Arizona: Wildcats’ run to national title game does a lot to boost Pac-12’s credibility
The Pac-12 Conference once lacked depth when it came to women’s basketball.
As much as Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer used to vigorously defend the quality of competition, others had good reasons to scoff.
Season after season it seemed like West Coast basketball was Stanford and no one else.
“Maybe 20 years you could write in a ‘W’ with certain teams,” VanDerveer said Saturday. “You can’t do that anymore.”
Not today when the Cardinal will face
Pac-12 rival Arizona in the NCAA Tournament finale at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
Top overall seeded Stanford (30-2) was expected to reach the finish line at the Final Four. Third-seeded Arizona (21-5) was not.
“This is honestly a dream come true,” VanDerveer said. “For so long the conference hasn’t gotten the respect it deserves.”
Stanford had lost four consecutive games in the national semifinals until overcoming South Carolina on Friday. It last played in the NCAA championship 11 years ago, also at the Alamodome. The Cardinal fell to Connecticut 53-47 primarily because Stanford All-American Jayne Appel played on an injured right ankle.
The lack of recognition for the Pac-12 has bothered Arizona coach Adia Barnes, who in five years has turned the Wildcats into a sensation.
The team made an exclamation point Friday night in stunning perennial power Connecticut 69-59. UConn ended the regular season as the Associated Press’ top-ranked team.
After the victory, Barnes, 44, used a middle finger and an expletive in a postgame huddle with her team. Barnes said Saturday she would not apologize for her actions.
“I honestly had a moment with my team and I thought it was a more intimate huddle and I said to my team something that I truly felt and I know they felt,” she said. “I’m not apologizing for it because I don’t feel like I need to apologize. It’s what I felt with my team at the moment. And I wouldn’t take it back.”
The emotions spilled out because the Wildcats felt they were not seen as good enough to reach the Final Four. They also upset No. 2 seeded Texas A&M in
the Sweet 16.
NCAA officials did not include Arizona in a Final Four highlight video, an oversight that led to an apology from the organization.
But the slights have been part of the Pac-12 psyche.
Barnes said she has seen it throughout her playing and coaching career. Barnes was a three-time all-Pac-10 selection and the league’s player of the year in 1997-98.
She also was a first-team All-American and played professionally for 12 years. Barnes became an assistant coach at the University of Washington in 2011 and eventually took over a down-on-its-luck Arizona program in 2016.
She said the Pac 12 has zero respect nationally and that dismissive attitude affects the players.
“It shows with Aari (McDonald) being second-team All-American and it shows with her not being defensive player of the year,” Barnes said of her star guard. “It is always happening in the Pac 12.”
She said she hopes the “East Coast bias” stops with two league schools playing for the conference’s first national title since Stanford won it in 1992.
“It’s not going to stop overnight but you need to respect the Pac 12 a lot more,” Barnes said.
Since 2013 when Cal reached the national semifinals, four schools other than Stanford have appeared in the Final Four. In 2016, Oregon State and Washington advanced. Oregon did it in 2019 and was favored to win last year before NCAA officials canceled the tournament because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A conference school has played in 11 of the past 13 Final Fours. Stanford is playing in its eighth Final Four in 14 years.
“Every game to me in the Pac 12 feels like a battle,” VanDerveer said. “There is no ‘gimmie’ game.”
At least not like before
when Stanford won 14 conference titles in a row from 2001 to 2014. Before that, the Cardinal won nine of 10 Pac-10 crowns from 1989 to 1998.
VanDerveer said tournament seedings for league schools were hurt because of a lack of TV coverage.
“We didn’t get really good seeds because no one saw us,” she said.
The Final Four has not been held on the West Coast since 1999 when San Jose played host. Denver held the event in 2012 and Phoenix is scheduled to bring it West again in 2026.
Since 2016, though, Pac12 schools lead the country in tournament victories (69) and winning percentage (.711).
“Tara would say every league game is a championship game,” freshman forward Cameron Brink said. “We all push each other to be better. Every game we’ve gotten better.”
Stanford, which has a 19-game victory streak, defeated Arizona twice in conference play: 81-54 and 62-48.
Coaches and players said Saturday the past results do not matter because of how much the teams have improved throughout their tournament runs.
Sunday’s game will be the seventh time conference schools have played for a national championship.
VanDerveer said she received more than 300 texts after the Cardinal’s thrilling 66-65 victory over South Carolina in the semifinals Friday night.
She said the last one came from Barnes, whom she has mentored throughout the Arizona coach’s career. VanDerveer, 67, said she is happy for the Wildcats because of what it means to the Pac-12’s reputation.
But the competitive fire has not extinguished in her 35th season at Stanford.
“I want a national championship trophy to go back to Palo Alto,” VanDerveer said.