Even as its arena sits idle, Arizona continues to look more and more like a national championship contender when and if women's college basketball resumes next season. The latest good news came with the addition of Virginia Tech transfer Trinity Baptiste.
The ACC Sixth Player of the Year this past season, Baptiste announced her commitment to Arizona in a Twitter post Tuesday. As a graduate transfer, she will be eligible immediately.
Ready to work @ArizonaWBB #BearDown 🐻 pic.twitter.com/3qBvHg2XxA
— Trinity Baptiste (@_strength813) April 14, 2020
Baptise's decision comes on the heels of Arizona All-American guard Aari McDonald bypassing this week's WNBA draft in order to return for her senior season. The Pac-12's leading scorer this past season, McDonald is one of only two returning WBCA All-Americans next season.
As a result, Arizona will return its three leading scorers from a team that finished with a 24-7 record and add Baptiste to the mix. A 6-foot forward, she averaged 9.5 points and 6.4 rebounds this season while coming off the bench in 23 of 30 appearances. A season earlier, she averaged 10.4 points and 7.6 rebounds while starting 19 of 34 games. She also shot 45% from the 3-point line in her two seasons in Blacksburg.
Prior to that, Baptiste played one season at Northwest Florida State College.
Arizona reserves Birna Benonysdottir and Bryce Nixon both entered the transfer portal last month after playing sparingly this past season.
Arizona finished this season ranked No. 12 in the AP poll and was projected by ESPN's Charlie Creme as a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament. WNIT champions a season ago, the Wildcats were seeking their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2005.
With three-time reigning Pac-12 champion Oregon losing three likely WNBA first-round picks, Arizona will likely join Stanford as the favorites to win the conference next season.