Arizona coach Adia Barnes talks during a press conference about her team's postseason at McKale Center on March 19, 2019.
UA women’s basketball coach Adia Barnes will be awarded a contract extension through 2023-24 this week if approved by the Board of Regents. She’ll be paid $400,000 a year plus incentives. It brings her close to ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne, who is paid $444,200 per season. It means that in the last 11 months, Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke has now reworked the contracts of soccer coach Tony Amato, baseball’s Jay Johnson, softball’s Mike Candrea, volleyball’s Dave Rubio and women’s golf coach Laura Ianello. Their multiyear contracts range from $125,000 to $500,000 annually. Unless something changes, Sean Miller will be working on a three-year contract in 2019-20, down from the industry standard of five years for men’s basketball coaches. Barnes has a difficult job in a league with three elite powers: Stanford, Oregon State and Oregon. Last week, for instance, OSU got a recruiting commitment from the nation’s No. 1 high school wing prospect, Sasha Goforth of Fayetteville, Arkansas, who chose the Beavers over the hometown Arkansas Razorbacks. Barnes is working her way toward having similar influence in women’s hoops.
