Heading into this season Adia Barnes didn’t know what to expect.
The Arizona women’s basketball coach had seven new players and mostly freshmen and sophomores on the roster.
The Wildcats have gone through a rough patch where they looked out of sorts and lost to GCU and NAU, but now with a win against CSU Bakersfield, they seem to be back on track. It wasn’t necessarily the win; it was how they played.
The intensity was back. They inserted a few new looks on defense that they seemed to master quickly. The Wildcats were sharing the ball on offense – moving with and without the ball. They understood their assignments and looked confident on both ends of the court.
Ahead of the final non-conference game against Weber State on Monday, the Star sat down with Barnes to learn a little more about what went into these changes, how the latest win at home helps them and what’s making her happy these days.
You added some tactics for the game against CSU Bakersfield, including the zone defense, why was it a good time to do this?
Arizona forward Breya Cunningham (25) tries to corral the ball between CSU Bakersfield guard Melissa Secchiaroli (20) and guard Marley Langi (8) during their game Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, at McKale Center.
Barnes: “This time between games we had a little longer like four or five days. Now is the time to do it before we get into our conference play. We just added some different zone presses, some different half court, zone stuff and man stuff, because we had the time to do it. When he had such a quick turnaround, how we were in November, those few weeks, we didn’t have time to do any of that. This is a hard week because it’s finals. They are a little tired mentally and physically. We have to watch team loads — mental and physical loads — but it’s still a time where we did a lot of shooting. We had a super light practice today. Tomorrow we’ll still continue to add some stuff.
When I see that we are not assimilating something really well or we’re not doing something great, then I had to take a step back and simplify some things. The things that stuck out in my mind were like ‘OK, our transition defense, boxing out, guarding one-on-one isn’t great right now.’ So, putting all these other things in wasn’t going work until I kind of fixed that. It’s been fundamentals of our defense right now, positioning and closeout techniques. Then offensively, we were turning the ball over at a very high rate. We played similar opponents and we turned the ball over 20 times. It wasn’t the competition necessarily; it was us and our fundamentals. We’re getting better at that.”
Arizona head coach Adia Barnes has some instructions for guard Jada Williams (2) during a Grambling State free-throw attempt on Nov. 23, 2024.
How did you go about this?
Barnes: “You have to look at our habits, what our tendencies are, what our athleticism is like. If I have us do all this full court and all that stuff against athletic teams. We’re not athletic enough to do that right now. That’s just the facts. Figuring out ways to do what we’re what we’re capable of doing or mixing it up a little bit. Right now, we’re not super athletic, so maybe we have to pop back a little bit, or maybe not press someone really fast in the backcourt, or maybe sometimes pick up half court. And that’s OK.”
How does a win against CSU Bakersfield last week help you for Big 12 play?
Barnes: “It gives them all more confidence. Sky (Jones) saying, ‘See, I’m starting to jump stop and I’m finishing a lot better.’ What it does is, you see them do it and they get confidence in it, so then they do it more. Hearing that from Sky tells me they start buying into it when they see it works. Then it’s effective. Then you keep on doing it, and you keep on building off that. (Sahnya) Jah is even starting to do it. You saw Breya (Cunningham) face up and have a great one-on-one move to her left. She would have never done that before. Paulina (Paris) is getting even better defensively. I think she’s denying better. She’s improving a lot. All of that focus on fundamentals is starting to come into play. Jada (Williams) is starting to draw more taking care of the ball better.
“We’re figuring out ways we can score, mix things up and be effective where they are buying into it, they are feeling good, feeling confident. It’s figuring out a balance, playing good defense.”
We’ve talked about the things you are working on, but what are you happy about in this moment?
Barnes: “I’m happy that we have really good kids right now and for they’re working really hard. They want to do the right thing. They’re really good people. I’m glad we have that, because you can’t make that up and that’s hard to get. I’m glad that Breya is playing at such a high level. She’s doing really well and she’s carrying us inside right now. I’m really happy for her. I’m happy all her work has paid off. She looks great and she’s working her butt off.
“I’m happy how people are getting better and improving. I can see it on the court. That’s always good. We’re getting better. We’re not turning the ball over as much. Our fundamentals are getting better. I’m glad to see Sky applying the stuff that we’re trying to teach her. She’s jump stopping, she’s finishing stronger. That’s all work and that’s takes a long time to correct some of those things.”
