TUCSON, Ariz. – Start your Friday off with a bang as Adia Barnes and the Arizona women's basketball team open the regular season in McKale Center against Iona at Noon MT.
 
Arizona (0-0) vs. Iona (0-0)
Friday, Nov. 10 at Noon MT
Radio: 1400 AM (Derrick Palmer)
Twitter: @ArizonaWBB
#MadeForIt
 

• The theme of year two of the Adia Barnes era will certainly be the amount of new faces on the team. After losing nine letterwinners due to graduation and transfer, Barnes and the rest of her staff went out and brought in 10 newcomers. Four freshmen, four transfers and two walk-ons.

 

• With the addition of all the newcomers, the Wildcats will lean heavily on the three returners (Lucia Alonso, JaLea Bennett and Destiny Graham. Kat Wright, a grad transfer, will also be looked upon as she has three years of experience at the DI level while playing at FAU. Bennett averaged 27 points, 8.5 rebounds and four steals in the two exhibition games.

 

• Barnes won the second-most games in school history for a first-year head coach (14) last season. The record for a second-year head coach is also 14 games. Additionally, Wendy Larry holds the record for most wins by a head coach in the first two seasons with 30, so Arizona will need to win at 17 games to break that record.

 

• The Wildcats will have three transfers sitting out this season (Dominique McBryde, Aarion McDonald and Tee Tee Starks). All three come from power five conferences and will look to make a huge impact in seasons to come. McDonald transferred from Washington, where she played for current Arizona assistant coach Morgan Valley. She was also recruited by Barnes when she was an assistant coach at Washington.

 

• Arizona is 27-18 all-time in season openers. In last year's season opener, Adia Barnes earned her first victory as a head coach over Alcorn State 74-59. The last time the Wildcats faced off against Iona in the first game of the season was on Nov. 8, 2013. The Gaels won that game 82-75 in overtime in New Rochelle, N.Y.

 

• JaLea Bennett is one of the two seniors on the team (Kat Wright) and will be looked upon as a leader for the young group of Wildcats this year. Not only do they look to her for leadership, but Bennett has been a good source of energy during the preseason. Bennett, the leading returning scorer, scored 6.9 points per game last season is certainly looking to up that number this year as she has the athletic ability to get to the rim with the best of them. Along with Destiny Graham, they are the two remaining student-athletes that played for former head coach Niya Butts. Bennett went nuts last week as she came off the bench to score 35 points, grab 10 rebounds and had four steals against Eastern New Mexico and followed that up with 19 points, seven rebounds and four steals against Western New Mexico.

 

• Of Arizona's 13 players on the roster, 10 of them are newcomers. Those newcomers include Kat Wright, Sam Thomas, Sammy Fatkin, Markee Kyles, Kiana Barkhoff, Ali Reese, Lindsey Malecha, Aarion McDonald, Dominique McBryde and Tee Tee Starks. Thomas, Fatkin, Kyles, Barkhoff and Reese are incoming freshmen, Wright, McDonald, McBryde and Starks are transfer students and Malecha was added as a walk-on, but is an incoming junior. Ten newcomers is the most in the Pac-12 this season. The last time Arizona had at least five freshmen was the 2008-09 season.

 
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