Adia Barnes using underdog experience to motivate Wildcats vs. No. 2 seed Terps in NCAA Tournament

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Adia Barnes has been there and done that.

Pick a scenario and Arizona’s everywoman — head coach and mother of two young children — has experienced it.

The latest comes as her No. 7-seeded Arizona Wildcats (22-9) take on the No. 2-seed Maryland Terrapins (26-6) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the XFINITY Center on Sunday.

Rewind to March 2016.

Barnes was an assistant coach at Washington, and it was only a few weeks before she would be named head coach at Arizona.

An under-the-radar Huskies squad was seeded in the No. 7 spot and played a team that was seeded in the No. 2 spot in the NCAA Tournament. The team UW faced was none other than Maryland at XFINITY Center. The Terrapins were coached by Brenda Frese, their current head coach.

(That second-round matchup is the other connection that Frese and Barnes have besides both being Wildcats; Frese played at Arizona from 1989-92.)

That seems eerie similar to this year’s matchup. Especially when you consider this: UW lost to ASU twice and, of course, to Stanford during the Pac-12 regular season. The Huskies also lost to Utah early on, then beat the Utes the second time they played. Then down the stretch, in February, they lost to Oregon State, Oregon and UCLA.

Arizona lost to Stanford, beat ASU twice and lost at Utah by one point, then came back to crush the Utes at home. The Wildcats stumbled down the stretch, losing to Oregon, Oregon State and then UCLA in the Pac-12 Tournament.

In UW’s matchup with Maryland, now WNBA champion Kelsey Plum, the all-time NCAA scoring leader (3,527), put up 32 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished seven assists to lead UW to a 74-65 victory. Plum had a lot of help from Talia Walton (20 points), who had the dagger 3-pointer; Chantel Osahor’s 15 rebounds; and stellar defense from Alexus Atchley (a former UA grad assistant) and Katie Collier to hold the Terrapins 19 points under their average.

It was a total team effort on both ends of the court. That UW team went on a run to the Final Four before losing to Syracuse and finishing 26-11.

Like the Wildcats this season — and in 2021 when they played in the national championship game — no one expected the Huskies to do much. They were the underdogs, which is a theme in Barnes’ life.

Barnes was underrecruited out of high school as college coaches — except for former UA coach Joan Bonvicini — thought she was too small to play in the post in college. Barnes proved them wrong, earning Pac-10 Freshman of the Year honors, becoming an All-American, leading her team to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament and claiming Pac-10 Player of the Year.

Then, most thought she was undersized to play at the next level. She just shook off the naysayers, won the 2004 WNBA championship with the Seattle Storm and is a member of the All-Decade Team. Plus, she had a long professional career overseas.

As a coach, most told her not to take the job at Arizona. She not only took it but had one of the fastest turnarounds in the nation. In her third season at the helm, the Wildcats won the WNIT championship. Two years later she guided them to the national championship game, losing by one point to Stanford.

Now Barnes is hoping that the underdog mojo works once again on Sunday and that her Wildcats can move on to the Sweet 16.

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Barnes joked that her Wildcats don’t have a Plum or Osahor; this year’s Wildcats are built differently. But Barnes knows that if everyone plays together and does their part, anything can happen.

As part of her message to her team leading up to the matchup, she has shared her experience taking down a No. 2-seeded Maryland team seven years ago in this same arena. It starts with: “It doesn’t matter what your seeding is.”

“If you talk to most people, they don’t feel we’re a 7-seed, but with the way we ended the season we probably are. I don’t hold any stock in that,” Barnes said. “I think anybody can win on any given night. We have to do what Arizona does and the things we do well — what are our bright spots, what has gotten us this far and how are we successful. And I feel like if we do those things, we can beat anybody in the country.

“I talked (with my team) about (how) at Washington we did come here, because we were underdogs and referencing ... the point that you can win on the road — it doesn’t matter. Anything is possible, because when we went to the Final Four (in 2021), we were also on the road. We were in the bubble.”

Here today, gone tomorrow

West Virginia coach Dawn Plitzuweit is now the head coach at Minnesota. It happened less than 24 hours after her Mountaineers lost to the Wildcats in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

She replaces Lindsay Whalen, who left the job after the Gophers’ loss in the Big Ten Tournament. Whalen was coach at her alma mater for five seasons and has stayed on at the school as a special advisor to the athletic director.

In the news conference after the loss, Plitzuweit was very emotional — much more that would be expected over a first-round loss.

According to reports from ESPN’s Alexa Philippou, Plitzuweit is receiving a six-year deal after being at WVU for only one season. Plitzuweit, who coached at South Dakota for six years, took over the Mountaineers after longtime coach Mike Carey retired. UA special assistant to the head coach, Bett Shelby, was on Carey’s staff as an assistant.

Rim shots

When freshman Kailyn Gilbert entered the game Friday, it put West Virginia on its heels. The Mountaineers weren’t ready for her. “She can shoot the ball, shoot pull-ups, get to the hoop” West Virginia guard JJ Quinerly said. “It was a different ballgame.”

How good was Arizona’s first quarter against West Virginia? UA shot 72% from the field, making 7 of 8 layups and scoring an efficient 14 times in 18 possessions.

Silver Wave Media named Barnes one of the 100 most influential people in women’s college basketball.