Arizona basketball guard Courtney Blakely cleared to play while UA en route to Bahamas

They had a long flight ahead of them and some time to relax before their next set of games in the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Sometime during the flight, when everyone was in a deep sleep, the UA contingent woke up to some great news: Courtney Blakely was cleared by the NCAA to play.

“I saw a text — it came through that she was cleared,” Arizona coach Adia Barnes said. “Kristen (Arquilla) from compliance has done an amazing job and she really, really worked hard to help get this done, but (she) sent us the text that Courtney was cleared.

“I actually woke her up. I tapped her should and was like ‘Courtney you need to wake up for this.’ I told her she was cleared and she screamed. Then everybody woke up and started cheering. We’re really happy because she’s been waiting for a while.”

Blakely is a redshirt junior who transferred to Arizona in the offseason from Middle Tennessee State. The program has not disclosed the situation. We do know it was a complete surprise to everyone — especially Barnes.

In the past week, Barnes had said that Blakely was sitting out games — she wasn’t even allowed to play in the exhibition games — and that this situation touched the coach herself as there were “repercussions on both ends, which is amazing for me and very surprising.”

Barnes said that the program complied with NCAA request and filed the necessary paperwork and after that it was out of her control. They were in waiting mode.

Now, that Blakley, a 5-8 guard, is available, the Wildcats are at full strength with 10 active players. This especially helps the guards, who were playing one down for the first four games. She is the fastest Wildcat this year — and Barnes said one of the fastest she has ever coached — can break a full-court press and is aggressive on defense.

“She’s an amazing player and she brings a lot of energy, especially on defense,” Barnes said. Having one more guard is also really important for us right now.

“It’s good to have more depth. Just think about it, we haven’t been together for one game yet this whole season. Practice is different. (For) Courtney it’s hard sitting on the sideline and just waiting, anticipating when she didn’t know if it was going to take one week or one year. She was just relieved,” Barnes said. “I think (she) was getting a little down for a while because she didn’t anticipate even missing any games. For us, from a player’s perspective and coaching perspective, just to have another guard to rotate when we don’t have a lot of players is really good.”

During the time Blakely was sitting out of games, she was allowed to participate in other activities — including practice and film study. So, she’s not “going to miss a beat,” Barnes said.

Fun in the Bahamas

On Thursday, Helena Pueyo, swam with the sharks … errr … slid with the sharks?

At the Atlantis Bahamas resort there is a slide you can go down with a round, donut-like floaty into a tank with sharks.

Pueyo said it was a little scary, but fun.

Her teammate, Esmery Martinez, on the other hand, said she was a little tired — possibly scared — to join her.

Barnes said that Martinez would go down the slide Friday, but joked that “(Martinez) said the sharks looked a little bit hungry, so she wasn’t going to put her body through there because they liked Dominican Republic meat I think, right? Yeah, she was nervous.”

Martinez wasn’t the only one that was a little tentative. Barnes was challenging Chris Allen, UA’s assistant coach for performance enhancement, who is from Jamaica, to take the slide to meet the sharks.

The Wildcats spent time with sixth graders at Clare Woods Elementary School. They put on a basketball clinic and had a Q&A session. Arizona gave tickets to its game so the children can cheer them on.

Martinez, who puts on clinics in the Dominican Republic to help inspire the next generation of basketball players, met a young woman from her home country.

Getting back to work

Even with all the fun and relaxation, there are games to played — three in three days.

Arizona (4-0) plays Memphis (1-3) first on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

Here’s the scouting report on the Tigers:

“We expect the team that plays tenacious defense. Really good guard play,” Barnes said. “But some guards that can really score. Good in transition. They force a lot of turnovers. We’re going to receive a lot of pressure but the good thing is we play like that every day in practice.

“We play against each other with a lot of pressure. They’re a really good team that’s experienced and we know it’s going to be a hard first game. But we’re ready.”

Whoever the Wildcats end up playing in the other two games will also present good challenges that will prepare for what’s next in Pac-12 play and eventually in the NCAA Tournament. That’s why Barnes tries to schedule teams that play different styles in non-conference.

The tournament bracket sets up for the Wildcats, if they win, to play the winner of Old Miss-Howard in the next game, and if they make it to the finals, they would face Michigan, Middle Tennessee, DePaul or South Dakota.

The first two games are on FloHoops, a subscription service. The championship game is on ESPN2 at 10 a.m. Monday, while the third-place game is at 12:30 p.m. Monday on ESPNU.