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ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥: The UA women’s basketball team loses to NAU in the first round of the WBIT, ending its season.

Views: The ending of the game and its aftermath were utterly inexplicable.

The Wildcats trailed the Lumberjacks by two points with 5.6 seconds left with a side inbounds. The initial plan was to feed Isis Beh on the block. She was surrounded, so Mailien Rolf fired the ball to Skylar Jones at the top of the arc.

Jones caught the ball with .9 seconds remaining. She had time to get off a potential game-winning 3-pointer. And then she just … froze.

Jones never got the shot off. Time expired. The Lumberjacks celebrated. How does that happen?

The postgame news conference was even weirder.

Adia Barnes openly admitted that her team wasn’t that into the WBIT after failing to make the NCAA Tournament. “We didn’t want to win,� she said. “We were indifferent.�

Those of us who’ve covered Barnes appreciate her candor. But in this instance, she would have been better off not saying the quiet part out loud — mainly because it reflects poorly on her.

I have no idea what buttons Barnes tried to push leading up to the WBIT opener. I’m sure she tried everything she could to motivate her players. Some of this falls on them.

But a big part of your job as a head coach is to get your team ready to play. Barnes failed to get her message across.

I wrote during the season that Barnes, who’s about to enter the final year of her contract, deserved an extension. I stand by what I said at the time. Extending her then would have put the program on a clear path forward.

But the way it all ended set off alarm bells. If the players weren’t willing to compete against a team that beat them earlier in the season — with the rematch in front of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s faithful fans at McKale Center — that’s troubling. It suggests that Barnes has lost the locker room. And not for the first time.

Regarding the idea that Barnes didn’t have the right kind of players — an idea she promoted after the game — whose fault is that? Barnes picked the players and put the roster together. She made the decision to stick with a younger core and surround it with role players, as opposed to higher-profile transfers who’d come in expecting to start. Now that plan is being tossed into the recycle bin, too?

The worst-case scenario is coaching on the last year of a deal. It ignites speculation. It makes recruiting impossible.

Barnes’ boss, Desireé Reed-Francois, has said she’ll assess every coach at the end of their season. That inflection point has arrived for women’s basketball. A decision needs to be made, one way or the other.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥: The UA men’s basketball team defeats Oregon to set up a Sweet 16 showdown vs. Duke.

Views: This is also a rematch. A lot has changed since Nov. 22, when the Blue Devils held the Wildcat to 55 points on 39.6% shooting.

For one thing, the big-man switch-up hadn’t happened yet. Motiejus Krivas was still playing then and got his one and only start of the season. Tobe Awaka came off the bench and struggled in 12 minutes. Henri Veesaar played only 13.

Tommy Lloyd came to learn that Awaka is more effective as a starter — and that Veesaar is more than just a bit player.

Lloyd was still figuring out his team then, and firm answers were a long way off.

The setback against Duke marked the first time ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ had suffered consecutive defeats in Lloyd’s three-plus seasons. The Wildcats would lose five games in a seven-game stretch, including a demoralizing come-from-ahead loss to UCLA.

Then they found their lineup and their groove. Veesaar emerged. Caleb Love shook the slump that had lingered since the previous March.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ is a different team now — and undoubtedly a better one.

The problem is, you can say the same about Duke.

Three of the Blue Devils’ starters — Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach — are freshmen. They were all playing in their fifth collegiate games when they stepped onto the floor at McKale. Now they all have 30-plus games on their résumés. And they’re all still .

Duke didn’t just defeat Baylor on Sunday; the Blue Devils dismantled the Bears. The 23-point margin was easily the largest of any second-round game.

There’s a reason Duke is .

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥: The UA baseball team defeats West Virginia on Sunday to take two of three from the Mountaineers.

Views: This was a character test of the highest order.

West Virginia is the most difficult Big 12 campus to get to. The Wildcats left at 5 a.m. Thursday, flying from ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ to Denver to Pittsburgh before taking an hour-plus bus ride to Morgantown. The trip back: Pittsburgh to Dallas to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ played the first two games without veteran second baseman and cleanup hitter Garen Caulfield (illness). The Wildcats again were without left fielder Easton Breyfogle (quadriceps). They lost star right fielder Brendan Summerhill (hand) midway through Sunday’s game.

The conditions were hostile in more ways than one. The weather was cold and blustery. The fans braved the elements and after he exchanged words with some WVU players and gestured toward the Mountaineers’ dugout after his first home run Sunday.

Just like that, a rivalry between campuses separated by 2,073 miles was born.

The UA bullpen deserves major kudos for weathering the storm. Garrett Hicks, Tony Pluta, Hunter Alberini, Julian Tonghini and Matthew Martinez combined to allow only one run 10 innings in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s 16-inning win Friday. They contributed 21 of the Wildcats’ school-record 29 strikeouts.

On Sunday, Pluta and Casey Hintz combined for five innings of one-hit, zero-run relief. Collectively, they have a 1.47 ERA, a 5-0 record and three saves. Not bad for two under-recruited teammates from the same high school in suburban Chicago.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ was rewarded with a No. 23 ranking in D1Baseball’s Top 25. bumped the Wildcats from 23rd to 16th.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥: The UA softball team takes two of three at ASU and goes 3-1 on its road trip to Phoenix.

Views: A sweep of the Sun Devils would have been nice after the Wildcats took the first two, but you can’t complain about a series win on the road.

Two things have stood about ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ as April approaches: The improvement of its pitching and the depth of its lineup.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ enters this week’s series at BYU with a 2.42 ERA. That’s a run-and-a-half lower than last year (3.93) — and almost two runs lower than the year before (4.26).

The return to full health of Devyn Netz has been a significant factor. Netz has a 2.42 ERA so far, down from 3.88 the last time she played, in 2023.

Better control has led to better results. Netz is walking 1.02 batters per seven innings, down from 1.63 in ‘23. Her WHIP has dropped from 1.28 to 0.98.

Miranda Stoddard also has improved, lowering her ERA from 3.94 to 2.41. Six pitchers in all have sub-3.00 ERAs.

On the offensive side, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ has so many options that senior outfielder Paige Dimler — who’s hitting .455 — can barely crack the lineup.

The Wildcats didn’t have the services of superstar left fielder Dakota Kennedy for 17 games because of injury. They won 16 of them, averaging 8.8 runs.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ ranks sixth nationally with a .369 batting average — 54 points higher than the next-best Big 12 team (Texas Tech). Under first-year hitting coach Amber Freeman, the Wildcats also lead their new league in runs, hits, triples, home runs, total bases, slugging percentage and on-base percentage.

Is that any good?