Cats Hold First Practice of 2014-15 Campaign
TUCSON, Ariz.--- The University of Arizona Women’s Basketball team officially got its season going, as head coach Niya Butts held her first organized practice of the 2014-15 season on Wednesday, inside Richard Jefferson Gymnasium.
The Wildcats enter the new campaign with a healthy mix of veteran leadership and young talent, 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.
Arizona worked out for about three hours, taking part in various individual and team drills.
With day one in the books, the Cats anxiously look ahead to Nov. 11 where they’ll play Concordia University in an exhibition affair at 3:00 p.m. MST inside McKale Center. Arizona will then get things going for real on Nov. 17, as it will host Cal State Bakersfield at 7:00 p.m. MST
HEAD COACH NIYA BUTTS FIRST DAY OF PRACTICE QUOTES
On last Season
“It’s over. That’s all I want to think about. It’s behind us. It takes a crazy person to trip over what’s behind you. We just want to move forward. Obviously last year needs to serve as a reminder because it’s obviously somewhere you don’t want to go back to. Right now we’re just hoping we can stay injury free and right now we’re pretty healthy.”
On the freshman who were able to get experience last season due to injuries of other players
“It was valuable. When you’re talking about a kid getting 20, 30, or 40 minutes a game for a freshman that’s now a sophomore, that’s basically the level of a junior as far as her experience on the court. That has served us really well, especially during the early stages of summer workouts, now going into fall practice. We feel really good about our leadership.”
On having Alli Gloyd back this season
“It’s such a relief. Practice is a bit louder. She talks on defense and talks on offense. She’s constantly communicating with our teammates on the sidelines letting them know what she sees. That’s something you want from one of your leaders.”
On the process of recruiting a player like Taryn Griffey
“She fell on our radar the first couple days her brother Trey (redshirt-sophomore wide receiver on football team) was on campus. Once you start to hear about his story you realize, hey he has a little sister too, and it turns out she’s pretty good at basketball. We had been recruiting her for a long time though. She’s finally here and we’re happy to have her on campus.”
On Griffey’s timetable for a return from injury
“It’s too early to tell. The one thing we want to do is make sure we’re really careful with her. Even it was a close timeline for us, we would probably push it back just to be safe. We want to be extra careful and give her body time to heal and recover.”
On the point guard position battle heading into the season
“It’s up for grabs. Obviously Candice Warthen is a returner so she’ll be playing on the ball a lot, but we want to move her off the ball a little bit so that it opens up that spot for some of the young ones to get in there. Washington and Harris are possibilities to fill that spot, but it all depends on how they come out and perform in practice.”
On LaBrittney Jones
“She looks good. She looks really good right now. We need her to be healthy. She was playing at about 60-70 percent last year and right now I’d says she’s at about 95 percent.”
Thoughts on the incoming freshman
“They’re very talented. We still have to light fires under them every now and then, but the talent is definitely there. We just have to work on getting them to be more consistent.”
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