Adia Oshun Barnes (born February 3, 1977) is an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach and former player. She is currently the head coach of the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

Wildcats women's basketball. She played at the collegiate level for the University of Arizona, and played seven seasons in the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

(WNBA) with the

Houston Comets The Houston Comets were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Houston. Formed in 1997, the team was one of the original eight WNBA teams and won the first four championships of the league's existence. They are one of two ...

Seattle Storm The Seattle Storm are an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The Storm competes in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team was founded by Ginger Ackerl ...

Minnesota Lynx The Minnesota Lynx are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team won the WNBA title in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017. Founded pr ...

, and

Sacramento Monarchs The Sacramento Monarchs were a basketball team based in Sacramento, California. They played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1997 until folding on November 20, 2009. They played their home games at ARCO Arena. The Mona ...

. She has played internationally with

Dynamo Kiev Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society, the club as a separate business entity was officia ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. Barnes has also served as a TV color analyst for Seattle Storm game broadcasts.

Early years

Barnes grew up in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

and attended

Mission Bay Senior High School Mission Bay High School (MBHS), is a public high school located in the San Diego, California community of Pacific Beach. It is a magnet school with emphasis on Academic Studies. In Fall 2006, Mission Bay introduced International Baccalaureate c ...

in San Diego. She is the daughter of NFL player Pete Barnes. He and Adia's mother divorced when she was three. Over the course of her high school career, she amassed 1112 blocks, the most ever recorded by a female high school basketball player, 253 blocks ahead of second place Chris Enger.

College

At 5'11", Barnes wasn't as tall as most post position players at the highly regarded Division I schools. The

head coach

Joan Bonvicini Joan Bonvicini (born October 10, 1953) is the former head coach for the Seattle University women's basketball team, the Redhawks, and one of only 18 coaches in Division I women's basketball history with 701 career victories. She was head coach ...

initially didn't think she would be able to play at the post, even after watching film of her play. However, after seeing her in person, she immediately offered Barnes a scholarship, who enrolled in the school for the 1995 season. Her physical play earned her a comparison to

Charles Barkley Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player who is a television analyst on TNT. Nicknamed "Sir Charles", "Chuck", and "the Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley played 16 seasons in the Natio ...

from a Sports Illustrated writer. In her freshman year she earned the

Pac-10 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

freshman of the year award, the first player from Arizona to win such an award. In Barnes's sophomore year, the team earned a WNIT bid and won the championship. Barnes was named the tournament Most Valuable Player. As a junior, Barnes helped the team to their first ever NCAA appearance. They won their first game against Western Kentucky, and then lost by six points to the second seed in their bracket, Georgia. She went on to set 22 individual records for the Arizona Wildcats, including career points and rebounds, many of which are still records. She would go on to become the first women's player in Arizona to be drafted into the professional leagues.

WNBA career

Although successful as an undersized post in college, Barnes knew that she would not be able to continue as a post player in the pros, so she decided to transform herself into a guard. She originally was signed by the now-defunct Sacramento Monarchs, playing in 29 games and earning a starting position in 16 games. However, she was then traded to Minnesota and then Cleveland, and saw her playing time dwindle. She played overseas to work on her skills and concentrated on becoming a specialist. In 2002, she was traded to the Seattle Storm, who were picked to finish second to last in their division. With

Sue Bird Suzanne Brigit Bird (born October 16, 1980) is an American former professional basketball player who played her entire career with the Seattle Storm of the Women's National Basketball Association ( WNBA) Bird was drafted by the Storm first over ...

and

Lauren Jackson Lauren Elizabeth Jackson (born 11 May 1981) is an Australian professional basketball player. The daughter of two national basketball team players, Jackson was awarded a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in 1997, when she ...

on the team, Storm coach

Lin Dunn Lin Dunn (born May 10, 1947) is an American women's basketball coach, currently general manager with the Indiana Fever. She is most known for being the first coach and general manager for the Seattle Storm. She has more than 500 wins to her name. ...

wasn't looking for a scorer, so Barnes concentrated on becoming a shut-down defender. Her work effort paid off, and she helped the team to make the playoffs in only their third year of existence.

International

Barnes also played internationally with

. She played for several Euroleague teams, Priolo (Italy), Elitzur Ramla (Israel), Napoli BK (Italy), UMMC (Russia), Mersin (Turkey), and Pozzuoli (Italy).

