Kelsey Plum works out at Arizona, leaves men’s basketball team in awe

The best scorer in NCAA history spent a week in Tucson

Kelsey Plum used to play for the Washington Huskies, but most of her old college coaching staff now resides in Tucson with the Arizona Wildcats.

So Plum, who is the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer and a former No. 1 WNBA draft pick, made the trek to Southern Arizona last week to work out with UA assistant coach Morgan Valley.

Plum used Arizona’s facilities three times a day for a week, and apparently she had several onlookers during her workouts.

“She’s working out with Coach Valley and the whole men’s team, they were all on the glass looking through the weight room,” said UA head coach Adia Barnes, who used to be an assistant at Washington (via the Wildcat Country podcast). “I don’t think they’ve ever seen a woman shoot like that.”

Plum’s misses were probably few and far in between as the San Antonio Stars guard averaged 31.7 points per game as a senior at Washington, shooting 43 percent from 3 and 89 percent from the free throw line.

The admiration went both ways though, as Plum predicted that Arizona guard Allonzo Trier will be the Pac-12 Player of the Year this season.

I'm saying this before the season starts... @ISO_ZO is going to be a PROBLEM this year....#pac12POY

— Kelsey Plum (@Kelseyplum10) September 16, 2017

Barnes actually recruited Plum to Washington when she was an assistant there, and now is trying to use the San Diego native as an example for her current team at Arizona.

“I remind our players that she wasn’t a top-10 kid coming out of high school,” Barnes said. “She was a top-30, top-40 kid. No one would have thought that she would’ve been the first draft pick. No one thought she would’ve broken all the records. No one would’ve thought that at all. But her work ethic, her determination, her mentality set her apart.

“So I’m bringing in pieces like that to change the culture here like Kelsey Plum did at Washington.”

Indeed. Barnes and Arizona currently have the No. 2 recruiting class in the country.

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Follow Ryan Kelapire on Twitter at @RKelapire. All quotes via Wildcat Country podcast.

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