What to watch for when Arizona hosts USC in 2020 opener

Photo by John Cordes/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The Arizona Wildcats get a second chance at making a first impression when they host the USC Trojans on Saturday. The game will kick off at 1:30 p.m. at Arizona Stadium and be shown nationally on FOX.

This was supposed to be the UA’s second game of an abbreviated 2020 schedule until Utah had to cancel the opener last Friday due to a COVID-19 outbreak. That leaves the Wildcats with only five scheduled games, not including a potential sixth on Dec. 19 or a bowl invite if they have at least a .500 record.

Here’s what to be on the lookout for in Arizona’s long-awaited return to football:

Delayed first-game jitters

Arizona began last Friday believing it was a little more than 24 hours away from opening the season, with a flight to Salt Lake City not far away, when it first got word from Utah about its COVID-19 situation and the possibility of cancellation. By lunchtime the game was canceled, and suddenly the Wildcats had another weekend free to watch football on TV.

Thanks but no thanks, coach Kevin Sumlin said earlier this week.

“We’ve been watching football for six weeks,” he said.

Instead of playing, Arizona instead worked out last Saturday at the request of its captains, while also taking in USC’s game against ASU. Then, after the normal Sunday off day the Wildcats began another “season-opening” game week that no doubt have to include some back-of-the-mind concerns about if this one would get played.

“We can’t focus on the past,” sophomore defensive lineman Kyon Barrs said, noting that he was “heartbroken” about the Utah cancellation. “We gotta move on.”

USC got those first-game jitters out of the way, while Arizona still has to experience them. Don’t be surprised if this leads to some early miscues for the rusty Wildcats.

Battle of the stud sophomore QBs

Grant Gunnell was ranked by 247Sports as the No. 15 pro-style quarterback in the 2019 recruiting class, while Kedon Slovis was 26^th. The former was considered the future at Arizona before he ever got there, while Slovis was more or less an afterthought for a USC program that figured to be buoyed by JT Daniels for the next few years.

The reality was that duo combined to start 14 games as true freshmen, throwing for more than 4,700 yards and 39 touchdowns.

Big things are expected from each in 2020, with Slovis already throwing for 381 yards and two TDs against ASU. He had 232 yards and two TDs against Arizona in last year’s 41-14 win, while Gunnell had 196 yards and two passing scores in that game.

A great nugget from Arizona’s weekly game notes shows that Gunnell, who completed 65.2 percent of his passes in 2019, spent far more time throwing from behind than Slovis. Eighty percent of Gunnell’s 155 throws last year came with Arizona trailing, compared to 36.2 percent of Slovis’ 392 attempts.

Differing defenses

Both Arizona and USC have new defensive coordinators, with Paul Rhoads in charge of a total overhaul of the UA defense that includes four new coaches and even more new starters, while veteran coordinator Todd Orlando made his debut with the Trojans a week ago.

Orlando is known for bringing constant pressure, which was shown against ASU, and though it only resulted in one sack the Trojans did limit ASU quarterback Jayden Daniels to a 47.8 percent completion rate.

How Rhoads’ defense will look? Other than going with a 3-4 front, everything else is pretty much a mystery. More than half the starting spots are likely be filled by players who are either new to the program or who have never started a college game, and depth issues at linebacker and safety could lead to walk-ons getting meaningful snaps.

Who will play (or will be unavailable)?

Compared to other teams, Arizona and USC seem to have navigated the pandemic quite well in terms of positive tests. Sumlin said the Wildcats have had positives in the past, but as of Monday they didn’t, while USC reported Monday it only had two positives across the entire athletic department.

However, as Sumlin made sure to point out during his weekly press conference, “that can change tomorrow.”

The Pac-12 requires testing on game days, so players available Friday might not be suited up on Saturday. That was the case with Stanford, which found out less than two hours before its opener at Oregon that starting QB Davis Mills had tested positive.

It’s unknown whether Arizona will identify players who are unavailable prior to the game, and for what reason, but if it’s anyone who was expected to start or play significantly and they’re not on the sidelines it would be fair to assume it’s COVID-related.

Streaks to speak of

Arizona brings a seven-game losing streak into this game, its longest since dropping eight in a row during the 2016 season.

The skid against USC is also seven, with Arizona’s last victory over the Trojans coming in 2012. Two of the three losses at home have been by one score.

The Wildcats will be trying to avoid starting 0-1 for the third consecutive season, which has never happened in program history.

