Pac 12 Preview: Arizona

Last Season:
The Arizona Wildcats went 10-20 overall and 3-15 in Pac 12 play. Of course they did beat Stanford.


The Coaches:
Niya Butts returns for her 8th season as the Head Coach. She is averaging 11 wins a season.
EC Hill returns for her 5th season. Calamity McEntire returns for her 4th season. Sean LaBeauf returns for his 3nd season.


Losses:
Only two loses although leading scorer Candice Warthen is one of them. Candice led the team in scoring, steals and assists, averaging 13 points per game. She was close to being the leading rebounder also.
Alli Gloyd started every game and averaged 5 points and 5 rebounds.



Additions:
A’Shanti Coleman is a 6-2 Post player from San Francisco. Coleman averaged 15 points and 12 rebounds for a very good Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep team.
Destiny Graham is a 6-3 Post player from East Palo Alto. Graham averaged 16 points and 14 rebounds for another good Bay Area team, Eastside Prep.
Eugenie Simonet-Keller is a 6-8 Post player from France. Yes 6-8 and the tallest French woman of her generation. She has played on three French National teams at various ages. She actually attended High School in Florida.
Michal Miller is a 5-7 Guard from Michigan City, Indiana. Miller averaged 25 points and 4 assists last year.
The four High School recruits could be the best class Butts has recruited.
But there are more:
Lauren Evans is a 5-11 Sr Guard who transferred from VA Tech and sat out last season. As a Soph at Va Tech Evans started all but two games averaging 5 points. As a Jr at Va Tech Lauren was reduced to no starts and 2 points per game.
Taryn Griffey is a 5-7 redshirt Frosh who missed not just last year but her Jr and Sr years in HS with injuries. Still a highly recruited player for the Butts era at Arizona.
Ferrin Bell is a 6-0 RS Jr Guard who transferred from SMU two years ago but sat out again last year except for 2 games. As a Frosh at SMU she started 9 games and averaged 3.4 points.
So while this incoming frosh class is ranked # 46 the additions of Evans, Griffey and Bell make the newcomers class very good.



The Schedule:
The Wildcats will play 12 non league games with the toughest being Kansas and University of San Diego. Thus not a tough schedule. Last year the Wildcats were 7-5 in non- league games.


The Team:
The Wildcats return after Warthen their top four scorers, however they averaged a total of just 27 points per game. The Wildcats scored only 58 points per game so scoring improvement is a must.
LaBrittany Jones is a 6-1 Jr Forward who averaged 9 points and 6 rebounds per game.
Malena Washington is a 5-6 Jr Guard who averaged 7 points per game and was 2nd on the team in assists, but just 2 per game.
Charise Holloway is a 5-9 Soph Guard who averaged 7 points per game and is their top returning three point shooter, but she made only 26 at 25%.
Keyahndra Cannon is a 5-9 Sr Guard who averaged 5 points per game.
JaLea Bennett is a 6-0 Soph wing who averaged 4 points per game.
Breanna Workman is a 6-1 Jr Forward who averaged 4 points and 4 rebounds per game.
Dejza James is a 6-1 Jr Forward who averaged 4 points and 3 rebounds per game.
Cherice Harris is a 5-8 Soph Guard who played just a few games last season.
It’s very possible much of the playing time will go to newcomers. Butts has a full squad of 15 and no one transferred out, a rarity recently.



Predictions:
With so many newcomers it’s hard to predict but the incoming players could be good right off the bat. Still it looks look the Wildcats will remain a last four in the Pac 12 team.


2016 Recruiting:
No commits yet but 15 on the team and only 2 SRs therefore only 2 openings.