Former WBCA Coach of the Year Finalist and Naismith Coach of the Year Semifinalist Adia Barnes has been named Head Women’s Basketball Coach at SMU, Director of Athletics Damon Evans announced today.
“We are happy to welcome Adia to the Mustang family,” Evans said. “She has had great success at Arizona, leading her teams to post-season appearances and 20-win seasons while her teams also set records in the classroom. She has landed stellar recruiting classes and has been heavily involved in the Tucson community, showing her talent for building programs. The future is bright for SMU Women’s Basketball. We welcome Adia, her husband, Salvo, her son, Matteo, and her daughter, Capri, to Dallas and look forward to the next chapter in Mustang basketball history.”
Barnes comes to the Hilltop from Arizona, where, over her nine seasons at the helm, she built Arizona Women’s Basketball into a fixture on the national stage of college basketball while developing her reputation as one of the top coaches in the sport. Under Barnes, the program ascended to new heights in record-breaking fashion in all aspects – reaching the national championship game, signing elite recruiting classes and cementing deep connections with the local community. She led UA to six straight post-season appearances and five straight 20-win seasons, highlighted by an impressive run to the NCAA Championship Game in 2021, where the Wildcats narrowly lost to Stanford, 54-53.
“I’m truly excited for the opportunity to be the next head coach at SMU,” Barnes said. “Having seen the commitment and alignment on the Hilltop, I believe we can compete on the national stage and for ACC championships. I want to thank Damon Evans, President Hartzell, President Turner, David Miller, the SMU Board of Trustees, Dawn Rogers and all the others on the SMU team for giving me the opportunity to lead this program. My family and I can’t wait to get to Dallas and I can’t wait to get to work! Go Mustangs!”
Prior to Barnes’ arrival in Tucson, she served as an assistant coach at Washington, where she coached Kelsey Plum, Washington’s first WBCA All-American.
A three-time all-conference selection and 1998 graduate of Arizona, Barnes was voted USBWA first-team All-American and Pac-10 player of the year in 1997-98. Her 2,237 career points rank ninth on the Pac-12’s all-time scoring list. Following her collegiate career, Barnes played professionally for 12 seasons in the WNBA and overseas, with WNBA stops in Seattle, Cleveland, Minnesota and Sacramento, and overseas stints in Ukraine, Israel, Turkey, Russia and Italy. In 2004, she won a WNBA Championship with the Seattle Storm was later named to the Storm’s All-Decade Team.
In addition to her playing and coaching career, Barnes has been extremely active in the local community through the Adia Barnes Foundation, which mentors underserved youth and conducts charitable events and community service projects such as school supply drives. Barnes spent 10 years as the Seattle Storm’s TV analyst and also spent time as the color commentator for Storm radio broadcasts.
A native of San Diego, Calif., Barnes is married to Salvo Coppa, an accomplished basketball coach in his own right and is also the mother of one son, Matteo and one daughter, Capri.