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Perseverance pays off as Arizona soccer gears up to scrimmage for first time Friday

Sabrina Enciso | Photo courtesy Arizona Athletics

Good news is hard to come by in 2020 as the world fights the coronavirus, but Arizona soccer players received some a few weeks ago when head coach Tony Amato asked them to bring shin guards to their next practice.

“That was one of the best texts I got from him all semester,” said forward Kayden Heinrich.

It meant they had been cleared for full contact practices after almost three months of non-contact practices—if you can call them that.

The Wildcats were training eight hours a week, doing drills that were, more or less, shooting and passing while maintaining at least six feet of distance. (“Foosball,” as Amato described it.)

Now they are training closer to the 20-hour NCAA maximum, striking a balance between having fun and preparing for the upcoming season, which is slated to start in February.

“So, setting up some of their favorite games where it’s more scrimmage-like stuff, but smaller numbers, 4-v-4, 6-v-6, 8-v-8 type stuff while also being able to imprint some of our basic identity pieces that we would want to build off when we come back in January,” Amato said. “Really just so when I use some of the language we use to describe our attack or defense that the new players know what the heck I’m actually talking about.”

It’s a good thing junior midfielder Iliana Hocking is an experienced player because she probably hasn’t been listening too much lately. She joked that she’s been so euphoric about playing soccer again that “I’m always in my own little world.”

The team’s vibe has completely shifted since it advanced to full contact.

“The energy changed because it was becoming stagnant and restrictive,” Amato said. “You want to play the sport, right? And so as much as I love the process, and I love to train, not all the players always feel the same way as the coach. They want to play and I totally understand that.”

Arizona’s last game was all the way back in February when they routed UTEP in their one and only spring exhibition. Their last “real” game was in the NCAA Tournament last November.

That’s a long layoff for a team that usually begins its season in mid-August and ends around this time of year, and it’s showed in these first few weeks of contact practices.

“Well, obviously we’re pretty rusty, right?” Amato said. “So it’s just a matter of working through that. But I feel like we have good enough players in all positions to win Pac-12 games. We obviously are not in any sort of game mode and we’re working on what it takes to win those games in terms of fitness component, the work-rate components, how sharp you have to be, but there is a foundation of that I feel really good about the talent of the team.”

Advancing to contact practices requires extra precautions. In addition to wearing masks and staying physically-distant from the public like before, players are now COVID tested three times a week instead of once.

They take a PCR test every Monday (just like before) plus antigen tests on Tuesdays and Fridays before every contact practice. They test at the Hall of Champions or the Lowell-Stevens facility at 7 a.m. so they can get their results by the afternoon.

That’ll be their routine until Thanksgiving break.

“At this point I’ve just kind of gotten used to sticking the little swab up my nose every week,” Heinrich said. “But as long as it means that we can continue to do contact practices and get better and get closer to a season, I’m all for it.”

Heinrich is one of 13 freshmen on Arizona’s roster, the largest class in the Amato era (though not all of them are on campus right now). Their speed and athleticism has been evident in these preseason practices but their soccer skills remain somewhat of a mystery.

“They’ve yet to score a goal in college, they’ve yet to shut someone down in college and yet to make a save in college, so you don’t exactly know how that’s gonna look,” Amato said. “But in terms of just training so far this semester, I feel good about the level that we have on the team.”

The picture will become a little clearer Friday when the Wildcats host their first scrimmage at 6 p.m. They don’t have a full roster right now because several players stayed home for the semester due to COVID concerns, so they will likely have to play 9-v-9 or 10-v-10.

That’s a small compromise.

At one point any kind of scrimmage seemed unlikely this fall. In early September, the Wildcats feared they had a major outbreak when seven players and staffers tested positive for coronavirus. The team was set to be shut down for 14 days, causing many players to head home to quarantine.

The results turned out to be false positives and they resumed trained, but soon after Hocking actually did contract the virus and began suffering some pretty serious respiratory symptoms.

That was an isolated case (and she’s fine now) but both incidents caught the team’s attention.

“Yeah, it was scary,” Heinrich said of the initial false positives. “Our team had been doing, and continues to do, such a great job of following protocol and we make sure that we do everything right because we want to continue to train and represent the university well.”

Their perseverance is a big reason they’ll finally get to enjoy some normalcy on Friday under the lights at Mulcahy Stadium.

“It’s pretty rewarding staying here all semester and going through not doing contact and working our way up to it,” Hocking said. “So it’s exciting, we’re all excited. ... It’s gonna be nice to actually see something super competitive in our jerseys and seeing a sneak peek as to what February is going to be like.”

