Barnes’ bet on youth ready to pay off for Wildcats

Adia Barnes had a plan.

And it was a good one.

On Monday night, Barnes began her ninth season as the Arizona Wildcats’ women’s basketball coach, and her second year of a plan to build the core of the team around an outstanding 2023 recruiting class.

The rewards could/should/will come this season – and definitely beyond – as the Wildcats won their season-opener 73-54 over UT-Arlington in the opening game of a hoops doubleheader at McKale Center.

Instead of starting three freshmen, Barnes now starts three sophomores – Jada Williams, Skylar Jones and Breya Cunningham – with the other member of that freshman recruiting class, Montaya Dew, ready to contribute to the Wildcats in multiple ways after redshirting last season due to an ACL injury.

“They had to learn on the fly and they gained so much experience,” Barnes said of her young core last season. “It’s exciting to coach a young team.”

After dealing with revolving rosters and having star players transfer out of the program, Barnes made the decision in the summer of 2023 to put her faith in that recruiting class and accept the growing pains that would come from having them make mistakes and learn. Make mistakes and learn. Make mistakes and learn.

Give them the minutes to keep them happy. Let them know that this will be their team. And then plug in complementary transfers, rather than recruit over them.

Wildcats’ Core Four

Williams has superstar potential from the guard position, never mind the 2-of-15 shooting effort in the opener. Jones is an athletic wing with huge upside. Cunningham, who had a 10 and 10 double-double on Monday night, is a vital post player (assuming she can avoid the foul trouble that plagued her last season).

And, Dew, who joined the team midway through the 2022-23 season but did not play, finally made her debut on Monday night after not playing competitively in two years. She didn’t impact the box score much – one rebound, no points in 13 minutes – but just wait, Barnes said.

She called the 6-foot-2 Dew a “stat-eater.”

“She kind of does a little bit of everything,” Barnes said. “She’s important for us because she can play every position. And she’s so smart on the court; she knows every position.”

The Wildcats barely survived injuries and a short roster last season, but a promising and competitive stretch drive resulted in grabbing an NCAA berth and a victory over Auburn in the First Four.

Now, the Core Four is all together – talented, experienced and with so much runway to get so much better and go so much further. It’s all part of the plan.

Barnes noted Monday night that neither Williams nor Jones played great against UT-Arlington. But this season’s Wildcats are more athletic, have more size, are deeper … and, as is required in Barnes’ scheme, can play high-heat, in-your-face defense.

“We almost had seven people in double digits,” Barnes said of the players’ scoring efforts. “We can play different ways. … In the past, we didn’t have the depth and just didn’t have the personnel to win if two of our starters weren’t playing well. So that’s a good thing.”

While the 10th-ranked Wildcats’ men’s basketball team rolled over Canisius on Monday night, don’t sleep on the power of the women’s team to also be a feel-good antidote to this dismal, disappointing and disjointed Arizona football season.

It will be intriguing to watch the Wildcats, who legit go at least nine deep, develop over the course of the season. They’re still so young – also watch for freshman guards Lauryn Swann and Mailien Rolf, and South Carolina sophomore transfer forward Sahnya Jah – that improvement could come in a hurry as the experience continues to pile up.

“We’re still really young and have a lot to improve on,” Barnes said. “We aren’t nearly where we need to be.”

But she had a plan.

And it was a good one.

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Top photo: Jada Williams (2) and Sahnya Jah (11) celebrate during the Wildcats’ victory over UT Arlington. (Photo by Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Athletics)