Adia Barnes is so knee deep in the hoopla that she surely leads the NCAA in smiling.
You could almost write a song about it. Call it βHappy.β
True, Pharrell Williams already used the title βHappyβ for a famous song, in which he sings, βMy level is too high to bring me down ... Canβt nothing bring me down.β
But on Sunday, Arizonaβs 67-45 WNIT victory over Wyoming qualified as βHappy IIβ or βHappinessβ or even βI Canβt Stop Smiling.β
Barnes described the UAβs fourth consecutive WNIT victory by saying, βWe were amped up, we were just hot β¦ the adrenaline. β¦ the crowd.β
Barnesβ level is too high to bring her down.
The greatest victory in Arizona womenβs basketball history has long been considered a 1998 buzzer-beating, prayer-answering, 91-90 shocker over Stanford, which snapped the Cardinalsβ 48-game Pac-12 winning streak and Arizonaβs 22-game losing streak to the Cardinal.
Barnes, then a UA senior, scored 22 points in that game at McKale Center, after which she described her role in Reshea Bristolβs winning 3-pointer as that of a spectator.
βI was saying βplease,ββ Barnes said that night.
On Sunday, 21 years later, Barnes was anything but a spectator. She has engineered Arizonaβs run to the WNITβs version of the Final Four by rebuilding from scratch the Pac-12βs worst womenβs basketball program of the last decade.
Arizona no longer has to say βplease.β It has drawn 20,123 fans in four WNIT games, and when it squares off against TCU in Wednesdayβs semifinals itβs not inconceivable that 10,000 Tucsonans will be at McKale Center.
βA lot of people say, βOh, womenβs basketball is not exciting,ββ Arizonaβs dynamic point guard Aari McDonald said Sunday.
But now, we should know better.
Arizonaβs road to the WNIT Final Four hasnβt exactly been the stuff of legend. The Wildcats have beaten Idaho State, Pacific, Idaho and Wyoming by a cumulative 56 points, as youβd expect.
And theyβve also been granted home court advantage in all four games, thanks to athletic director Dave Heekeβs willingness to bid a higher amount of money to the organizing body of the WNIT, Coloradoβs Triple Crown Sports, which decides who stays home and who hits the road.
But shed no tears for the Wyoming Cowgirls, or anyone. Until Sundayβs loss at McKale, Wyoming had played host to 22 consecutive WNIT games.
This has all been made possible by a Tucson audience that has met Triple Crown Sportsβ second variable (behind money) in the selection of a host team β environment.
McKale Center has been buzzing.
βIt felt like how a menβs basketball game feels here,β said Barnes.
It has been that and more. Those 20,123 whoβve bought tickets on short notice and walked through the McKale Center turnstiles have a different energy than those at UA menβs basketball games.
Thereβs a joy thatβs missing at the menβs games. Thereβs an innocence and a sense of being at the start of something big.
This is unexpected; out of nowhere.
Itβs the best story in Tucson sports.
The demographics of Tucsonβs WNIT audience is nothing like those who have supported UA menβs basketball games for the last 35 years. Itβs an older crowd, one that feels included rather than excluded, one that doesnβt spin on big money and grand expectations. There is no Zona Zoo.
Itβs an audience that watches Aari McDonald play point guard as well or better than anyone in UA history, men or women, and you canβt wait to tell or text someone what theyβre missing. Even UA President Robert C. Robbins, who occupies a front-row seat at menβs basketball games, flew home early from a business trip last week to be at Arizonaβs win over Pacific.
On Sunday, Robbins was front-and-center for a commanding triumph over Wyoming, one in which Arizona jumped to an 11-0 lead, creating a din that matched any at a menβs basketball game in recent years.
His presence stamps the whole WNIT process as legit.
In the lead-up to Sundayβs game, Arizonaβs game management staff multiplied its security, parking, ushering and medical personnel to meet the sudden demand. Parking was free, which helped. Tickets went for as low as $5, which helped more.
But more than that, winning four straight games fills an ache that long-disappointed UA sports fans have felt for what seems like ages.
βThey ignite us,β said Barnes. βThey inspire us.β
The Wildcats didnβt find an audience as much as an audience found them.