National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament rolling into McKale Center

A dozen men’s teams and four women’s teams from around the country will compete at McKale Center over four days, April 1-4, after Arizona landed the tournament through a lottery within the NIWB collegiate division.

The chance to host and play at McKale is a major step forward for visibility and support of adaptive athletics, said Peter Hughes, director for the Disability Resource Center.

The wheelchair basketball team has previously only had the opportunity to play at McKale during halftime at men’s basketball games. The teams practice at the UA Rec Center.

“My focus has been to eliminate the general idea that (Adaptive Athletics) is a secret on campus,” said Hughes, who came to Arizona in 2004-05 as a wheelchair basketball player. “This has been a lot of hard work to get there. The athletics department recognizes us at the football games, and we’ve gotten the word out there the last few years, but this is definitely the big bang for us. We’re excited.”

Having the tournament at McKale gives the UA men’s team homecourt advantage in defending its national title. The team beat UT Arlington 75-65 last March at the University of Illinois to capture the championship.

Head Coach Michael Beardsley said the team is taking a focused approach.

“We are taking it one game at a time,” he said in mid-March. “Practice and film will be crucial the next two weeks.”

Arizona men’s player Carter Jones said the team expects tough competition as the defending national champs.

“Teams can get hot really fast,” he said. “ We’ve improved on staying composed when things don’t go our way and being able to overcome that. We’re going to get everyone’s best game as the defending champs, and we have to be ready for that.”

The UA women’s team is coming into the tournament with a 4-12 record.

“We are fine tuning after our last regular season game — reflecting on our tendencies and aiming to repeat success,” said head coach Josie Aslakson, adding that as the team was finishing its last week of practices, players were “feeling prepared and confident for the tournament.”

Arizona Adaptive Athletics is a part of UA’s Disability Resource Center, not the traditional athletics department, making the opportunity to compete on a national stage even more significant for the program and its athletes.

“This tournament will be great for the Tucson community to see high-level basketball,” said Beardsley.

Arizona was among the first to launch an adaptive athletics program, following the lead of the University of Illinois, which started its wheelchair basketball program in 1948.

“We’ve been playing wheelchair basketball for 51 years,” said Hughes, who coached the UA women’s team for 10 years and track for three years.

In the program’s early days, UA teams were comprised of students and community members, he said. Today, UA has the largest adaptive athletics program in the country with both men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams, paratriathalon and swimming, golf, tennis, track and roadracing.

UA’s programs have produced several athletes who went on to compete nationally and internationally, including Paralympian Alana Nichols, the first woman to win a gold medal in both the summer (wheelchair basketball) and winter (alpine skiing) Paralympics.

This week’s National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament kicks off with the men’s games starting at 2 p.m. Wednesday; the women begin tournament play with No. 3 seed Arizona taking on No. 2 seed UTA at 4 p.m. Thursday.

The No. 3 seed UA men’s team will play the winner of the No. 6 seed SMSU vs. No. 11 seed Eastern Washington game at 2 p.m. Thursday. For the tournament brackets, visit adaptiveathletics.arizona.edu.

A tournament pass covering all four days is $28.52 through eventbrite.com; admission is free for anyone under 18, students and University of Arizona employees and faculty. Games will be live-streamed on the NWBA’s YouTube channel.

Adaptive Athletics is also hosting Pizza with Paralympians at 5 p.m. Friday, March 27, featuring a Q&A with alumni, including Alana Nichols, outside of the Hall of Champions at McKale.

The teams

– The women’s intercollegiate division includes four teams: Arizona (4-12), Alabama (13-3), UT Arlington (8-2) and Illinois (3-10).

– The men’s division has 12 teams: Arizona (28-5), Alabama (13-4), Auburn (26-7), CUNY (5-11), Eastern Washington (3-12), Edinboro (6-8), Illinois, (6-8), Michigan (2-10), Missouri (3-9), Southwest Minnesota State (2-4), UTA (9-6) and Wisconsin-Whitewater (1-5).