Arizona women's basketball hopes to avenge loss in WBIT rematch with NAU

The wait to officially find out what postseason tournament the Wildcats would be playing in took a little longer on Sunday evening.

Arizona women’s basketball had to sit through the hour-long Selection Sunday show for the NCAA Tournament and turn to the WBIT announcement, which was streaming on NCAA.com, before learning their fate.

Arizona (19-13) locked in a No. 2 seed and will host NAU (26-7) in a rematch on Thursday at 6 p.m. with the game streaming on ESPN+.

"I'm really excited just for the opportunity to play in a really good, competitive tournament and have a chance to still do something special and play in the postseason," Arizona coach Adia Barnes said as she was about to start watching film on NAU Sunday night.

"I think it's always an honor and a privilege when you can play in the postseason. For us, it'll be a chance to get revenge. NAU is a really good team. They kicked our butts at NAU. So it's a time to now play a good team at home and play in front of our amazing fans and to end the season on a positive note, if we can. I know that in 2019, the WNIT did amazing things for our program. I'm hoping we can do something special this year."

If the Wildcats win that first round game, they will take on the winner of No. 3 Belmont and Middle Tennessee State in the second round game on Sunday, March 23, at McKale Center. This could mean facing former Wildcat Courtney Blakely.

Arizona lost to NAU, 92-75, on Nov. 20, without Jada Williams who had a concussion after banging her head into Paulina Paris' nose. Paris, who scored 20 points and pulled down eight rebounds, wore a mask on her face for several games that followed.

The Madness of March has already started. As of last week, as the days wore on with all the upsets — 12 of 13 regular season champions lost in their respective league tournaments — and with UA not reaching that 20-win mark, this placement in the WBIT was expected. So much so, that an email to media members for a Monday press conference ahead of the Selection Sunday announcement said "This availability will focus on Arizona's WBIT placement."

Being a No. 2 seed, as the Wildcats keep winning, they could host the first three rounds. After that, the semifinals and finals of the WBIT are held in Indianapolis at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

The Wildcats have now made the postseason in six of the last seven seasons. It would have been all seven, however COVID-19 shut down the world in 2020 – a year that Arizona would have hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

In 2019, the Wildcats hosted all six games of the WNIT, winning the title in front of a sellout crowd at McKale.

In 2022, the Wildcats hosted the first two rounds of the NCAAs, and as a four seed lost to fifth-seeded North Carolina in the second round at McKale.

In 2023, Arizona traveled east to Maryland and lost to the Terrapins, who were a No. 2 seed.

Last season, UA played at UConn, beating Auburn in the first four games and losing to Syracuse in the next game.

As usual, the road to postseason took a different route this year for the Wildcats.

From taking a top-ranked Baylor team to overtime before losing 81-76 in the beginning of January, beating a then-No. 16 ranked West Virginia team 77-62 a few weeks later to playing tough against another top nationally-ranked team TCU without two starters (Jada Williams out with a foot injury and Mailien Rolf out with a concussion) and going on a four-game winning streak to finish the regular season.

A few top defensive rankings included only allowing 62.8 points per game, 39.7% field goal defense and holding 12 league teams under their scoring average.

It was also a season full of players in and out of the lineup. Ajea Yoakum tore her ACL in the summer, had surgery and was in recovery all season long. Breya Cunningham was not available against Cal in the Acrisure Holiday Invitational. Besides missing the NAU and TCU games, Williams also did not play in the second half of the Oklahoma State game (that foot injury). Montaya Dew missed the Baylor game and injured her knee in the Texas Tech game and missed the final regular season game at ASU, the Big 12 Tournament game against Colorado and will miss postseason play.

Lauryn Swann fell on her shoulder and missed a few games, then lost a few games to a concussion.

Skylar Jones has been plagued with plantar fasciitis for much of the season and Williams is still suffering from her foot injury.

Sahnya Jah has also not been available for a number of games this season with suspensions.

Even through all of that, these Wildcats found different ways to win — especially over the last four games of the regular season.

Isis Beh has been the most consistent player over the last three months of the season. She has played smart on both ends of the court, making her presence known.

Jones has been more efficient at times. Using her length to disrupt on defense and being more balanced on her shots. She’s been a spark off the bench and when she’s starting, once she finds a groove – usually in the second half – she can take over a game.

Williams can get her teammates hype by taking charges, getting steals and not giving an inch on the defensive end.

When you look at how the Wildcats have won this season, besides Beh being steady, others have stepped up when needed. From Swann, Cunningham, Paulina Paris, Rolf, Dew or even Katarina Knezevic, who came on over the last part of the season.

Other Big 12 teams in the WBIT are No. 1 seed Colorado and Texas Tech.

Seven Big 12 teams made the NCAAs: No. 2 TCU, No. 4 Baylor, No. 5 Kansas State, No. 6 West Virginia, No. 7 Oklahoma State, No. 8 Utah and No. 11 Iowa State (First Four).

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona women's basketball hopes to avenge loss in WBIT rematch with NAU

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