TUCSON, Ariz. — After working with a struggling seven-person roster last season, Arizona Women's Basketball Coach, Adia Barnes is taking a different approach in recruiting this off season in the hopes of deepening the roster.
Last year's roster started with 12 players, and eventually fell to seven due to injuries and players leaving. It's something Barnes is looking to avoid this season.
"I think you'll see most teams with a short roster, but I was intentional," Barnes said. "I did not want to go through what I did last year with having six to seven players and adding walk-ons throughout the year. That was really hard."
During the off season, Barnes has also focused on keeping the players she already has.
"Keeping that core together was really important," Barnes said. "Breya, Jada and Sky were key because they had so much experience as freshmen, so I felt that they grew years and got two to three years of experience in one year."
Once she re-secured the team's core, she began to expand.
Barnes signed seven new players and is planning to continue this week, hoping for a 13 to 14 player roster.
"Having a bigger roster, is it challenging for numbers? Yes, but practice and to get better during the year and stuff like that is really important, so I thought that outweighs the negatives," Barnes said.
With new players comes changes, but Barnes says she went after players that would compliment the core.
"I wanted someone who could add to that, and that would fit," Barnes said. "Not someone who was just going to be totally opposite...because it's taken a long time to get this group, and I thought this group was really special."
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Erin Patterson is a reporter for KGUN 9. She's agraduate of the University of Alabama with a Bachelor’s in News Media with a Sports Concentration. Erin recently obtained her Master's Degree in Sports Journalism from Arizona State University at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, where she gained experience a sports reporter, anchor and producer. Share your story ideas and important issues with Erin by emailing erin.patterson@kgun9.com.
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