UNIVERSITY PARK — It’s a new era for SMU’s women’s basketball program, which brought in a new coaching staff and an entirely new roster this season.
SMU hired Adia Barnes, former Arizona head coach, to take over its program in April. Barnes reached the national championship with her alma mater in 2021.
Barnes spoke with reporters ahead of her team’s first exhibition game next week. Here are three takeaways.
Mustangs built to thrive in guard-focused ACC
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Barnes has coached in three different conferences in the last three years, as Arizona moved from the Pac-12 to the Big 12. Now she joins the ACC.
After coaching in a forward-heavy league like the Big 12 where size inside was the priority, her approach has been different with an ACC squad that needs solid guards.
She said her team is already fitting that mold in practices.
“They love to shoot. They don’t really love defense yet, but we’re learning to like defense a lot more,” she said. “They really love the 3.”
Barnes brought two of her guards from Arizona with her — senior Paulina Paris and sophomore Mailien Rolf. She also added four other power-conference transfers from schools like Stanford, Cal, Ole Miss and Arizona State.
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Veteran team helpful when creating from scratch
The new Mustangs squad may be new to one another, but they aren’t new to college basketball. Barnes says she expects that to help ease the transition.
“It helps a lot,” she said. “I have not had that. We were very young. We were one of the youngest in the country at some point. My background for years is the pros, so I think I’m better with a more veteran team.
“I love the fact that so many players have been through so many different situations.”
Some of her players are on their third stop. She only has two true freshmen on the roster — Jazzy Gipson from Duncanville and Elizaveta Filchagina from Moscow, Russia.
Not bothered by preseason ranking
SMU was picked to finish 14th out of 18 teams in the preseason ACC poll. Barnes said that doesn’t faze her.
“I know it’s going to be very challenging,” she said. “I don’t care. We’ve always been picked low when I started somewhere, and we’ve never finished where we were picked.”
That ranking probably reflects more on the program before she arrived. SMU won just two games last season and hasn’t had a winning record since 2012-13. The Mustangs haven’t made the NCAA tournament since 2008.
But this group of Mustangs is entirely new and unknown. The roster and coaching staff overhaul was in hopes that they can catch the conference by surprise.
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