During the NCAA Tournament, one of the top story lines was Arizona head coach Adia Barnes and South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley—two women of color and former WNBA players—coaching their teams to the Final Four. The ties between the two coaches became even closer this week as Barnes was named an assistant coach on Staley’s staff for the USA Basketball AmeriCup team.
It was the second time this week that the two women were linked in the news. In 2015, former Purdue head coach Carolyn Peck had given Staley a piece of the net she cut down after leading the Boilermakers to the national title in 1999.