Arizona hosts No. 11 TCU: Scouting report, Dew, Knezevic showing progress

She said it

Arizona coach Adia Barnes on TCU: “(Hailey van Lith) is a prolific scorer, and she can score in different ways and has a lot of scorers around her, so you have to play a lot of one-on-one. We’re going to have to step up and play some good defense. I think the flip side, we’re going to have to put pressure on their guards to defend us. Because I don’t think defensively that’s their strength. I think as a team it is, but one-on-one isn’t. I think if we want a chance, we have to be able to play aggressive and play good on offense.

“I think their style is very hard because (they) congest the paint, and then they have Sedona (Prince) inside, so it’s really hard to get to the paint. We’re going to have to defend well, one-on-one and we’re going to have to go in transition. We’re going to have to play really well to beat them. They’re a much more loaded team than we are.”

On the sidelines

Injury watch: Jada Williams went down with a foot injury at the end of the first half against OSU on Wednesday night. She went to the Phoenix Suns’ doctor for another look at it on Thursday.

“It was just to get an opinion of a specialist that maybe has seen more cases like this where there is pain management,” Barnes said. “… The main thing is that we care about her health; we're doing these things. We want to find a solution. I think it's hard when you don't have a solution. If something hurts, your like, ‘Oh, why is it hurting?’ And you're like, ‘I don't know.’ I think just figuring that out is good. We're doing everything to do that. She knows that; her family knows that, and it's been good. She's being cared for really well. (UA trainer) Bart (Jameson) is doing a great job.”

Barnes has not specified exactly what the injury is yet but did say it’s similar to what has been bothering her all year.

Barnes expects Williams to play in Sunday’s game.

Jameson is also working with UA's Mailien Rolf, who took a knee to the head later in the OSU game. Rolf had a headache and is day-by-day.

Little wins: Montaya Dew and Katarina Knezevic used their extra minutes in the fourth quarter against OSU to their advantage.

While Dew was aggressive with a block and pulling down a pair of defensive rebounds, it’s what she did on the offensive end — not hesitating when shooting, as well as drawing trips to the free throw line — that was a step up for Dew. She made all four free throws.

“Montaya has to do that, and by her doing it, she got the confidence to do that,” Barnes said.

Barnes has been working with Dew to bring out that confidence on the offensive side of the court. Dew has already been consistent on defense with blocks, steals and helping to disrupt on that end of the floor. Some of this teaching from Barnes has looked like showing film of when Dew's been successful being more aggressive. Then, there are reps (Barnes said it takes thousands of reps to make a habit) and there was at least one practice where Dew had to shoot every time she touched the ball.

“I think she just has to understand that in her mind, and that's that mental shift, and that's the hard thing about young players,” Barnes said. “It takes some time to click and that light bulb to come on, but when it comes on, it's special. Hers is flickering sometimes; we need that. We're going to find it …. (It) just takes time.”

Knezevic played 20 minutes against OSU and had two steals, four rebounds and scored seven points.

“I think sometimes we’re really flat and Katarina has a pulse,” Barnes said. "Katarina hadn’t played in a lot of games. For her to come in and have the mental capacity to stick with it and still do well, I’m proud of her.”

Connections: There are Arizona, Pac-12 and USA Basketball connections between Arizona and TCU.

Barnes coached Prince as part of USA Basketball’s 2021 AmeriCup gold-medal winning team.

Most of the Horned Frogs’ coaching staff spent time in the Pac-12. Head coach Mark Campbell, associate head coach Xavier Lopez and assistant Nia Jackson were all on Kelly Graves’ staff at Oregon. Plus, Minyon Moore played at two stops in the league — USC and Oregon.

There are also a number of familiar Pac-12 faces in transfers Tayler Bigby (USC, Oregon), Prince (Oregon), Donovyn Hunter (Oregon State), Agnes Emma-Nnopu (Stanford) Maddie Scherr (Oregon) and Madi Conner (UA).

Conner spent 2½ years at Arizona and was part of the run to the 2021 NCAA title game. She’s evolved into a prolific long-range specialist, shooting 46% from the 3 this season.

“We definitely helped her get better,” Barnes said. “I’m proud of her. People always think you want players to go and do bad (somewhere else). You don’t. They are kids at the end of the day. If some place isn’t right the first time and they go somewhere else and it’s right and they play well, I think it’s a great thing. You want people to do well. I’m happy for her. I think she’s playing really well in the right system for her.”

On fire: Three former Wildcats are playing in China and the WCBA this season.

Jade Loville, who recently started playing for Liaoning, scored 27 points in 27 minutes in her third game.

Aari McDonald, who is playing for Beijing, is averaging 15.4 points (in 29 games), shooting 52.3% from the field, 35.4% from the 3 and 4.1 assists per game.

Trinity Baptiste, who is playing for Hebei, put up 33 points in a recent game — 11 of 11 from the free throw line. She is averaging 13.6 points, shooting 54.7% from the field, 35.7% from the 3 and 6.2 rebounds per game. Baptiste has also played in 29 games.

Wear pink: Arizona women’s basketball is asking fans to wear pink on Sunday to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness.

By the numbers

5: Paulina Paris dished five assists in two games this season — against OSU and West Virginia.

54%: Isis Beh is shooting 54% this season. Last year, as a reserve, she shot 47% from the field.

288: TCU has scored 288 more points than Arizona this season. TCU’s total is 2,054, while UA stands at 1,766.