLV. Ware is averaging only 5.8 points this season, but she averaged 13.5 points and 9.5 rebounds in Arizona’s previous two games.
“I think it’s just a confidence thing and just the time of year I think,” Ware said. “I put a lot of work in and my teammates have helped me a lot as well, and my coaches. So just putting me in a position to be successful is I think what got me to that point.”
Ware injured her knee in December, and following the injury it took her some time to really feel healthy again.
“Obviously it's always hard coming off of an injury, just kind of getting back to a hundred percent and feeling completely normal,” she said. “So I think it definitely took me awhile to kind of get back into the groove of things. But I definitely feel like I'm a hundred percent now, and I'm feeling comfortable on the court.”
Many of the Wildcats have tournament experience, and players such as point guard Shaina Pellington get a second opportunity to run it back with the chance to do so in front of their fans this year.
“It's really exciting to be back in the tournament and get a chance to do something special at home,” Pellington said. “So, I mean, I'm super pumped and I know my teammates are super excited as well.
“But we're kind of just taking it one game at a time, focusing on what's at task right now and in this moment and not really looking to the future really. So, I mean, yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm super excited. We're all super excited.”
Barnes acknowledges that players such as Pellington are coming back with different roles than last year but that they are ready for the big stage.
“Remember her approach is a little different because last year she had a different role,” Barnes said. “So it's a different approach and a different situation, but the good thing about these three is there's experience. So I think not going to the tournament because of COVID and then going last year and then experiencing that when we were an underdog, when no one in a million years, probably not even us at the time, thought we would be there, and then got hot.
“So I think that the approach this year is one game at time, just like last year. But anything's possible and they decide if they want to do that, because we're very capable.”
Arizona’s NCAA Tournament run will begin Saturday at 7 p.m. MST against UNLV as the Wildcats play host at McKale Center. The game will be televised by ESPN2.
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