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Arizona football announces uniform combo for USC game

Photo by Jacob Snow/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

If you were hoping the Arizona Wildcats would break out a throwback look for their first game of the 2020 season, you’re going to be at least partially disappointed.

Arizona has announced its uniform combo for Saturday’s opener against USC, and while the helmet brings back fond memories of the past that’s where the nostalgia ends.

Season Opener Threads #AZvsUSC #BearDown pic.twitter.com/PUahCpMiCy

— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) November 13, 2020

The Wildcats will rock white helmets with the traditional ‘Block A’ logo—though without the blue stripe—and pair that with a modern blue jersey and white pants as well as red gloves and white cleats. That will contrast well with USC’s likely combo of red helmet—the only one it has—white tops and gold pants.

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Arizona makes top 6 for 4-star guard Carleigh Wenzel

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

You win some, you lose some.

On Thursday, Arizona target Aaliyah Gayles announced her commitment to Pac-12 foe USC. It wasn’t all bad news for the Wildcats on the recruiting trail, though, as they landed in the top six for fellow 2022 guard Carleigh Wenzel.

Blessed to be in the position I’m in today !

@brittxgraham pic.twitter.com/TzsyABXdmF

— Carleigh Wenzel (@CarleighRenae_) November 12, 2020

A four-star guard, Wenzel is the No. 37 player overall and No. 7 guard in ESPN’s rankings. As a sophomore at San Antonio’s O’Connor High, she averaged 20.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.3 steals per game last year.

Her team just started play this season.

First game of the season ... ️ pic.twitter.com/xWTFCi0Yiq

— Carleigh Wenzel (@CarleighRenae_) November 13, 2020

When evaluating her in 2019, Dan Olson wrote, “Agile guard defends, traps and converts off of turnovers; manufactures shots, knocks down mid-range jumpers with precision; drives and finishes plays in traffic; attracts the double-team and dishes; 1 on 1 creator makes plays to the rim, provides size and versatility in the back court.”

The junior definitely has an interest in the Pac-12 with four of her six finalists playing in the conference.

In case you missed it, Arizona is also in the running for other elite 2022 players like:

• 5-star point guard Kiki Rice (No. 6 overall)
• 5-star forward Maya Nnaji (No. 8 overall)
• 4-star forward Grace VanSlooten (No. 16 overall)
• 4-star shooting guard KK Bransford (No. 27 overall)

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Former Arizona star Brandon Ashley joining NBA G League Ignite developmental team

Photo by Kelly Barnes/Getty Images

Former Arizona Wildcats star Brandon Ashley has found a new professional home not far from where he grew up.

Ashley is one of five veterans joining the NBA G-League’s Ignite, a developmental team which features several elite NBA prospects who have skipped college basketball. The Ignite are based out of Walnut Creek, Calif., miles away from Ashley’s hometown of Oakland.

The Ignite’s other veteran players are Bobby Brown, Reggie Hearn, Cody Demps and Amir Johnson. Former NBA coach and player Brian Shaw will serve as head coach of the team.

The 26-year-old Ashley will offer professional experience and leadership for a group made up of at least six teenage prospects. After going undrafted out of Arizona, Ashley joined the Dallas Mavericks developmental league team for part of the 2015-16 season.

Since then, Ashley has played professional in Germany, Cyprus and New Zealand. He’s also participated in the NBA Summer League for the Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks and most recently the Sacramento Kings in 2019.

With the Ignite, Ashley will get to compete with some of the most promising NBA prospects including Jalen Green, Daishen Nix and Jonathan Kuminga.

The NBA formed the Ignite as a professional alternative for high school teenagers looking to bypass the NCAA route. Prospects will receive a salary in upwards of $500,000. They will also receive a full scholarship to ASU’s online school, though that is clearly a fallback option.

The NBA has not announced when the G-League season will begin.

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Arizona soccer: Iliana Hocking details battle with COVID-19; Kayden Heinrich ‘excited’ to debut after signing late

Kayden Heinrich | Photo by Simon Asher/Arizona Athletics

Arizona soccer will host its first fall scrimmage on Friday and Iliana Hocking is well aware of the risks that come with playing sports during the coronavirus pandemic.

She experienced them first hand.

The junior midfielder contracted COVID-19 in mid-September, forcing her to quarantine alone for nearly a month. Her symptoms were serious.

