Hail, alma mater: As a player, Adia Barnes enjoyed success at the highest levels of basketball. She was a member of the Seattle Storm’s 2004 WNBA championship team, where she was a teammate of Sue Bird, Lauren Jackson and Betty Lennox, and also played overseas in Ukraine, Israel, Turkey, Russia and Italy.

During the late 1990s, Barnes earned All-America and Pac-12 player of the year honors while playing at the University of Arizona. She is the Wildcats’ career scoring leader with 2,237 points.

Barnes is enjoying success again in Tucson. This time, it’s occurring on the sidelines as coach of her alma mater.

In just her fifth season, Barnes has guided the Wildcats to their first Elite Eight appearance. Arizona, in the NCAA tournament this season for the first time since 2005, defeated Texas A&M 74-59 Saturday in the Sweet 16.

“It means a lot because it’s where everything started for me as a player,” said Barnes, who was a longtime radio and TV analyst for Seattle Storm broadcasts before moving into coaching, first as an assistant at the University of Washington when the team — led by high-scoring guard Kelsey Plum — advanced to the 2016 Final Four. “Everybody’s dream is go back to their alma mater and do something special. We always talk about leaving our legacy, and we’ve done that.”

Shooting stars

Aari McDonald, Arizona: 31 points, 5 rebounds

Moon Ursin, Baylor: 20 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists

DiJonai Carrington, Baylor: 19 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals

Grace Berger, Indiana: 12 points, 12 rebounds, 5 rebounds

Elissa Cunane, North Carolina State: 18 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists

McKenna Warnock, Iowa: 20 points, 5 rebounds

Leigha Brown, Michigan: 23 points, 7 rebounds

By the numbers

2: Connecticut players who flirted with recording triple-doubles during Saturday’s 92-72 win over Iowa. Junior Evina Westbrook had 17 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds, while freshman Paige Bueckers tallied 18 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.

11: Field goals attempted and made by Baylor forward NaLyssa Smith during the Bears’ 78-75 overtime victory vs. Michigan, a tournament record. A former standout at East Central High School, Smith joined Terry Carmichael of Saint Joseph’s and Mississippi State’s Teaira McCowan as players who made 11 straight shots without a miss. Carmichael accomplished the feat vs. North Carolina State in 1985 and McCowan was perfect from the field vs. North Carolina State in 2018.

“It’s crazy,” said Smith, who finished with 24 points. “Just to know I played 40 minutes and didn’t miss one shot. I mean, it hasn’t sunk in yet, but that’s a crazy number.”

15: Consecutive seasons in which Connecticut has advanced to the Elite Eight. The Huskies have made it to a regional final 26 times during coach Geno Auriemma’s 36-year tenure at the school.

Quotable quotes

“Well, a lot of words come out of my mouth.’Uncoachable’ probably comes out 10 times a day with every one of my players. I think the thing that Christyn struggled with early on was putting too much emphasis on her offense. That if the ball didn’t go in the basket, she didn’t really know how to contribute to us winning. That put way too much pressure on her. It was like every shot, every possession for her, was life and death. Today, she looked like the Christyn Williams that we saw when we were recruiting her, a kid that can make shots from everywhere. She was guarding one of the toughest players in America to guard. I thought this is the best game that Christyn Williams has probably played in her career. No question about that.” — Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma on junior Christyn Williams, who scored 27 points vs. Iowa

“I wasn’t surprised how I was scoring. I’m confident in my abilities. Once I get going, I’m hard to stop. I think I’m hard to stop as it is. I’m not being cocky at all, I’m just confident in what I can do. … Like coach (Adia Barnes) said, we’re here for the long haul. We do not want to go home. It’s do-or-die and we want to get to the championship game.” — Arizona senior guard Aari McDonald after scoring 31 points, most by an Arizona player in an NCAA tournament game since 2000

“We just kept saying we’re going to get a stop, we’re going to get a stop. Again, our coaches had us ready for whatever they were going to come out and run. We knew we were going to get a stop. Again, there’s just a different type of mentality in our locker room. There’s a toughness, a grittiness. That’s what we brought out there today.” — Indiana senior guard Ali Patberg on the Hoosiers hanging on to defeat No. 1 seed North Carolina State and earn first Elite Eight berth

“It’s two programs that are very proud. I’m certainly not going to out-coach Geno, so our players, they better compete and try to outplay his players. It is very difficult to sustain something that is an elite level. You see programs who are Cinderellas, they do this — up and down — then you see those that stay kind of in the middle, have good programs. We want to stay up here and we want to play for championships.” — Baylor coach Kim Mulkey on playing Connecticut on Monday for a Final Four berth