It was 9:02 p.m. Sunday in downtown San Antonio when the blare from eight police motorcycles stopped traffic at the intersection of Alamo Plaza Boulevard and Commerce Street.
Joan Bonvicini stopped to watch three buses carrying Stanford’s women’s basketball party follow the police escort through the intersection and on to the Palacio del Rio hotel. Each bus was newly adorned with a “NATIONAL CHAMPIONS” sign.
The coach who built the foundation for Arizona’s women’s basketball program 25 years earlier knew my question before I could ask it.
“Adia did the right thing,” Bonvicini said. “She got the ball in the hands of her best player.”
The breakout star of the tournament talks about the emotions of losing in the national championship and her lasting legacy at Arizona.
It had been more than an hour since Aari McDonald’s last-gasp shot to win the national championship for Arizona bounced off the rim, prompting those on the NCAA celebrations committee to affix “NATIONAL CHAMPIONS” signs onto the Stanford buses ASAP.
In Tucson, the debate was just beginning. Did Barnes blow it by designing the last play for the greatest women’s basketball player in UA history?
Where were the screens to set Aari free?
Why not use Aari as a decoy?
Had they ever practiced this play?
The TV metrics people estimated that 3.6 million people watched Arizona’s emotional 54-53 loss to the Cardinal, and it seemed like 3,599,999 million suggested they — or at least another coach — could’ve drawn up a better play at the end.
Lute Olson, perhaps?
At the 2005 Elite Eight, Olson’s Wildcats trailed No. 1 Illinois 90-89 and called timeout with 11.8 seconds remaining. Two days earlier, Salim Stoudamire swished an 18-footer to beat Oklahoma State with 2.3 seconds left 79-78. Stoudamire was Mr. Swish. His buzzer-beaters took down UCLA and Arizona State earlier in the season.
But on that tense night in Chicago, sensing that Illinois would surround Stoudamire with everything but razor wire and stun guns, Olson went to the decoy strategy. He outlined a play in which (1) Hassan Adams would pass to Channing Frye on the low block or (2) shoot if Frye wasn’t open.
But Illinois All-American Deron Williams stuffed Adams and neutered the play. Everyone froze. Hassan’s desperation shot from 17 feet missed badly. Stoudamire never touched the ball.
“It just slipped away,” said Adams. “Salim was never open.”
Or maybe you prefer Sean Miller with the win-it or lose-it play call?
At the 2011 Elite Eight, Miller called timeout with 8 seconds remaining. UConn led 65-63. Arizona had the most adept go-to guy since Miller has been at Arizona. That’d be Derrick Williams, who stood in that time-out huddle shooting 58.3% from 3-point distance, a remarkable number a bit ahead of Steve Kerr’s seemingly unbreakable school season record of 57.3%.
Miller’s original call was for his club to set a stagger-screen to free up Kyle Fogg to shoot the game-deciding 3-pointer. But as the clock ticked toward zero, Fogg got stuck amid UConn bodies and passed to Williams.
His 3-pointer missed badly, but bounced to Fogg, who whistled a pass to wide-open Jamelle Horne on the right wing.
Horne’s shot was so close, so on-line, so pure, it was hard to believe it didn’t swish. “One inch,” he said afterward. One more inch.”
Hassan Adams. Jamelle Horne. That’s an 0-for-2 that still hurts.
I would take Bonvicini’s opinion to the bank. If the best player in school history doesn’t take that shot in the final six seconds, then who does? Sam Thomas, the UA’s second-most reliable shooter, did not score against Stanford.
Those who say Barnes wasn’t prepared are nuts. Arizona runs through those end-game situations over and over and over every week, at every practice. Every team does. Olson used to say “you do your work in practice.”
But that didn’t mean Illinois’ defense wouldn’t rise to the occasion and shut down Salim Stoudamire with the 2005 Final Four at stake. Which is just what Stanford did to McDonald Sunday at the Alamodome.
The biggest factor was that Stanford didn’t commit a foul. That’s about the only way McDonald, or any Arizona player, was going to get a good look at the bucket in the final six seconds.
Arizona Wildcats guard Aari McDonald (2) is comforted as the Wildcats leave the floor after losing to Stanford in NCAA Tournament National Championship game at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas on April 4, 2021. Stanford won 54-53.
McDonald led the Pac-12 in free throws and free throw attempts this season. That was the UA’s best chance against a talent-rich Stanford club that led the Pac-12 in shooting defense, allowing opponents to shoot just 28.2% from 3-point distance and 32.9% on all shots.
Only one team in Stanford history, 2013, had better defensive numbers. Is any coach simply going to draw up a play to overcome those variables?
Not even John Wooden or Pat Summitt.
What are the chances of the officials calling a foul that would determine the national championship? Almost none. If you watched the last five seconds of UConn’s Elite Eight victory over Baylor, you know that’s not how it works.
Trailing by one, Baylor’s DiJonai Carrington drove to the bucket. She got hammered by two UConn players.
“One kid hits her in the face, one kid hits her on the elbow,” Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. “It doesn’t matter what you write, it doesn’t matter what I say. It doesn’t matter what we saw. Life goes on.”
You say Barnes can’t coach?
On Feb. 28, 2020, Arizona trailed No. 4 Stanford 72-71 with 14 seconds remaining at McKale Center. Barnes called a timeout. She designed a play in which McDonald would get the ball near mid-court. She was to “go downhill,” splitting the Stanford defense at blur-speed, drive into heavy traffic among the 6-foot 4-inch McDonald’s All-Americans and either create space, or squeeze through an impossibly small hole, and win the game with a layup.
And she did. Arizona won 73-72.
Arizona’s loss to Stanford won’t define Barnes’ career any more than Olson’s loss to Illinois or Miller’s loss to UConn. Just to be in that situation puts her in an elite group of coaches you’d most want to make that call.
