Arizona's season came to an abrupt end along with every other college team in the country last week when the NCAA decided that there will be no NCAA Tournament this year on either the men's or women's sides. Instead, the season was simply over.
UA head coach Adia Barnes described her disappointment about the decision in a tweet shortly after the announcement was made by the NCAA.
"I just had to tell my team that our season is over," she wrote. "Just like that. We worked so hard. We were getting ready to host in the NCAA Tourney, we had not been there in 15 years."
While the season is over and the Wildcats will not be able to host any part of the event at McKale Center this season, the move to finish out the year with an official Associated Press Top 25 poll moved forward. Since voting is done remotely, the AP unveiled its final poll of the season on Tuesday.
The result was a finish at No. 12 for Arizona, the highest it has ended the year since 1998 when it finished the season at No. 9.
As Barnes mentioned in her tweet, the Wildcats were headed for their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 15 years and were slated to host the first two rounds of the event in Tucson after finishing the season with a 24-7 record.
The Wildcats reached the semifinal round of the Pac-12 Tournament before eventually losing to top-seeded Oregon.
Arizona is set to lose quite a few key players from this year's team, but the big question heading into the offseason is whether or not star guard Aari McDonald will return to play for the Wildcats next season. The redshirt junior won the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year award and was one of the top scorers in the country this season, so a move to the WNBA a season early is not out of the question.
If McDonald does return the Wildcats should be in a similar position and start next season with plenty of expectations of a return to the NCAA Tournament.
The Pac-12 finished the season as the conference with the most teams ranked in the AP poll as five other programs earned the honor including Oregon (No. 2), Stanford (No. 7), UCLA (No. 10), Oregon State (No. 14) and Arizona State (No. 25).
