Bett Shelby knew early on that basketball would always be in her life.
Growing up in the heart of basketball country and following Dean Smith’s North Carolina Tar Heels can do that to a girl.
And while she played, it was in high school when she found her true path — one that has led her to Arizona as special assistant to coach Adia Barnes.
“My (high school basketball) teammates were really good, and I was not very good, but they were, and I watched how they were recruited by everybody — Pat Summitt, Sylvia Hatchell, Geno (Auriemma), everybody,” Shelby said. “I watched how they were recruited and what worked and what didn’t. I was like, ‘I think I want to do that — be a college coach.’”
Shelby was introduced last month as the first-ever special assistant to Barnes. She comes to Tucson from West Virginia, where she had served as the Mountaineers’ associate head coach. Shelby is not the only new face on the Wildcats staff. Kayla Scott is the director of basketball operations and Zane Barnes is the creative content specialist.
The road hasn’t always been easy, but Shelby taken advantage of opportunities along the way. Her first stop was as the director of operations at East Carolina. Then she moved onto assistant coaching roles at Southern Illinois, Tennessee Tech and Stetson University — making a name for herself as a top recruiter.
More notice came at Virginia Tech and at Seton Hall under legend Anne Donovan — the same woman who coached Barnes to the 2004 WNBA championship with the Seattle Storm.
Shelby also worked for Hatchell (UNC), ex-UA player Brenda Frese (Maryland) and Mike Carey (West Virginia). Along the way, she won a lot of conference championships and brought in many highly-rated recruiting classes.
“She knows what it’s like to be a top program and what the expectations are, what it takes to win with those programs,” Barnes said.
“I love her work ethic. I love her energy. I thought she was the perfect fit … She’s been all these different programs with different philosophies. I love the fact that she’s seen a lot of things done different ways. She brings a different element to what we do. She can help in so many different ways. … With all those areas in her experience, she can be really successful and really help us elevate. I thought her experience was really valuable for us.”
What exactly is the special assistant to the head coach entail? A little bit of everything.
“I just want to take things off Adia’s plate. I want to help the whole staff be successful and I want to help the players have the best experience possible. Whatever I can do here to help that facilitate that’s what I want to do,” Shelby said. “If that’s to help us organize recruiting to be the best that it can be, if that’s to help anything she needs taken off her plate as a head coach, let me do that. If that’s to help players with any off-court issues or things they might need help with, let me do that. If that’s scouting, let me do that. Whatever I can do to help the program be its very best. That’s what I want to do. That’s what I’m doing.”
Shelby and Barnes first met on the recruiting trail years ago. When Carey retired from WVU the spring, Shelby, who was his top assistant, was began to look for the right landing spot. She thought of Barnes.
“I’ve always thought to myself, ‘Wow, I’d love to work for her.’ I think we align a lot with our core values,” Shelby said. “When the opportunity presented itself, I was like, absolutely, I’d love to have the opportunity to be part of what she’s building out here. I’ve also admired how she does it as a wife, a mom and a coach. There are very few women in the business that have it all and do it really well. And she’s one of them.”
Now that she is part of the UA staff, Shelby says she is ready to help the Wildcats “reach new heights.” Shelby understands Barnes’ vision is to take the program’s early success and make it a sustainable.
“I think Arizona can be that next dynasty program in women’s basketball,” Shelby said. “I think when you look at where women’s basketball is, there’s more parity in the game than there’s ever been and that’s really exciting. I think you look at some of the veteran coaches, some of them might be retiring soon and there are new people come into the top.
“You look at the South Carolinas and I think we can be that next dynasty program. I really believe that. Adia is young and she’s vibrant and recruits love her, parents love her. She knows what she’s doing. And I think we can do that with the high-level organization, great people. We have everything here. We have great support. I think we can be that and I’m excited.”
Rim shots
Shelby has never worked west of the Mississippi River before.
“I love it,” Shelby said. “I like a challenge and I’ve done the Big 10, Big 12, ACC, Big East when it was the big beast back in the day. I’ve never done the Pac-12 and I’ve thought about it and that was an attraction. I love Tucson. The people are amazing. I think the town has a little bit of everything to offer people. The food’s great. The people are great, the weather’s second to none. Everything revolves around the university and the students, which I think is phenomenal. Tt’s been just a really smooth transition thus far.”
Former UA standout Trinity Baptiste has joined Dominique McBryde in the new G.J. Gardner Homes Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa league in New Zealand. Baptiste’s route to New Zealand came through Barnes, who is a former teammate of Tully Bevilaqua, the coach of Mainland Pouakai. Baptiste is coming off a championship season in Paraguay.
