Two short years ago, Arizona’s women’s basketball team dismantled NAU 113-56. Further, from 2021-24, the Wildcats toyed with the Lumberjacks, beating them by a cumulative 121 points in four games. There was no way you could imagine NAU beating an Adia Barnes team.
But this year, the Lumberjacks swept Arizona, a perplexing development capped by Thursday’s 71-69 loss at McKale Center in the WBIT. More disconcerting, Barnes said, “Overall, as a collective, we didn’t want to win. We didn’t. We were indifferent. I’m not surprised at the result, to be honest.”
Arizona coach Adia Barnes talks to her team during a timeout in the first round of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament against NAU at McKale Center, March 20, 2025.
Arizona’s surprising plunge from the Top 25 — they were ranked No. 4, No. 7 and No. 9 in victories over NAU in 2021, 2022 and 2023 — has been a swift and complicated series of missteps.
You can’t just brush off a sweep against NAU as an “off year.” Against former Pac-12 and current Big 12 teams, the Lumberjacks have gone 14-107. They had never swept a Pac-12/Big 12 opponent.
It was only a short while ago that Barnes’ women’s basketball team was the best sports story in town. Now it’s trouble with a capital T. “We didn’t want to win”? I can never recall a college coach in any sport saying something with such negative connotations.
Stay tuned.
