Over the years, Adia Barnes and Dave Rubio have cheered each other on from the McKale Center stands. The Wildcats coaches never dreamed they’d be teammates.
But the partnership between the women’s basketball and volleyball programs helped the UA land two-way star Lauren Ware. She signed with the Wildcats Nov. 13, and — assuming her recovery from a knee injury goes as planned — could be contributing for Rubio’s Wildcats next fall and Barnes’ team next winter.
Barnes and Rubio listened to Ware and her parents, Kristi and Joe, throughout the recruiting process. They learned that both sports were equally important to her. And so was communication between the coaches.
So Barnes and Rubio went to work recruiting a player unlike any in recent memory. The 6-foot-5-inch Ware is a five-star basketball recruit who is rated No. 22 overall and No. 3 in her position at post by ESPN. Prep Volleyball, meanwhile, lists her as No. 50 prospect in the nation. (Ware counts against the basketball team’s scholarship limit).
While recruiting in volleyball and basketball are vastly different, the two coaches found common ground with a clear strategy.
“It’s funny — we have completely different recruiting styles,” Barnes said. “I think we helped each other and we had to be very strategic. We had a vested interest in what was best for Lauren. And not too many programs were like that.
“We didn’t want her to feel like she had to choose. Our agenda was hey, if she wants to play both volleyball and basketball for four years then we support her.”
Over the next four years Barnes and Rubio will be working together a lot. During the recruiting process, the coaches mapped out the entire year and what Ware would be doing each day, when she would be training for volleyball and when she would move over to basketball. Rubio said they went through “each month.”
“Here’s when you are with volleyball. Here’s when you will be with basketball. And we’re not going to put any pressure on you to leave early or to stop playing. It was all ‘this is the way it’s going to be; you have our word on this,’” he said.
“I think that was — for her mom — really important that the two programs aren’t going to pull. And if Lauren decides to play basketball only a year from now, then we understand. I mean, that’s all part of the possibilities that go with recruiting a double-sport athlete is maybe they just can’t handle it — the academics become too much and they just want to focus more on one sport than the other. We all understand that. But I think in the initial recruitment, they needed to know what that first year needs to look like this. Adia and I really sat down and looked at say, ‘OK, this is what we can live with, and then we’re going to stick to it’. We need to show her parents that we’re not going to be undermining each other.”
The payoff could be huge for both programs.
As a junior at Century High School in Bismarck, North Dakota, Ware had 586 kills, 187 digs, 86 blocks and 48 aces in volleyball and averaged 17.3 points, 11.1 rebounds, 4.6 blocks and 2.1 assists per game in basketball. She was North Dakota’s state player of the year three times — twice in basketball and once in volleyball. Last year’s basketball team went 27-0 and the volleyball team went 34-5; both teams won state championships.
Rubio knew the first time he saw Ware play that she was an elite athlete — even though she had never played club volleyball, which is unusual. “She’s a good jumper, and she’s just a big kid, big body. And when I saw her jumping and hit, I’m like, this is gonna be a lot of fun,” he said.
Barnes knew Ware would fit her program, calling her a “versatile post player (with) tremendous footwork, a great touch around the basket going right or left. … She’s going to be a star in the Pac-12.”
Ware narrowed her college choice down to five schools — UA, Minnesota, UCLA, Texas and Tennessee — before making her visit to Tucson in July. Ware said she knew when she stepped onto the UA campus that it was the right school for her.
“I got that feeling that everyone said I would get when I knew — and I did,” Ware said. “And the coaches — Coach Adia and how she cares about her team. And when I talked to Dave about how they worked together. It was the way Coach Adia and Dave went about it, how they talked about playing both sports and how they would work together — that was the final factor.
“I wanted to be part of growing a program and have an impact. You can tell basketball is on the right track — climbing the ladder — especially now that they are ranked and keep getting good players. Watching volleyball and how they played through the injuries and how they fought this season– both sports are on the right track and I’m excited to play with both teams.”
The decision for Ware to play both volleyball and basketball did not come easy – and she said that the recruiting process was “confusing, but Arizona made it a lot easier.”
Barnes started recruiting Ware 2½ years ago. She saw Ware going back and forth on whether to play volleyball in college.
“It was hard during the recruiting process,” Barnes said. “I think volleyball heard she wanted to play basketball. I knew she was a very good volleyball player and there was a chance she’d play that sport. Usually a star player is better in one sport, but Lauren can be impactful in both. I feel if it’s a player’s dream to pursue both, why not?
“As things progressed and Dave and I realized she wanted to play both we gave her motivation to do it. If you can do both, then kick butt in both of them. My thing is ‘write your own story; be the best version of you.’”
