TUCSON, Ariz. – Davellyn Whyte remembers first picking up a basketball about the age of 5, playing for a local YMCA team. It took six more years to find a passion for it.
A decade later – going from one of the best high school players in Arizona at Phoenix St. Mary’s to a star at the University of Arizona – she’s now one of the best in the Pac-12 Conference and the nation.
“She’s a special player,” said Arizona coach Niya Butts said. “She was the Pac-10 freshman of the year, been an all-conference player every year. Those are stats and stuff you can’t take away.”
For most of the last four years, Whyte has been the face of the program. In the last two years, she’s emerged as one of the all-time greats in an Arizona uniform.
Her laundry list of accomplishments includes:
• Starting every game of college career (124).
• Playing more minutes than any women’s basketball player in UA history, 4,169.
• Becoming only the second UA player to score more than 2,000 points in a career (2,020). Adia Barnes had 2,237.
• Becoming the first player in UA women’s basketball history to have a triple-double (31 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists vs. Arizona State on Feb. 19, 2013).
• Being named to the all-conference team for the fourth consecutive year.
Whyte, the daughter of longtime major league outfielder Devon White, is averaging 16.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists and 2.6 steals a game in her final season for the Wildcats.
“I never thought I’d be where I am today, but with my dad going to and playing at the highest level, I knew what it took,” she said. “I knew what it would take to succeed.”
She hopes to prolong her career this week as Arizona prepares to face Utah (16-16, 8-10) on Thursday in the opening round of the Pac-12 Conference tournament in Seattle. Arizona (12-17 overall, 4-14 in the Pac-12) goes into the tournament having lost 12 of its last 13 game, but the lone win was over Utah.
Half of the Wildcats' Pac-12 victories came over the Utes. In those two games, Whyte averaged 22 points, 9.5 rebounds, five assists and 5.5 steals.
“She’s done everything you can ask for someone to do for your program,” said Butts.
It's fair to describe the last two years of Whyte's Arizona career as bittersweet. Last year's team fell below .500 at 15-17, and this year Arizona has struggled since conference play began and finished the regular season in 11th place.
And Whyte, a 5-foot-11 guard, hates to lose.
“No matter what we are playing,” said Whyte. “I don’t want anyone to score against me or steal the ball from me. Nothing.”
It’s that competitor in her that defines her. Butts mentioned it last weekend in Whyte’s final home game where she had 16 points, nine rebounds and seven assists in a loss to No. 16 UCLA. It’s that competitiveness that’s made Whyte walk that fine line of being good and not being perceived as a player with an “attitude.”
“Sometimes I have to be to be careful because I do play with a lot of emotion,” she said.
“Sometimes people take the emotion in a different way. But I have so much so much passion for the game, it takes over sometimes.”
Her father, who had a 17-year major league career, has helped her deal with those emotions. “He taught me how to channel it,” she said of her emotions.
Devon said Davellyn “has always been competitive,” a trait that comes from both her parents.
He said he's counseled her that “losing is part of the game, but when you play, you play to win. … That’s life. You don’t have to accept it, but it’s part of life.”
She says she’s dealt with it by staying focused and "trying to keep everyone together.”
“I know what Coach (Butts) is trying to do in trying to ingrain that culture (of winning),” she said.
Butts said Whyte's tools and her basketball IQ will serve her well at the WNBA level.
“She’ll be better at the next level … to be honest,” Butts said. “She’s a mature basketball player. She sees things before her teammates see things.”
At the next level, Butts said, Whyte will be able to relax and not have “a lot of weight on her shoulders.”
Whyte was at a loss for words when asked to look back and reflect on her four years at Arizona, other than to say it shouldn't be defined by numbers.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I couldn’t tell you.”
One thing can't be denied. She gave it her all for four years running.
