Adia Barnes just keeps going.
The UA coach knows thereโs always something that needs to get done โ whether itโs solidifying the Wildcatsโ 2019-20 nonconference schedule, recruiting, or finding ways to get better.
She has to keep going if the Wildcats are going to build off a WNIT championship and evolve into a consistently ranked team.
โThe breaks I take are during the dead period โฆ the period where itโs a shutdown (for recruiting), where I canโt talk to anybody,โ Barnes said Thursday in her end-of-the-season news conference at McKale Center. โThat will be the break I take and then in August.โ
Transfer add a new wrinkle for Arizona this offseason. More than 400 players are actively seeking to play for another team.
Barnes said sheโs still evaluating whether the UA, which has already signed five newcomers, will take on any transfers. She conceded that โthereโs a lot of movement around the country.โ
โI think (itโs) good and bad,โ she said. โThe downfall is people are losing players. But the positive thing is you have the opportunity to add some really good players or fifth-years as a grad transfer. So weโre diving into that and finding ways to get better.
โI wouldnโt mind a really athletic guard. But weโre going to bring some really good freshmen in, too. So thereโs a balance for that. You want to bring in your freshmen, develop them. โฆ Like right now, weโre recruiting for 2020, so transfers can help you right away.โ
Barnes has been extremely successful when it comes to landing transfers. UA star Aari McDonald began her career at Washington, and fellow Wildcats Dominique McBryde (Purdue) and Tee Tee Starks (Iowa State) have made a huge impact on the program.
โA transfer can help you right away and can bring a championship, winning attitude, and help you in different ways,โ Barnes said. โIโm not huge on transfers, but if they can help us and I know people who know them or have coached them, and I know itโs a good situation, Iโll take them. But from my past experience, Iโm not someone who would take five transfers.โ
Barnes recruited both McDonald and Starks when she was an assistant coach at Washington, and knew people who were close with McBryde.
โFor me, culture is everything. I always say that,โ Barnes said. โSo Iโm not going to take a chance on a not-so-good-culture kid just to win a couple more games. Iโm not going to do that. For me, itโs not that important. So itโs doing all the research, finding out all those things.
โI donโt take it lightly, because one player can really damage a program. So for me it has to be a fit, has to be a great person โ itโs more about that than the player. And then it has to be a player who fits something we donโt have.โ
Everybodyโs talking
Cal coach Lindsay Gottlieb heaped praise on Arizonaโs best player when she appeared on this weekโs episode of the โInside Pac-12 Womenโs Basketballโ podcast. Gottlieb called McDonald โthe single best player in the country who is returning, not named Sabrina (Ionescu).โ
โAari McDonald is really remarkable,โ Gottlieb said. โPeople are going to hear her name now as she takes the next step.โ
Pac-12 Networksโ Ashley Adamson praised the Wildcats for โthe rocket they lit under the fan baseโ during their WNIT championship run. Co-host Mary Murphy said she was impressed by the way Barnes sold her program to the Tucson community.
โHereโs five jobs: coach your team; go on every radio show, every TV show, every morning show, evening show; take your husband and say you are going to auction him off for tickets โฆ she just put it all out there,โ Murphy said.
โ(Barnes) just kept saying, โLetโs get more. Weโre going to have more people.โ What if nobody did? But they did. They believed in what she was selling and itโs a beautiful story โ itโs one of the best stories out there.โ
Rim shots
- Arizonaโs nonconference schedule for next season is fairly set. Finding willing opponents may become more difficult now that the Wildcats have a reputation for drawing big crowds and winning at home.
โPeople donโt want to play us as much as before,โ Barnes said. โBefore, you really wanted to play us because you get a chance at beating a Pac-12 team. I think for us now, as we get better, it gets more challenging. You have to be more strategic. But these are good problems.โ
- Sam Thomas was named to the Pac-12โs all-academic first team, and both Starks and Lucia Alonso received honorable mention.