“I felt so ill,” she said Thursday. “I remember I was feeling fine. It was like a week in and I was like, ‘cool, I don’t think I got it’ and I woke up on a Sunday morning and I had the worst body aches and chills and then I had like a really bad sore throat and my congestion was super bad. With my nose, I already had really bad breathing problems, but then it was just so hard. It would give me headaches. I think that was the worst part for me.”

Hocking suspects she caught the virus from her boyfriend, who got it from a friend despite their best efforts to avoid other people.

“Right after, I was having a lot of shortness of breath problems, but now I feel fine,” Hocking said. “But also I had surgery on my nose (on October 5) to help my breathing. So I feel like that too has helped me right now. So it could be totally different for other people.”

Hocking returned to team activities last week as the Wildcats began full contact practices. She felt “so out of shape” at first but her conditioning is improving.

“You’re always really sore after the first one, but I have so many bruises right now,” she said. “But now I can definitely see an improvement fitness-wise. It just feels good to be able to do stuff now. I feel like I’ve been limited for like 10 months.”

A key returner, Hocking is already battling a hip flexor injury that she will have to manage the rest of her career.

“It’s just super inconsistent, like some weeks are better than others,” she said. “Last week it didn’t hurt at all and we had double days all three days. This week it was flaring up and I have to limit my reps and everything. So I just have to monitor it the next two years. There’s nothing I can like do about it anymore. Like there’s surgeries, but I’d have to reshape my hip and I probably wouldn’t play soccer if I ever did that.”

If there’s good news it’s that Hocking is immune to the coronavirus for at least a few months. That means she doesn’t have to get COVID tested three times a week like her teammates. Instead, she gets her blood drawn once a month to ensure she still has antibodies. (She does.)

“So I just chill at home while my roommates go,” Hocking laughed.

Hocking still follows the team’s COVID protocols as much as she can, but said her immunity feels like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders.

She understands the concerns about having a soccer season during a pandemic, but she’s excited to take the field Friday and for the season in February.

“I think it’d be totally different if we didn’t have testing and we weren’t following protocol,” she said. “But I think we’re going about it in the right way, so I think it’s totally doable.”

Heinrich details unique path to Arizona, freshman life during the pandemic

Friday will also be the first time freshmen like Kayden Heinrich get to showcase their skills in a game-like setting at Arizona.

She can’t say it’s something she’s been waiting for for a long time.

The speedy forward was originally going to attend UC Davis, but decommitted when the Aggies made a coaching change after the 2019 season.

Many girls commit to colleges in their freshman and sophomore years of high school, but Heinrich wasn’t even recruited by Arizona until November of her senior year.

She said she caught the coaching staff’s eye in a showcase and “the rest is history.” Her addition was made official on May 30, more than six months after national signing day.

“I thought that the program was an elite program and one of the best in the country,” Heinrich said. “I was really impressed with everything that the coaches had to offer, as well as the team and the facilities. And I thought that the campus was beautiful. It’s pretty compact and small, but it has tremendous architecture.”

Growing up in Huntington Beach, California, Heinrich has aspired to play Pac-12 soccer ever since she was little. Getting to this level has been “gratifying” but also an eye-opener so far.

“I’ve noticed that everybody is fast here,” she said. “Like, in high school sometimes you could get away with being faster than everybody. But here everybody is talented, everybody has their own special techniques. And so it’s a matter of being finding out what I’m the best at and then working into my strengths.”

Which are?

“I think that I’m fast and I pressure the ball really well,” she said. “And I’m able to use both my feet to my advantage to score and cross balls.”

Hocking admires Heinrich’s personality and coachability so far.

“Kayden has such a good attitude,” she said. “She’s so bubbly, super nice, kind, sweet. Like a really good person. And on the field, I feel like she’s a really hard worker and super absorbent and I feel like she’s like an easy person to coach in a sense that she just listens. And I feel like she’ll just adjust. Obviously none of us know everything about soccer so Tony (Amato)’s going to critique all of us. And if he tells her something, she’ll do it right away, which is a super good quality to have. That’s how you’re gonna get better.”

While Heinrich is happy to be at the UA, her first semester isn’t what she expected.

Because of the pandemic all of her classes are online—”I think I’d prefer being in the classroom because I’m more of a hands-on learner,” she said—and she and her teammates have to abide by strict COVID protocols when in public. Most of the time they are just shuffling between soccer practice and their residences.

“The biggest challenge has been just the fact that it’s been hard to get to meet other people and other athletes,” Heinrich said. “Because part of our protocol is when we’re socializing with people, to be outside and be six feet apart with masks.”

