SAN FRANCISCO ? Two members of the Arizona Wildcats Women’s Basketball program wrapped up a fun and eventful day at Pac-12 Media Day on Wednesday.
Coach Niya Butts and junior forward LaBrittney Jones traveled to Northern California to represent the team at the Pac-12’s offices.
Jones, from Cedar Hill, Texas, played in all 30 games last year for the Wildcats and averaged nine points per game and a team-high 5.7 rebounds a contest as a sophomore. After a productive summer, Jones is eager to be a catalyst for the Wildcats this season as one of seven upperclassmen on the roster.
“Over the summer, I did a lot of strength and conditioning training,” Jones said during a press conference Wednesday. “We have our team workouts, but I wanted to get in extra and work on building muscles around my legs because I’ve had knee issues in the past. That was my main goal this summer and to put on a little more weight, which I’m in the process of still doing. That’s to gain more muscle and get in better shape.”
Butts expressed her excitement for the season after being pleased with the team’s first five practices. The coach said she’s been impressed with nearly every player on the roster and thinks the team will continue to make strides in preseason practice.
“We had a really, really good first week,” Butts said. “Defensively, JaLea Bennett, who is a sophomore returning and Breanna Workman, defensively, stood out to me. But everyone really has. Taryn Griffey looks very good and controls the tempo of our team. Malena Washington looks really good. They put in a lot of time in the summer. They have come back with a different mindset and attitude about working. I feel pretty good about that.”
Here are some other comments from Butts at Media Day:
On general impressions so far: “I’m just ready to play. We’ve had week one of practice so far. So far, I’ve been really happy with that. I’m excited about week two. For the first time in about four years, we started with our entire roster being able to practice and be on the practice court. I’m going to leave it there right now until I hear something happened to someone back home today.”
On the point guard position: “We have three choices right now, and I’m happy to say we have three choices. Taryn Griffey is back. She’s playing. She’s on the floor for us. Those who are not familiar was one of the top players in the country when she came to Arizona. She wasn’t able to play because of knee injuries. Malena Washington is also back. And then another young lady...Cherice Harris. We feel pretty good about that.”
On Jones’ “Batman” nickname: “We can use her as any one of the Avengers, Batman, whomever she wants to show up as, as long as it’s a superhero. We’ll take it any way we can get it.”
On the team’s strengths: “Our strength will be in our numbers. I haven’t been able to say that in a while. I think our depth will be pretty good. I think our experience, we had a lot of young people playing the last couple years, at some point you’d think that will pay off.”
On her preseason mindset: “I think every year you are given a chance to prove something regardless of where you’re picked. But everyday, we are going to work the same. My mindset is the same every year no matter where you’re picked. My effort doesn’t change.”
On the team’s depth: “We were in practice last week, we put five in and I looked over and we had five more and some more after that. I was thinking to myself, this feels pretty good right now. You can never tell what’s going to happen in terms of injuries, but it feels good to be healthy right now. As a staff, we are trying to do certain things to make sure we don’t hurt ourselves and grind and grind and grind and create some injuries that are unnecessary.”