Broadcasting

In 2007, Barnes became a color commentator for the radio coverage of the Storm. She had some experience as a commentator for the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

games. The games were held in Brazil, but the broadcasts were done in a remote studio, making it a challenge. As of 2012, she did broadcasts of Storm games for both radio and TV, along with play-by-play announcer Dick Fain. Barnes was also the color commentator for the radio broadcasts of

Seattle University Seattle University (SeattleU) is a private Jesuit university in Seattle, Washington. Seattle University is the largest independent university in the Northwestern United States, with over 7,500 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate prog ...

Redhawks women's basketball games during the 2010–2011 season.

Coaching

In October 2010, Barnes was named Director of Player and Coach Development at Seattle Academy. Barnes was approached by her Arizona coach Joan Bonvicini to see if she was interested in coaching. At the time, Barnes was still actively playing for the Storm, and turned down the opportunity. However, she enjoyed working at camps, so when the new head coach of the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Kevin McGuff Kevin Patrick McGuff (born December 3, 1969) is an American college basketball coach who the current head women's basketball coach at Ohio State University after spending two seasons as head coach of the University of Washington. Prior to his tim ...

, asked her in 2011 to consider coaching, he was able to persuade her, and she joined the

Huskies Husky is a general term for a dog used in the polar regions, primarily and specifically for work as sled dogs. It refers to a traditional northern type, notable for its cold-weather tolerance and overall hardiness. Modern racing huskies that mai ...

as an assistant coach. Barnes was named head women's basketball coach at the University of Arizona on April 4, 2016. After a fairly rough start to her coaching career, Barnes entered her third season with the Wildcats, with high hopes. The team began the year 12–1, but ultimately struggled when it came to Pac-12 conference play. After finishing the regular season with 17 wins, their most in the regular season since 2010–11, Arizona entered the conference tournament as the No. 8 seed, knocking off USC to begin tournament play. The Wildcats would finish the year 18–13, before ultimately being selected for the Women's National Invitation Tournament. The Wildcats guided by Barnes, would make it to the WNIT Final, knocking off Northwestern to become the 2019 WNIT Champions. The Wildcats beat Indiana in 2021 to reach the school's first ever Final Four. On April 2, 2021, the Wildcats beat the University of Connecticut Huskies to reach the school's first NCAA tournament championship game.

University of Arizona statistics

Source

WNBA career statistics

Regular season

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Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

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Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

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2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

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2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

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Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, 26 , , 17 , , 19.0 , , .333 , , .250 , , .517 , , 3.9 , , 1.1 , , 1.2 , , 0.3 , , 1.0 , , 3.5 , - , align="left" ,

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

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, 16 , , 16 , , 24.8 , , .381 , , .387 , , .571 , , 4.1 , , 1.4 , , 0.7 , , 0.4 , , 1.1 , , 5.5 , - , style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;",

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

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, 34 , , 2 , , 11.8 , , .304 , , .500 , , .710 , , 1.9 , , 0.0 , , 0.7 , , 0.1 , , 0.7 , , 2.0 , - , align="left" , Career , align="left" , 7 years, 4 teams , 132 , , 51 , , 15.3 , , .366 , , .337 , , .632 , , 2.6 , , 0.9 , , 0.7 , , 0.2 , , 1.0 , , 3.8

Playoffs

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Head coaching record

Awards and achievements

* 1995—Pac-10 Conference Freshman of the Year * 1996—WNIT Most Valuable Player * 1998—Pac-10 Conference Player of the Year * 1998—AP All-American (third team) * 1998—U.S. Basketball Writers Association All-American (first team) * University of Arizona—Points scored career 2237 * University of Arizona—Points scored single season 653 * University of Arizona—Points scored single game 35 * University of Arizona—Rebounds career 921 * 2003—Inducted into the University of Arizona Hall of Fame

Personal life

Barnes on July 4, 2012, married Salvo Coppa, a basketball coach she met in Italy. They have two children.

References

External links

* *
Eurobasket profile

Adia Barnes Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Adia 1977 births Living people 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American sportspeople African-American basketball players African-American sportswomen All-American college women's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Portugal American expatriate basketball people in Ukraine American women's basketball coaches American women's basketball players Arizona Wildcats women's basketball coaches Arizona Wildcats women's basketball players Basketball coaches from California Basketball players from San Diego Cleveland Rockers players Houston Comets players Minnesota Lynx players Sacramento Monarchs players Seattle Storm players Small forwards Washington Huskies women's basketball coaches