Celebrating Pac-12 women's hoops: Arizona legend Adia Barnes on pride of playing, coaching in Pac

The Pac-12 has stood out as one of the best women’s basketball leagues in the nation over the last two decades. This being the league’s final season in its current 12-team format — USC and Oregon State were the last Pac-12 teams standing before bowing out last weekend in the Elite Eight — the Star shared this season Pac-12-centered stories of former Arizona players, as well as former and current league coaches. The final entry in this series, on Final Four weekend: Adia Barnes, a UA legend as a player and coach, and member of the McKale Center Ring of Honor.

Three years ago this week, Barnes brought the Wildcats within one basket of winning the national championship. It was quite the long journey from where the program started out on April 4, 2016, when Barnes was hired: From bottom of the Pac-12 to national runner-up. She is the only UA coach to have five 20-win seasons and is one of only four coaches in the nation to lead her alma mater to the title game. She has also brought fans back to McKale and has three consecutive seasons in the Top 10 for largest attendance in the nation — the last two averaging more than 7,300 per season. During the 2019 WNIT title run, the Wildcats sold out McKale for the championship game, with over 14,000 fans attending.

In her playing days, Barnes earned Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and Pac-10 Player of the Year awards. She was a four-time All-Pac player, a seven-time Pac-10 Player of the Week and a two-time All-American. Her name is all over the UA record books. She’s No. 1 in most career points (2,237), third in career double-doubles (36), second in career scoring average (18.5 points), first in free throws attempted (671) and made (3-way tie, 472) and fouls (413).

Barnes was the first Wildcat drafted into the WNBA (fourth round, Sacramento Monarchs), played in the league and overseas for 12 years and won a WNBA championship in 2004 with the Seattle Storm. Here’s her reflections of the Pac-12 as a player and coach:

Coaching against the best: “It was cool. It was crazy coaching against coaches that coached when I was a player. It was kind of weird at first. I was like, ‘Wow, he was a coach when I was a player.’ It was always fun being able to coach against the best. It made me a better coach. To see how much I grew and changed as a coach. I think it really helped my career because you had to be good or if you were gonna get killed. To coach, you really had to have good adjustments, and I really got better in that space.

People always talk about (Stanford coach) Tara (VanDerveer) and Tara is great, but it was like Lynne (Roberts) at Utah and Cori (Close) at UCLA and just every coach is really good. There wasn’t a bad coach in our conference.”

Taking pride in the Pac: “It was a conference that really did things the right way. Coaches really support each other, great academics and athletics. It was just great coaches that really coached at a high level and competed but love and supported each other. And I think that’s a rare combination.

I think of the history and relationships. Then, I think when I watched the professionalism and the support given to each other. When I watched those things, it just made me better as a professional. You can compete against people, but then you still build the brand and you still support each other. I learned what that looks like. I don’t know if I would have got that somewhere else because I don’t think other conferences do that. I think everywhere else is so cutthroat. You’re just like cutting each other; you’re not into promoting for the good. I think because you’re so competitive, and it’s just cutthroat. Our jobs are just cutthroat. But when you’re seeing everybody else do it, all your colleagues do it, you learn how to do that. And that’s all I knew. It was great for me to be mentored by those coaches.”

Stanford is elite: “What’s so impressive about what Tara has done, is that it’s always been Stanford. When I was a player, they were the team to beat. When I was a coach, they were the team to beat. She has sustained success for so long. Other teams it ebbs and flows. One year someone is really good, the next year … like us. We were really good, then were building again. Tara has found the formula to sustain and no one else has done that. UCLA, us, like everybody else — USC was down for a long time. Tara is the exception to that. Some of it is because it is such an elite school but she’s just a great coach.”

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I’ve arrived as a player: “I was an undersized, under-recruited post player. Everyone thought I couldn’t play post in the Pac-10. Well, I came to Arizona and I was starting and averaging like 15 points per game. Then I got Pac-10 Freshman of Year. I even shocked myself because I didn’t even know if I’d play a lot. That was the first time, I was like, ‘Wow!’ I was a 5-10 post every day going against (Stanford’s) Olympia Scott and all these All-American post players that were really good, and they were like 6-4 or 6-5.

That was the ‘aha’ moment. I was getting better and playing. My point guard at the time was Brenda Pantoja, who is an official now. She was leading the country in assists. She could see the floor really well. She was a competitor. She was tough and had big size. I think she was 5-9 and back then that was pretty tall for a point guard. She could shoot the 3 but was a really good full-court passer. I’d get layups.

I grew with my team. Arizona wasn’t good, and (coach) Joan (Bonvicini) was brought in to bring it back. We were all young, with a couple of upperclassmen, and we just kind of grew together.”

Her coach: “Joan was a super-competitive coach. We went full-court press. We played similar to my style. We did full-court press. We were all over the place. Joan just let us play and have fun. If you were hot, she wouldn’t take you out. She was a player’s coach.

She played a style that fit me. She played a great defensive system and let me run the court, so I had easy opportunities to score. She gave me an opportunity and believed in me I think that was bigger than anything.”

Game-changing moment as a coach: “We went on that WNIT run, and the year before was brutal (six-win season). When we went on that run, I was like, ‘I can build something special here.’ Because the fans and the excitement. Then we had all those players playing for a couple of years. I think the WNIT run really built confidence for the program and for me as a coach.

When Aari (McDonald) put us on her back and we made that WNIT run — just to see the level that all those transfers (Tee Tee Starks and Dominique McBryde, along with McDonald) competed at. Because they got second chances. They were all given these different roles to be successful. That’s when I saw it. Like Tee Tee was told not to shoot (at Iowa State). Then she came in and ended up being a great shooter for us and a great defender. Aari was the fourth option at Washington. She came here to be our star. Dominique was this role player (at Purdue) that came here as a starter and was expected to step up. I think that transfer group was given more responsibilities, stepped up, did well. I think that year before the Final Four run, I think we would have been an Elite Eight team (2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled because of COVID-19). We were really good. I think we were maybe better than that next year. Just seeing how they were hungry to come in and do something that was special to see.”

Moving to the Big 12: “It’s surreal. I can’t believe it’s actually happening. I don’t know what to expect because I’ve never coached another conference. I’m excited for a change just in the sense that new competence and new rivals like it’s gonna be different. I’m excited for that new opportunity. But I miss the Pac. I miss what we have, because we had great coaches, great schools, great cities, and a really high level, and it was by far the best in the country. I’m going to miss those friendships and respect for colleagues. I’m going to miss that camaraderie we had.

We had something special. It’s just sad to see it dissolve because it was the best in the country.”