That’s even more difficult for freshmen like Heinrich who live among other students in the on-campus residence halls. Hocking applauds them because “I would have moved out of the dorms by now.”

“Living in the dorms is a bit stressful at times, but luckily I share a bathroom with my podmates who are also soccer players, so we’re able to stay a little bit more contained and away from regular students,” Heinrich said.

Friday’s scrimmage will make it all worth it.

“I’m most looking forward to getting to play with my teammates,” Heinrich said. “We’ve been working really hard this whole semester, working towards playing this game, and we’ve gotten to practice with one another. And now I’m excited to get to play with them.”

Pleased to welcome Kayden Heinrich to the Wildcat Family‼️#BearDown | #BuildingALegacy pic.twitter.com/iY9hIhRiRL

— Arizona Soccer (@ArizonaSoccer) May 30, 2020

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From streetball to Arizona basketball, Trinity Baptiste will be physical presence for Wildcats

Photo by Mike Christy/Arizona Athletics

As a teenager Trinity Baptiste used to hoop in the streets of Tampa, often as the only girl among grown men.

She loved the challenge.

“It was never uncomfortable for me,” Baptiste said. “I would say for them at first it was uncomfortable. When I first stepped out there, they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s a girl, it’s a girl. We’re gonna go soft.’ And then I’ll hit them with one move and they’ll feel how strong I am and then they’re like, ‘Oh no, we got to play her like the rest of us.’ That was the biggest thing—them realizing I didn’t want to be treated different.”

That upbringing built a toughness and an underdog mentality in Baptiste that she says she still carries today as an undersized post player in Division I basketball.

“When I was growing up I always had to work hard for everything that I’ve gotten up until this day, so that’s just how I approach the game when I play, when I rebound,” she said. “From the time it leaves the shooter’s hand I’m watching it, and I’m watching it the entire time, so how it’s gonna come off (the rim) and everything. I just try to stay one step ahead and just choose to work harder than everyone.”

After two productive seasons at Virginia Tech, Baptiste joined Arizona as a graduate transfer this fall. The 6-foot forward is expected to replace the departed Dominique McBryde in the starting lineup, and her hard-nosed approach should help shore up the Wildcats’ biggest weakness—rebounding.

Arizona improved in all facets of the game last year as they finished as the No. 12 team in the country, but still struggled on the glass, ranking fourth in the Pac-12 in defensive rebounding percentage and dead last in offensive rebounding percentage.

Baptiste averaged 6.4 rebounds in just 23 minutes per game last year. Six times she grabbed 10 or more rebounds in a game, including 17 against Gardner-Webb.

“Both are phenomenal players, but the difference is Trinity is more physical than Dominique,” said star guard Aari McDonald. “Dom was a more finesse player, but they both have great outside shots. They’re kind of similar in a way but I’ll have to say Trinity is more aggressive. She’s definitely going to be a key piece this year.”

It’s already showing in practice. Baptiste’s aggressiveness is forcing Arizona’s other posts to match her intensity level. Baptiste has enjoyed battling with junior Cate Reese, who she’s expected to start alongside this season.

“Every day is super competitive from every position, not just down in the post but every position,” Baptiste said. “Me and Cate going at it every day, either she’s on the floor or I’m on the floor. My team, they know that we’re gonna give it all we got in practice every day.”

That should benefit Arizona when it comes time to face elite teams like UCLA and Stanford.

“I mean, if I somehow switch on [Baptiste] there’s like no chance for me,” wing Mara Mote laughed. “She’s really, really strong and I think that helps for our other posts. Because when they go at each other, it helps when we’re gonna play different teams and their posts.”

Baptiste was originally going to transfer to a school closer to home because of some family issues. That plan changed after the pandemic. She was able to spend lots of quality time with them in the spring, which made her feel more comfortable about finishing her career on the other side of the country.

“I got extra time with my family that I haven’t had in years...and then when I met Coach Adia (Barnes) and we talked about my goals after this year, playing professionally one day and just being a part of this team, it just felt right,” Baptiste said. “So I just went with my heart and my heart led me in the right direction.”

It was quite the leap of faith. Baptiste had never been to Arizona before joining the Wildcats. The pandemic prevented her from visiting before she committed in April.

But she’s loving it so far.

“I actually can really see myself living out here one day in the future,” Baptiste said. “I love it here. The biggest difference is the heat. Obviously I’m from Florida, but it’s very humid and the weather is up and down in Florida. We get a lot of rain storms, but we also get sunshine all the time as well. But I think I’ve been here for about four, five months and it’s only rained twice.”

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