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And that was before Skylar Jones, who UA coach Adia Barnes has called “very underrated,� jumped on board in the spring of 2023.

Dew, who missed her freshman season after ACL surgery in the summer of 2023, remains the highest rated recruit at No. 8 by ESPN’s HoopGurlz in program history. She was also named the top passer/facilitator in her class by ESPN.

Williams (No. 21) and Cunningham (No. 14) were also ranked in the Top 25. Both were McDonald’s All-Americans and played for Team USA Basketball age teams.

To say the expectations of this fab four were, and are, high is an understatement.

While Barnes may not want to say these exact words out loud, this core, on paper, looks like the four, with the right pieces around them, who could drive the Wildcats back to the Final Four.

Of course, Barnes doesn’t want to put any added pressure on these Wildcats and as we know, anything can happen over the course of a career (see Dew’s injury), or even during an NCAA run (see ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s 2021 run to the national title game) and then there is the ever-changing environment of college sports.

“I think we can go really far,� Barnes was, however, willing to say.

“It’s going to be scary to see how good they are when they’re juniors,� Barnes continued. “The challenge will be keeping the core together and just continuing to get them better.

“If I can keep this team together in another year, we’re going to be really good.�

When these Wildcats signed, Barnes knew this was a special group individually. But collectively, she hoped there would be a connection – and more than just Cunningham and Williams, best friends, who played their final years of high school together at La Jolla Country Day School. That connection is just one of the intangibles that makes a team sing.

There was no need for Barnes to be concerned.

“They have great chemistry,� Barnes said. “They are all really close off the court, too. All four of them. (Cunningham, Jones and Williams) are like the three amigos on the court, too. It’s the same thing. It’s special to watch. They are good friends. They trust each other. They tell each other the truth, like they’ll get on each other. Yesterday (in practice), Jada was on Breya. They’ll chirp at each other, but then they support and love each other and they want the best for each other.�

Whether it’s supporting other Wildcats at volleyball games or going to concerts, this core is seemingly always together. When you see one of these Wildcats, the other three are nearby.

Being really good friends off the court, “hooked us on the court,� Dew said.

“There’s a strong bond and connection there, that it just feels more natural (when we are on the court together),� Dew added. “There’s a lot in store for this group.�

Some of this bond can be attributed to the adversity they faced last year, ending up with only seven active players on the roster through attrition and injuries. Some of this is innately who they are – their character.

When talking to Barnes about the Class of 2023, she always starts with who they are as people. She said, “They are good kids.�

Barnes has seen up close how each has risen above, matured and moved through life with grace. That includes getting after it in the classroom (Jones is a straight-A student), how they carry themselves (Cunningham has “a big heart and is humble�), how they deal with outside influences (Williams handles pressure “with grace and class�), or even how they face true hardships (like when Dew lost her mother).

Barnes is the first to brush off her integral part in coaching the team up in the last six weeks of the season to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament and places this all on her players, especially Williams. It was Williams who stood up in a team meeting, as a freshman, and said “We got your back, coach. We are 10 toes down.�

“Taking a look at how Adia galvanized them towards the end of last year, I mean, to me, it was nothing short of amazing,� Shane Laflin, head of Premier Basketball Report who handles recruiting for ESPN’s Hoop Gurlz said.

“I think it says a lot about Adia’s connection to those players and says a lot about the way they grew (over the season). But also, they had to have had some intangibles, some foundational things that made them stick it out like that. That was impressive.�

That “ride or die� attitude, as well as buy in and belief in Barnes didn’t stop the minute the 2023-24 season was over. Instead, each one of them worked hard in the offseason, got stronger and developed different parts of their game.

For Jones, the lefty guard, that meant learning to go right, working on her shot and getting even better on the defensive end. Williams worked on her 3-point shot and Cunningham worked on her mid-range shot. Each of them also worked on a lot of the little things.

Jones even said she didn’t take a day off over the summer because she wanted to give back to her teammates – and her coaches – for the belief and confidence they had instilled in her last season.

They all take their game seriously, work hard at it and all have big potential.

Williams has been called the catalyst of the group. She brings the energy, confidence and communication.

Jones is the most athletic Wildcat and is a very efficient shooter (45% last season). Laflin said she has “requisite athletic tools that 99% of the players don’t have. She’s an elite athlete.�

Cunningham has touch inside and “doesn’t even know how good she can be or how good she is,� Barnes said.

Barnes said by the time Cunningham graduates she will be “one of the best posts in the country.�

Cunningham, Williams and Jones have taken a bigger jump towards their sophomore seasons than is typical with all the extra reps and minutes on the floor as rookies.

“They play more mature than upperclassmen I’ve seen before,� teammate Isis Beh said.

Beh should know. In her sixth season (Beh sat out one year with an injury and gets another year of eligibility because of COVID-19), she has played with many upperclassmen, having stops at UNLV, Salt Lake Community College and West Virginia before transferring to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ last season.

While Dew worked on her recovery and getting stronger, she spent the offseason training right alongside her teammates. She’s improved the consistency of her shot and Barnes said that while eligibility-wise she might be a freshman, playing-wise she is much older.

Dew walked into the program with a high basketball IQ and that was polished with all the film and games she watched last season.

“She’s versatile and could play all five positions for us,� Barnes said. “She’s smart. She’s someone that can just look at plays, not even go through them, and run the plays. That’s rare. Most people can’t do that.�

Barnes said if you add in this last season of not playing, she will be an even better player later in her collegiate career.

“A lot of times when you get injured as a player, you get to sit back and you get to see a lot of things that you want to change or do, how you don’t want to be, or how you want to be. That’s what it did for me,� she said.

This was when Barnes played professionally and tore her ACL playing for the Seattle Storm. Barnes ended up playing on the Storm’s 2004 WNBA Championship team and followed that up with a successful career overseas.

When everything starts clicking for the Wildcats’ core – including Dew feeling comfortable back on the court after a two-year absence – they will quickly look like Barnes and others projected them to look in a few years.

“They have every piece,� Beh said. “They have a really vocal, really good point guard (Williams). They have a slasher who nobody can guard (Jones). They have a long wing that is going to be a problem this year in the Big 12 (Dew). And they have a dominant post protector (Cunningham). Every piece of what you need for a winning team.