Coach Adia Barnes confirmed that Arizona’s top scorer, Kailyn Gilbert, is not on the Wildcats’ roster.
Leading scorer for Arizona Kailyn Gilbert is no longer a member of the UA women’s basketball team. Gilbert has either missed or played seldom in six of the Wildcats’ last nine games.
Gilbert is no longer a member of Arizona’s program, coach Adia Barnes announced to host David Kelly on 1290-AM on Monday. Barnes later confirmed the news to the Star, stating that “making tough decisions is part of leadership and I had to do what was best for the team.”
There are currently eight players in action for Arizona.
According to Barnes, Gilbert and she had a meeting earlier on Monday afternoon, and as a result, the sophomore guard is no longer a Wildcat. Gilbert is still enrolled in school, according to Barnes, and she will continue to get her tuition. She would not elaborate.
Gilbert leads the Wildcats with an average of 15.1 points per game and 348 total points, even though she has missed five games altogether and only played three minutes in the team’s triple-overtime victory over Washington on February 18. Gilbert was away traveling with the team to USC and UCLA, where he played infrequently, averaging 13 points per game and missing three home games (against Cal, Stanford, and ASU) for unspecified reasons.
For the Arizona Daily Star, Kelly Presnell
When UA hosted the Washington schools, she saw a decline in playing time once more. Against Washington State, she scored five points in fifteen minutes, but against UW, she went scoreless in less than three minutes. This past weekend, she did not make the trek to the Bay Area. Barnes stated that Gilbert was following concussion protocol at the time.
The Wildcats are 6-3 and on a four-game winning run after Gilbert either did not play or played less minutes in nine games. This past weekend’s away victory over No. 3 Stanford was part of a Bay Area sweep.
Gilbert is the second athlete this season to leave the UA program. Declaring that she needed to devote her attention to her studies, Maya Nnaji quit in December.
Brooklyn Rhodes, a walk-on, was added to Arizona’s roster prior to their Sunday matchup against Cal.
