It’s not easy playing basketball during the pandemic — especially when you can’t go home for the holidays.
Arizona’s coaching staff treated their players to something a little extra special on Wednesday; videos of their families announcing the starters for their game against Idaho.
Adia Barnes’ children even joined in. The UA coach’s 5-year-old son, Matteo, held his baby sister, Capri, said “and their head coach, Adia Barnes.”
Senior guard Aari McDonald was touched.
“I’m so happy that our coaching staff did that,” McDonald said. “For me, it’s the little things. Then people got to see their families wishing them a Merry Christmas, and saying they missed them after the game — special moments right there.”
After three days off, the Wildcats will get back to work for the next portion of their schedule. Sixth-ranked Arizona will face No. 1 Stanford on New Year’s Day.
Barnes said having three straight days off in the midst of the season isn’t ideal, but knows that having a break right now will be beneficial.
“I think mentally taking a day or two is really healthy, especially with all that’s going on right now. It’s stressful. That’s a lot,” Barnes said. “Taking a day off, but then getting into gym shooting a little important. And coming back ready to play. I think sometimes the mental break is more important. But I think mentally and physically, it’s a long season and we’re going to be playing a lot of basketball. There’s a lot of hard games — nothing is easy in the Pac-12. For us, it gets real in a week playing against the number one team in the country.”
In a typical holiday season, Barnes would invite any players who were staying in Tucson over to her house. But now, to be safe, she can’t. She’s talked to her players about ordering meals online and continuing to have the same discipline they’ve had since August.
Barnes will be cooking a big Italian meal and spending time with her immediate family.
“It’s my daughter’s first Christmas — that’ll be kind of fun, even though she doesn’t know what the heck is going on,” Barnes laughed. “It’ll still be fun.”
The little things
In practice, the Wildcats focus on the little details — like sharing the ball, boxing out on defensive rebounds and waiting for the right moment to be aggressive going for steals.
It showed in Wednesday’s blowout win over Idaho. The Wildcats were aggressive, collecting 11 steals. They pulled down 54 rebounds, including 21 on the offensive glass.
“I thought Lauren (Ware) and our post players, who never usually box out were making an effort to box out and it was conscious,” Barnes said. “It’s stuff that we’ve been emphasizing — we’ve had time to work on stuff. … I’m proud of our attention to detail. I think that’s a good thing. We focus on transition defense. In the last two games in 80 minutes, we’ve given up three points in transition defense — and one was off of a turnover.
“… Offensively, I’m just proud of the way we shared the ball and the way we looked for each other, the way we didn’t rush in the shots. … that’s why we’re organized in transit defense because we were organized on offense. I like to see that because that shows that we’re growing, because you can’t beat the Stanfords, the Oregons, the UCLAs when you don’t have an organized offense, or you’re not going to do well in transition defense.”
Rim shots
- The Wildcats committed eight turnovers against Idaho, with only one coming in the first half. This is the first game all season they had less than 10.
“It shows me that we’re good at not letting our opponents dictate what we do,” McDonald said. “We struggled with turnovers including myself. Last week I had six. But to come back and only have eight as a team for 40 minutes that’s incredible. We’ve got to keep taking care of the ball.”
One of Barnes’ former Seattle Storm teammates, Lauren Jackson, is a candidate for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The Class of 2021 will be named during the NBA All-Star weekend, which is scheduled for early March.
Jackson was all-everything in a career that lasted nearly 20 years overseas and in the WNBA. In the WNBA, she was a two-time champion, three-time MVP and a finals MVP, multiple year scoring champion, defensive player of the year, rebounding champion and a seven-time all-star.
Barnes said that Jackson, a close friend who was in her wedding, “needs to be in the Hall of Fame.”
“She’s phenomenal,” Barnes said. “A lot of younger players won’t know who she is, but she was the best player in the world for many years. … At one point I think she shot like 48% — some crazy percentage one year she got MVP – from the three-point line. So, like a 6-5, 6-6 (player) shooting from the 3 like that, pick and pop, she can handle the ball and drive — she was unstoppable on the block.”
Barnes said Jackson, who was always physical and strong, improved even more when Anne Donovan coached them. With Donovan’s tutoring, Jackson added a fadeaway jumper that “was impossible to guard.”
Yet, it was Jackson’s mentality that made a big impression on Barnes.
“She had 40 points in a game and she’s the first one in there shooting because she wanted to have a better percentage,” Barnes said.
