Park College – Within the final 12 months, SMU has proven a transparent dedication for athletic development.
It was offered in a variety of kinds, akin to becoming a member of ACC, its historic fundraising efforts and a collection of long-time jobs from Jay Hartzell President to Athletic Damon Evans and even males’s basketball andy enfield.
On Wednesday afternoon, SMU confirmed the identical dedication once more, introducing a brand new feminine basketball coach Adia Barnes at Moody Coliseum – a significant funding in ladies’s sport and feminine basketball, particularly, which stays one of many largest development potential for Mustangs.
“Once I consider SMU and the chance we now have, there’s something that continues to come back to thoughts and take into consideration the ocean and be daring.” Our dedication to the feminine basketball shall be unmatched. I believe we might be one of many feminine basketball applications within the nation. ”
SMU’s ladies’s basketball program has been profitable in courtroom for a while. Mustangs had solely two successful seasons over the previous 10 years. They haven’t performed the NCAA match since 2008. And of their first season in ACC, they completed in a tie for the final time within the convention, shedding the final 14 convention video games.
Primarily based on current historical past, the mustangs seem at a distance of a championship stage on which a number of the different applications are approaching. However, with Barnes now on the helm, she and the management at SMU are certain they’ll obtain fairly shortly.
“Everybody has the report and historical past he had in basketball is somebody who is prepared,” stated SMU president R. Gerald Turner.
Barnes had a gaming profession adorned each as a standout in Arizona, the place he set 22 particular person recordings and led this system to his first look of the NCAA match in 1997, and in WNBA, the place he received a title with Seattle within the seven seasons within the league.
She constructed a fair stronger fame as a coach, establishing Alma Mater Arizona in a competitor of the title and led Wildcats to the sport of the nationwide championship in 2021, the place they fell with a single level to Powerhouse Stanford.
However he left Alma Mater to come back to SMU, the place in lower than every week in her new function, she has already signed eight gamers on her record, each from the switch portal and those that adopted her from Arizona. She had virtually a whole staff constructed earlier than giving her introductory observations on Wednesday.
It additionally brings her complete workers from Arizona together with her, together with her Salvo Coppa husband, who serves as an assistant coach.
“When you may have a very good group behind you, you are able to do a whole lot of wonderful issues,” she stated. “We’ll do some wonderful issues right here. I’m excited to begin.”
Barnes stated that it’s simpler now than ever to shortly flip a Basketball program of the feminine school. On Wednesday, she repeatedly alluded to the way in which TCU went from one of the vital critical groups within the Huge 12 to an Elite Eight program via the switch portal. She stated that relationships and assets are important, and SMU has potential in each.
“It is a gold mine,” Barnes stated. “It has the potential to be unimaginable. There may be nothing right here it has no. With the precise folks and the precise assets, I believe the sky is the restrict.”
However, past the success of constructing on the sector, Barnes confirmed a ardour for rising the sport inside the neighborhood. She offered a median of eight,000-9,000 in Arizona, Evans stated and is especially delighted by the recruitment in Metroplex. She even introduced it to the Duncanville Signal, Jazzy Gipson, who was initially employed in Arizona, however threw himself into SMU to comply with her coach and keep nearer to the home.
With Barnes and Evans, who’ve reworked Arizona and Maryland into family names within the feminine basketball, there are causes to consider that SMU may quickly comply with the same manner.
“It was on the proverbial tip of the hill. Now it’s on the highest of the precise hill,” Evans stated. “I do know he’ll take us again the place all of us wish to go.”
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