Cats Well Represented at Pac-12 Media Day
SAN FRANCISCO--- The University of Arizona Women’s Basketball program was well represented at 2014 Pac-12 Media Day, as head coach Niya Butts and senior forward Alli Gloyd met with local and national media on Wednesday out at the conference studios in downtown San Francisco.
The Wildcats enter the new season with a renewed sense of energy, as they return four letterwinners and three starters from a year ago, while welcoming in seven newcomers, in what makes up one of the nation’s top recruiting classes.
PAC-12 MEDIA DAY ROUNDTABLE QUOTES
Head Coach Niya Butts
Opening Statement
“Just trying to stay healthy this year, that’s our number one priority. We’re working hard every day. It feels really good to get out and practice with a full squad. We didn’t get a chance to do a whole lot of practicing last year because of all of our injuries. Just excited for the new season.”
On competing in the Pac-12 Conference
“I feel pretty good about our team. We signed a top-25 class in spite of last season, so I feel good about our newcomers and the returners we have as well. This is a great conference though with some great coaches and players. It’s exciting to be a part of it.”
On turning the page on last season
“Big ships turn slowly. Last year we had a couple of people try and tug and pull, but our crew was down last year. I feel good about things though because we had a lot of young players who logged big minutes for us last year. I think any time you’re forced to play 30 or 40 minutes a game your freshman year, that’s going to help you a lot heading into your sophomore season.”
On the #Chillin4Charity Cold Water Challenge
“Our recruiting coordinator Calamity McEntire was actually the one who thought of it first. It originally started off as joke and we were going to just challenge coaches in the Pac-12 to dump a lot of water on themselves just to see if anyone would do it. We thought to ourselves ‘ok this is great, but who is really going to actually do this unless we attach something to it.’ Cancer has affected almost all of us at one point or another, so we thought about the Kay Yow Foundation. So if it worked, outstanding, but if not at least we got the message out there. It kind of just caught on and it ended up being great for the Kay Yow Foundation and it also raised great awareness. When you think about it though, it’s not all that surprising that it took off. I mean how competitive are we was coaches? You really think we’re going to pass up an opportunity to have a recruiting showcase on camera?
Senior Forward Alli Gloyd
On what she learned while rehabbing from her ACL injury last year
“I learned a lot about hard work. The recovery wasn’t easy, it wasn’t fun. It just took a lot of dedication, but I’m excited to be back.”
On the frustration of being on the bench last season due to injury
“It was extremely frustrating. It was hard to sit there on the bench not being able to go out and help my teammates, especially with the amount of injuries we had last season.”
On what she’s looking forward to most this year and what she’s been working on in the offseason
“I’m really just looking forward to playing. I’m looking forward to being on the court with my teammates and being around this team. I’ve been working a lot on defense and just staying low. As a team we want to be able to pressure people on defense and put other teams in uncomfortable situations. We weren’t really able to do that last year.”
On if the number of close games played last year gives the team confidence heading into the new season.
“Yeah I think it gives us hope. I think it allows us to see that even with the limited number of players we had playing last year, we were able to compete and keep things close and do a lot of good things.