Adia Barnes’ legacy at Arizona is unclear: Will she be remembered as the coach who led Arizona to the 2021 Final Four? Or will her legacy be that her program limped home the last few seasons, wrecked by an unusually high number of player defections?
Arizona coach Adia Barnes watches her Wildcats on an offensive possession in the team’s game against Tarleton State on Nov. 7, 2024, at McKale Center.
Either way, she will join UCLA basketball coach Ben Howland and ASU football coach Bruce Snyder as the three most prominent ex-Pac-12 football/basketball coaches whose programs found greatness and then unexpectedly blew up.
Howland took over a 10-17 Bruins program from Steve Lavin in 2004 and went to three consecutive Final Fours, 2006-08. But he soon went 14-18 and 19-14 and was fired. What happened? All-Americans Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook went to the NBA.
Snyder took over a four-year, 22-21-1 program from Larry Marmie in 1992. By 1996, Snyder was at the Rose Bowl, 11-1, and was 30 seconds from winning the national championship. He soon went 5-6, 6-6 and 6-6 and was fired. What happened? QB Jake Plummer went to the NFL.
Barnes took over an absolute disaster from Niya Butts, five straight losing seasons, and went to the 2021 national championship game five years later. She soon went 18-16 and 19-14. What happened? Point guard Aari McDonald was in the WNBA, plus there were far too many key NIL player departures.
Barnes told me, in a very unhappy tone, that the UA women’s basketball team is projected to receive just 2% of next year’s $20 million revenue-sharing money, about $400,000, which means she would have difficulty competing in the NIL/free agent market. But that’s reality. Two percent is probably what most women’s basketball programs will receive.
The UA has revealed that Tommy Lloyd‘s men’s basketball team will receive about 21% of the revenue sharing, or about $4.2 million. The football program will get about 70%, or $15 million. Those are identical to the numbers Big 12 rival Texas Tech made public recently.
That leaves about 10% to divide between baseball, softball and women’s basketball.
Arizona athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois‘ next move is to hire a replacement. The Las Vegas odds would overwhelmingly say that she will pursue UNLV coach Lindsey La Rocque, whom Reed-Francois hired at UNLV in 2020. La Rocque, who is only 35 and has since gone 128-30.
But La Rocque pledged her allegiance to UNLV on Saturday. Plan B should be interesting.
