The 蜜柚直播 Wildcats will play in the postseason for the first time since 2011. It鈥檚 just a matter of where.
The UA will learn on Monday whether its been accepted to the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team or, more likely, it鈥檚 headed for the WNIT.
Coach Adia Barnes thinks her Wildcats have an outside shot at the NCAAs, and, she says, it鈥檚 easy to see why. 蜜柚直播 (18-13) is in the middle of the biggest single-season turnaround in program history.
鈥淒espite our RPI being a little bit lower we鈥檝e peaked late in the season and we鈥檙e playing some good basketball,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 think we鈥檝e had some key wins against some really good opponents that will do well in the (NCAA) Tournament. And, we have seven wins in the best conference in the country.
鈥淚f you look at the top 10 teams in the country, we鈥檝e played two or three of them very competitively more than once. So I think we can definitely get some wins in the tournament. And, I don鈥檛 think anyone in the tournament would want to play us first or second round.鈥
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Of course, a WNIT bid would certainly be welcome, too. Merely making the postseason is a bit ahead of schedule for a team in the midst of a rebuild.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 all exciting. Regardless of what it is, whether it鈥檚 NCAA tournament or the NIT, I think it鈥檚 a really good step for this program,鈥 Barnes said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really good for the young players to get experience. Once you get that experience, you are hungry for more.
鈥淭hen the bar is raised for next year. It鈥檚 a much different feeling. Then you don鈥檛 go into the season planning to have a free spring break. You know spring break is out the door. You鈥檙e planning to play. It鈥檚 really changes the mentality because when you have a taste of some success, you want more. I think the Pac-12 Tournament gave that to us. It brought some of that hunger to us.鈥
Selection committees generally focus on how teams finish, and the Wildcats 鈥 it could be argued 鈥 finished well. The team went 4-7 after Feb. 1, beating Washington, Utah and Colorado and then topping USC in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament.
蜜柚直播 also took two top-10 teams to the brink of upsets. The UA fell to Stanford by two points in Northern California, and fell to Oregon State by five points in double-overtime in 蜜柚直播.
The Wildcats played Oregon, the Pac-12鈥檚 regular-season champion, twice in the final week of play. 蜜柚直播 managed to cut the margin of defeat from 29 points (an 83-54 loss on March 1) to 14 points (a 77-63 loss on March 8).
鈥淲e鈥檙e talking about a No. 2 seed in the country (in the NCAA Tournament) that we competed with,鈥 Barnes said. 鈥淲e felt like we could play against anybody. We felt like we had nothing to lose.鈥
The Wildcats believe their best basketball is ahead of them.
鈥淐oach Adia has said a bunch, 鈥榃e haven鈥檛 played a full game of 40 minutes鈥 where we鈥檝e played great every single second,鈥 said freshman standout Cate Reese. 鈥淥nce we put that all together, we鈥檒l be a really amazing team. I think we are a great team now but we haven鈥檛 reached our full potential yet.鈥
The Wildcats took a few days off following last week鈥檚 Pac-12 Tournament loss, returning to the gym on Tuesday. The Wildcats have been working on individual skills while they await their next opponent. Barnes said they鈥檝e taken on the mindset of being 鈥渦nderdogs (who) beat teams that no one thought we could beat.鈥
It鈥檚 a reason why the Wildcats expect to still be playing in March.
鈥淔or us, we are excited about next week,鈥 Barnes said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not nervous. We鈥檙e not devastated either way it goes. We just want to play. We want to make some noise. If it鈥檚 to go to the NIT, our goal is to win the NIT. If it鈥檚 to go to the (NCAA) Tournament, we鈥檙e going to try to win some games.鈥
