Daniah Trammell using all her talents at Arizona

Freshman forward Daniah Trammell has been part of the frontcourt rotation for Arizona women’s basketball since she stepped on campus. Her talents aren’t confined to the court, though.

“I’ve always been a singer, but I didn’t really start stepping out of my shell until I got to college,” Trammell said.

Part of stepping out of that shell was singing the national anthem before the Arizona GymCats’ season opener on Jan. 9. The support Trammell has from those around her helped her take the step.

“Just knowing that anything I’m going to do, my teammates and the coaching staff’s gonna come up there and support me,” Trammell said. “So it’s like, why not? I have a great support system here. So I’m just like, I might go just throw myself out there. And they all came and supported me. I went over here looking at them like, I’m nervous. It was like, Nope, you got it. So it just felt good when they had my back.”

Doing things that are difficult isn’t new for Trammell and her family. In high school, she was a finalist for the Naismith High School Basketball Courage Award, which is presented by the Atlanta Tipoff Club. Everyone in the family made sacrifices so that she could chase the dreams that brought her to Arizona.

“I was actually surprised I even got nominated for that,” Trammell that. “As far as obstacles…something about my backstory, like how it’s always been just my mom and my three siblings, and how they gave up sports to get jobs in order for me to play AAU…We never had no excuses.”

Trammell said her mother worked three jobs while raising four kids and trying to get them where they needed to be. That included all of the basketball events for her daughter.

Head coach Becky Burke saw some of that in action while recruiting Trammell, first to the University at Buffalo and then to Arizona.

“I’ve had a chance to spend a good amount of time with her mom and a couple of her siblings, just with her visit to Buffalo and her visit here to Arizona,” Burke said. “We talk about gratitude a lot. As far as just being grateful for the opportunity to be here, she would have been grateful for the opportunity to go play Division Five somewhere, to get an education, to be poured into by a coaching staff and teammates in a family environment. And again, I think her family, her mom, her siblings…her support system, really knew that she had a future doing this. So it’s really, really cool to see sacrifices within a family for somebody that has such a bright future in a sport and that’s going to set them up for the rest of their life for success.”

Up Next for Arizona Women’s Basketball

Kansas Jayhawks @ Arizona Wildcats

When: Tuesday, Jan. 20 @ 6 p.m. MST

Where: McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz.

Streaming:ESPN+

Radio:1400 AM (KTUC)

Stats:Arizona Live Stats

On the court, the success at Arizona started quickly. She started the first seven games of the year and played over 20 minutes in six of them. Her best showing came against Northern Colorado when she scored 22 points in 22 minutes on the court.

That doesn’t mean that Trammell hasn’t had struggles along the way. Burke was especially vocal about what she needed to do after not scoring and having just three rebounds against Colorado in Arizona’s first road game of the season. The coach said that Trammell needed to find other ways to contribute and affect the game if she wasn’t scoring.

As the season wore on, she started to lose playing time to 5th year forward Nora Francois. Trammell didn’t place blame. She knows that she has things she needs to improve on.

“Just stay consistent, you know,” Trammell said before the team left for TCU. “Like these past couple of games, Nora has been…just executing the game plan a little bit better. So she’s doing what she’s supposed to do. I can’t…say anything about that. So, you know, I’m just going to be ready for my number to get called, but just execute the game plan at a high level.”

She combined with Francois, Achol Magot, and Blessing Adebanjo to execute at a high level against the Horned Frogs. The group helped hold 6-foot-3 forward Marta Suarez more than six points below her scoring average and forced the prolific outside shooter to go 0 for 5 from 3-point distance. They helped draw enough fouls on backup center Kennedy Basham to foul her out in eight minutes on the court.

While Trammell ended with 2 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 steals, she was part of a group that had Burke praising them for their execution of the game plan.

The Wildcats still have an uphill climb. They face Kansas on Tuesday evening. While Iowa State is on a slide due to the absence of Addy Brown, the game against the Jayhawks is the only one in a string of four games that isn’t against a ranked team. Arizona also gets to play it in front of the home crowd in McKale. It’s a chance to get a second Big 12 win after dropping a winnable matchup against UCF almost two weeks ago.

Kansas Jayhawks @ Arizona Wildcats by the numbers

Records and standings: The Jayhawks are 11-8 overall and 1-6 in the Big 12. They are in 15th place of 16 teams. Arizona is 10-7 overall and 1-5 in the Big 12. The Wildcats are 14th in the league standings.

NET rating: Kansas is No. 61 in the NET, which ranks 12th in the Big 12. The Jayhawks played a nonconference schedule ranked No. 157 of 363 and an overall schedule ranked 27th. Arizona is No. 125 in the NET (15th in the Big 12) with a nonconference schedule ranked 352 and an overall strength of schedule of 120.

Her Hoop Statsratings: Kansas is ranked 70th overall by Her Hoop Stats. The stats service has the Jayhawks as the No. 57 offense and the No. 90 defense. Arizona is ranked 92nd overall with the 95th offense and the 94th defense.

Massey ratings:Massey has Kansas as the No. 55 team overall. Arizona is ranked 87th.

Projections: HHS gives Kansas the edge no matter where the game is played, but it’s essentially a tossup in McKale Center. The Jayhawks have a 52 percent win probability and a margin of 0.6 points (69 to 68.5). Massey makes the game a 50-50 tossup by win probability, but has the most likely score at Arizona 69, Kansas 68.