If you were one of the people who thought the Arizona women’s basketball program would fall off from last season now that Aari McDonald is in the WNBA, you are forgiven.
After all, Arizona’s sudden rise from bottom-dweller to mere inches away from being national champions seemed to happen because of McDonald, who left campus as the program’s career leader in points per game while collecting 2021 Pac-12 Player of the Year honors and being named an AP All-American thrice.
She was also the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the year in 2021 and 2020, and garnered numerous other accolades that if all were listed here, this story would go on and on and on and on and on .