Adia Barnes hoping transfers will help Arizona fill in the gaps next season

Now that Adia Barnes and her Arizona women's basketball program have tasted success the key will be to remain at the top for years to come. The Wildcats lost the top player in program history this offseason with All-American guard Aari McDonald now moved on to the WNBA. Transfer forward Trinity Baptiste spent just one season in Tucson before moving to a professional career as well.

UA has seen some of its players leave the program for other opportunities on top of that. So, it has added up to some necessary retooling for the fifth-year Arizona coach. Many of the key pieces to this season's National Championship runner-up squad will return for the 2021-22 season, but seeking more balance Barnes has made an effort to add depth and talent to the team this offseason.

Oregon guard Taylor Chavez, Vanderbilt forward Koi Love and Alabama forward Ariyah Copeland have already decided that they will play out the remainder of their careers for Barnes at Arizona.

Barnes feels adding those three players, specifically, will help the Wildcats plug some potential holes in next season's roster.

"We had a tough time inside," Barnes said when recalling one of Arizona's issues during its NCAA Tournament run during a Zoom press conference Wednesday. "When Stanford made a conscious effort to pound the ball inside we had problems. So my thing is like, 'OK, what can I do? How can I fill that void? So, I think Ariyah Copeland she's a necessity, and we haven't had a pound-the-ball-inside post player.

"Then look at Koi. Koi is really versatile. She can score, she can play the three, four. That's an area I feel like we haven't had a whole lot. ... We haven't had a really big-time scorer in that spot, so Koi is that. Koi is a really good player, versatile, and can fill a lot of roles for us."

Love averaged over 20 points and had double doubles in half her games on the floor at Vanderbilt in a shortened season.

Copeland and Love both have their roots in the Southeast, but one player who Barnes is more familiar with as a player is Chavez. The Oregon transfer from Surprise will be making the move back home to Arizona after three seasons with the Ducks.

Barnes and the Wildcats have first-hand experience competing against Chavez leading to a different level of excitement for the UA head coach to have the 5-foot-10 guard with the Wildcats next season.

"I loved her game," Barnes said. "I loved the way she was scrappy, and she was a great shooter. She was fearless, tough and she was someone I actually tried to recruit when I first got here. She didn't give me the time of day because we were awful.

"... What I loved about Taylor is when I talked to her she was like, "Coach, I was watching you coach.' And she was excited when I called, so that felt good because I was like, 'I'm excited about you, too.' I feel like after the tournament I felt that more."

Barnes said that since the NCAA Tournament her recruiting pitch has changed to "a totally different tone" because it is less about selling a vision. Though she has added three players via the NCAA Transfer Portal already this offseason, Barnes wants to add one more piece into the mix.

She says that player will be a point guard to give the Wildcats some flexibility at the position since Barnes believes it is necessary for success to have three players capable fo running the position. Chavez and Shaina Pellington will be part of that group, but adding another player to the mix would help strengthen the group.

"I'm looking to add one more," Barnes said. "And one more I think we're very close to getting. So, I think we have a good shot, and I think with her I think we have a chance to be a more complete team than we were last year. Now there's all kinds of factors.

"There's chemistry and different things, but I think on paper we'll be more talented. Because what I'm looking for is for our team to have balance. I don't want one player with 25 points. I want one player with 14, one player 16, one player 13. I want four or five players in double digits, so that'll be the kind of balance we're looking for. I think to be a championship team you have to have that."

The player who makes the most sense for the Wildcats is USC guard Endyia Rogers, who was an all-conference player this season after averaging over 14 points to go with 4.3 assists per game for the Trojans.

Barnes recently hired former USC assistant coach Erin Grant creating a link between Arizona and Rogers, who entered the transfer portal after the season.

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