Roster size is still a question for Adia Barnes and Arizona women’s basketball

Nov 24, 2022 - 4:00 PM

Arizona bench during Arizona women’s basketball’s game vs Long Beach State on Nov. 20, 2022 at McKale Center." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Q_we0HHPxnl-eahuKmq_WegayuQ=/0x0:646x363/1920x1080/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71670422/bench_2022_lbsu.0.png" />

Last season, Adia Barnes tried to juggle a roster of 15 players. It didn’t work for the Arizona Wildcats, so Barnes went with a roster of 12 this year to provide more opportunities for her young players to get on the court.

“I’m only having 12 because 15 was a nightmare,” Barnes said in September. “When you have 15 players, you have 10 players that hate you and they’re miserable. It’s just how it is, so I think 15 is way too many. I didn’t really understand. I just think younger coach, you think, ‘Fifteen. Oh, great! We have enough to practice.’ Now I have 12 and we haven’t had enough to practice. It’s kind of like damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”

Barnes has continued to struggle with the issue of having too few to practice as the season has progressed. She has not had a fully-healthy squad since the summer, making practice difficult. With only 12 players on the roster and one of those already lost for the season, she’s still trying to figure out what works best to keep everyone happy while allowing the team to have enough players to have five-on-five drills.

Even before it was known that Lauren Ware would be out for the season, Arizona had minor injuries that kept players out of practice. Of the freshmen, both Maya Nnaji and Paris Clark have missed practice time and games in the early part of the season and preseason. Lauren Fields missed practice time after accidentally cutting her finger.

The absences are causing real issues in development. One of those issues was exposed by Long Beach State last Sunday. Arizona is still struggling to play against a zone defense. In past years, it was because the team had difficulty shooting. Against the Beach, the Wildcats had difficulty passing the ball, especially inside, without turning it over. They turned the ball over 20 times, 10 of those coming in the first quarter.

Barnes says that the only way to get better at playing against the zone is to practice it. She would like to have half her team simultaneously learning to play zone defense against the half that’s learning to generate offense against it. She simply hasn’t had the players to do that.

Fortunately, Arizona has some help on the way. Montaya Dew, ESPN’s ninth-ranked player in the 2023 class, will be enrolling early. Barnes said that she would arrive shortly after Christmas. While Dew won’t be playing this spring, she will provide extra help in practice.

As for future years, Barnes is still trying to work out what is best as far as roster size.

“Definitely need to probably have another player, meaning 12 healthy players,” Barnes said. “So I think probably adding another player or two, and then maybe that 13th is a walk-on. But just to have those numbers because it’s been hard this year practicing if we don’t have enough [male practice players] show up or if we want to use our team to get in better shape or condition, we can’t. We can’t play two teams, so that’s been super challenging.”

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California Baptist Lancers (2-2, 0-0 WAC) vs No. 15 Arizona Wildcats (4-0, 0-0 Pac-12)

When: Friday, Nov. 25 at 5 p.m. MST

Where: Jenny Craig Pavilion in San Diego, Calif.

Radio: The radio broadcast can be accessed online via The Varsity Network or on the radio at KTUC 1400 AM.

Stats: USD Live Stats

Rankings and ratings: Arizona is ranked 15th in the AP media poll and No. 14 in the WBCA coaches poll. The Wildcats are rated No. 16 overall by Her Hoop Stats. They are No. 17 on offense and No. 19 on defense.

CBU is not ranked in the two major polls. The Lancers are rated No. 133 overall by Her Hoop Stats. They are No. 88 on offense and No. 205 on defense.

Projections/Odds: Her Hoop Stats gives Arizona a 92.6 percent probability of winning on a neutral court. The Wildcats also have a 95.3 percent probability of winning at home and an 88.7 percent probability of winning on the road. The projected winning margin for the Wildcats on a neutral court is 20.6.

There were no odds at the online sportsbooks as of Nov. 24.

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No. 15 Arizona Wildcats (4-0, 0-0 Pac-12) @ San Diego Toreros (3-2, 0-0 WCC)

When: Saturday, Nov. 26 at 5 p.m. MST

Where: Jenny Craig Pavilion in San Diego, Calif.

Broadcast: WCC Network

Radio: The radio broadcast can be accessed online via The Varsity Network or on the radio at KTUC 1400 AM.

Stats: USD Live Stats

Rankings and ratings: Arizona is ranked 15th in the AP media poll and No. 14 in the WBCA coaches poll. The Wildcats are rated No. 16 overall by Her Hoop Stats. They are No. 17 on offense and No. 19 on defense.

USD is not ranked in the major polls. The Toreros are rated No. 103 by Her Hoop Stats. They are No. 143 on offense and No. 70 on defense.

Projections/Odds: Her Hoop Stats gives Arizona an 88.6 percent probability of winning on the road. The Wildcats have a 94 percent probability of winning at home and an 89.9 percent probability of winning on a neutral court. The stats service projects a 10.7 margin of victory for Arizona at Jenny Craig Pavilion.

There were no odds at the online sportsbooks as of Nov. 24.