Bonvicini proves worth year after year

Ian Mayer Arizona Daily Wildcat Head coach Joan Bonvicini talks to the team during a timeout. Bonvicini, who begins her seventh season at Arizona, has guided the team to a 45-16 record the last two seasons and its first ever national ranking.

Bonvicini, who compiled a 325-71 record in 12 seasons at Long Beach State prior to her tenure at Arizona, has brought a winning attitude to a program that was left for dead eight years ago when the team finished with just one conference win.

Leading the team to its first championship of any kind, winning the NIT crown in 1996 and following that with a second round finish in the NCAA Tournament last seeason, Bonvicini is determined to begin a winning tradition at Arizona.

"The main problem I faced when I came to Arizona was that the team was used to losing," she said. "And when you have that mind-set, you find a way to lose games.

"Consequently, if you expect to win, you find a way to win games. And that's the thinking that this year's team has."

The confidence level of the Wildcat's 6-26 1991 team was a big contrast to the 24-8 team Bonvicini left at Long Beach State.

"We never felt like we were going to lose, and that was a big reason for our success," said UA assistant coach Traci Waites, who played under Bonvicini at LBSU in 1988 and 1989. "I think that (Bonvicini) may have thought the players at Arizona would be driven to win like our group, but I don't think that was the case.

"It's hard to coach a group of players that you don't recruit, and that's probably a big reason it took her some time to get going here."

Bonvicini's goals with the program are beginning to come into focus after back-to-back post-season appearances.

"My long term goal with this program was to get national recognition for Arizona women's basketball," said the former national coach of the year. "This involves competing for the conference title every year and consistently being ranked in the top 10 in the nation. Of course, I would really like to take Arizona to the Final Four because it is a great experience."

The defining mark for this current team might have been when the team won the NIT Championship in 1996.

"I have to admit, myself included, that many of us were saying, 'We don't want to go to the NIT, we should be in the NCAA's," Waites said.

"But Joan said that we were going to go in and win the thing, and she wholeheartedly believed that. I think that season was her most challenging, but also her most rewarding."

And with this year's group of seniors and juniors being recruited by Bonvicini, this season could mark the end of the maturity process for the Arizona program.

"The biggest difference for this season is that the players have a commitment to success and to each other," Bonvicini said. "They don't want to let each other down and have a good deal of trust towards our coaching staff."

"A main reason I came here was to be a part of a great program that coach Bonvicini was building," UA junior guard Monica Crank said. "We have a chance this season to give back to our fans and our coaches by being a very successful team. It is an exciting situation."