Arizona faces UW in Pac-12 Tournament: scouting report; Helena Pueyo, Jada Williams earn honors

UA assistant Bett Shelby on the Huskies: “I think they’re playing really well coming off a huge win at Utah over the weekend. (Lauren) Schwartz and (Sayvia) Sellers are playing at a really high level for them.

They run an offense that’s just extremely hard to guard with the Princeton offense. They only have one true post player in (Dalayah) Daniels, which you would think with our size advantage is good — and it is. We need to pound the paint. But it’s also an advantage for them, I think with their guard play because it’s a tough matchup for us. And I think it’s a tough matchup for a lot of people because they play a lot of guards and they pull you away from the basket and they drive the ball on you and the back cut on you — on your post players. It’s just a really tough matchup.

They have four people in double figures in their win against Utah. They’re scoring the ball at a high level, they can all shoot the three, they can all shoot the pull up.

They’re all just really versatile and skilled. Earlier in the season (they were) scoring off second-chance points a lot. And they’re not doing not (that) at the rate they were earlier. They slowed down at that. But they are scoring in the paint at will right now and a lot of that’s off back cuts and drives. We have to be able to not get back to it, and we have to be able to contain the ball.”

On the sidelines

All-Pac-12 nods: Arizona’s Helena Pueyo and Jada Williams received recognition by the Pac-12 coaches on Tuesday. Pueyo made the All-Pac-12 and All-Defensive teams (her second consecutive year), while Williams was on the All-Freshman team. Three other Wildcats earned honorable mention: Esmery Martinez (All-Pac-12 and All-Defensive) and Breya Cunningham and Skylar Jones for the freshman team. Arizona was the only team with three freshmen honored.

Disrupt from the tip: On of the keys to Wednesday’s matchup is for the Wildcats to keep playing to one of their biggest strengths: defense.

The last time these two teams met in Tucson on Feb. 18, the Wildcats totally disrupted that Princeton offense in the first quarter. Arizona went up 21-7 using a swarming defense and crashing the boards.

The Huskies rallied, but Arizona held on to win 90-82 in triple overtime thanks to Isis Beh. She scored 29 points, with nine of them coming in the third OT.

That kind of start could set the tone once again.

“We’ve got to punch first,” Shelby said. “I think we got to play really aggressive — aggressive on their ball screens, really aggressive in our denials. Have great ball pressure, not let them just move the ball where they want. I think if we can do that, we’ll be successful.”

It’s that defense that’s kept the Wildcats just hanging around in games ready to pounce at the right time. It happened in two of their biggest wins of the season against then-No. 3-Stanford (69-61 win) and then-No. 15 Utah (71-70 victory in overtime).

Despite losing to then-No. 8 UCLA on Saturday, 61-41, the defense held the Bruins down. The Wildcats kept the Bruins 17 points under their scoring average and forced 30 turnovers — the most UCLA has had this season.

“I think if we can force Washington into that many turnovers, I feel really good about our chances of beating them,” Shelby said. “… If we play our style, and play Arizona basketball, it’ll really, really disrupt Washington and cause a lot of problems for them.”

The Caitlin Clark effect: Numerous teams in the Big Ten, including Indiana, had sellouts when they played against Caitlin Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes this season. That is all good for women’s basketball overall.

Arizona didn’t directly benefit from Clark, but still led the Pac-12 in attendance this season. The Wildcats were No. 12 nationally in avarege (7,333) and overall (110,000). South Carolina (247,331), Iowa (209,972), LSU (195,343) and UConn (158,291) were the top four.

For Arizona, there were a few too many times when men’s basketball or even football played at the same time, plus there were two home doubleheaders with the men’s team.

The previous two years UA averaged slightly more. In 2023, the Wildcats averaged 7,699 per game (115,138 total) for ninth place. In 2022, they averaged 7,822 per game (117,330 total) for eighth.

More than basketball: The Pac-12 will have fun activities throughout the tourney this week in Las Vegas. There will be pep rallies, mascots competing in a 6-on-6 game at halftime of the Cal-WSU game, Pac-12 After Dark Dance Party after Wednesday and Thursday’s games, plus giveaways for tickets to The Sphere Experience, Carrie Underwood, and Blue Man Group and much more.

By the numbers

3: UW has won three of its last four games, beating Oregon, No. 9 Oregon State and No. 18 Utah. The lone loss came against No. 13 Colorado, 68-62, on Thursday night.

106: Pueyo leads the team with 106 assists and is averaging 3.5 per game — both career-highs.

55: Cunningham has 55 blocks, which is third in the nation among freshmen.

1: This is the final Pac-12 Tournament as the league will no longer exist next season in this format with 12 teams. Washington State and Oregon State will remain and still use the logo, branding and the Pac-12 Networks, but the other 10 schools will scatter to other conferences. USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon will be in the Big Ten; Stanford and Cal move to the ACC; and Arizona, ASU, Utah and Colorado will be in the Big 12.

— PJ Brown