Aari McDonald has always had an eye for the ball.
Her mother, Andrea McDonald, who played basketball in high school, first noticed it during family pickup games in Aari’s grandparents’ driveway. When Aari, the youngest of six children, was a few months old, Andrea would set her up in a baby bouncer while she played.
“Wherever that orange ball was, that’s where she was looking,” Andrea said, laughing. “If you didn’t have the ball, you were of no importance to her.”
Connecticut felt the brunt of that focus when McDonald led No. 3 seeded Arizona over the storied Huskies on Friday night and to the Wildcats’ first Final Four.