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Players and coaches were still learning each others’ names. Some were still noticeably missing, either finishing up degrees at their former schools or playing overseas for their respective national teams.

The drills were simple and individual, focusing on shooting and screening, just a week into the team’s start of practices. Rather than schemes and strategies, the focus was on learning the personnel and staying in shape.

For the first time since the players’ arrival on campus, SMU athletic director Damon Evans greeted the group with a clear message, setting expectations for what the program can become.

“This is a sleeping giant,� he said.

That term, “sleeping giant,� has been thrown around since Evans joined SMU in late March and hired Adia Barnes as head coach to rebuild the women’s basketball program just two weeks later.

Approaching a move to the ACC last season, the Mustangs committed to growing their football, men’s basketball and volleyball programs. The same attention wasn’t awarded to women’s basketball, leading to another down year where SMU finished tied for last in the ACC.

But transforming the program was a top priority for Evans, who arrived from Maryland, a women’s basketball blue blood.

“I want to take SMU women’s basketball to the right level,� Evans said to the players Friday. “In order to do that, we need the right leadership, and I believe we have the right leadership.�

The Mustangs have never appeared in the AP poll. They’ve had just two winning seasons in the last 10 years and have not made the NCAA tournament since 2008.

With Barnes at the helm — who led her alma mater Arizona to the national championship game just four years ago — SMU could be at a turning point in its history. She also hopes her program can join the wave of women’s basketball programs putting D-FW on notice.

“This is a formula for success,� Barnes said. “I think people here, they want to represent, and they love Texas. I think we can be that school that keeps people home.�

A new program overnight

Barnes didn’t even need to see SMU’s campus in University Park to know it was the right next move for her career. Many of the Mustangs’ new players felt similarly.

After a decorated playing career and a decade coaching her alma mater Arizona, she was eager for a change and felt SMU had the resources and support to help her grow a new program.

“I think you just get to a point where you want to pivot, and a change is good. It’s something that I needed for a resurgence. I felt like a jolt of life because I felt like I couldn’t accomplish the things I wanted to, and that was really hard there,� Barnes said. “Damon, I knew he was going to support women’s basketball. I knew that this place was a sleeping giant. I knew after doing all my research and talking to everybody, SMU had a chance to be really special.�

Evans was a primary reason why Barnes made the move. His first move as SMU’s athletic director was relieving former head coach Toyelle Wilson of her duties and adding Barnes to his staff. Working with Brenda Frese at Maryland — whose program has made the last 15 consecutive NCAA tournaments and reached two Final Fours in that span — he understood the need to invest in women’s basketball and the payoff it could bring.

At a new school, the formula would obviously be different. But both Barnes and Evans saw the commitment SMU made financially and with other resources in making the move to a power conference. It was an attractive destination for them and players, alike.

It took just days to prove that. SMU announced Barnes as its new head coach on April 5. Within days, she built an entirely new 14-player roster of two freshmen and 12 transfers. ESPN listed SMU as one of its 10 transfer portal winners across the nation.

That class included three of her former players from Arizona — junior forward Sahnya Jah, sophomore guard Mailien Rolf and senior guard Paulina Paris.

“She told me she was going to make this road, and I said, ‘I’m there,’� said Jah, who played last season at Arizona before transferring from South Carolina. “You can see the loyalty toward each other.

“I feel blessed being a part of it — new beginnings, better opportunities and better competition.�

In addition to bringing some of her own, she prioritized recruiting Dallas in a short period of time, signing Duncanville product Jazzy Gipson, Frisco native Kyla Deck and Ole Miss transfer Ayanna Thompson, who played her high school basketball at DeSoto.

“I’ve never been able to do that,� Barnes said. “I’ve never been somewhere where there’s talent right away. There may be one player every three years in Arizona. In Dallas, there’s 25 every year. I could only recruit in Dallas and be a top-10 team in the country.�

A women’s basketball wave in D-FW

Asked what her goals are for this season, Barnes didn’t focus on records, conference titles or tournament championships.

Those are undoubtedly goals, but her expectations are realistic.

“It’s very hard to go up a spot,� she said. “I think it’s a lot easier with the transfer portal, and you could get better faster, but I think it does take time. I don’t think we’re going to go from last to first, but we need to make significant improvements.�

The summer practices are just the first steps toward improving those on-court goals, which she and her players are committed to achieving. After SMU lost its last 14 conference games in 2024-25, there’s plenty of room for improvement.

But Barnes’ goals for her first year on the Hilltop simultaneously focus on growing the game on campus and in Dallas.

At Arizona, Barnes consistently averaged top-10 attendance numbers in the nation, bringing in close to 8,000 or more fans during the program’s peak.

In a brief conversation with The Dallas Morning News last week, multiple times she paused mid-conversation, and you could see the wheels turn about how she could pack the 7,000-seater Moody Coliseum just months after arriving on campus.

“I know there’s not a lot of people that come to games. But it was very similar to what I had at Arizona. That’s a challenge and I like that,� she said. “When I left there, we would’ve sold out Moody every game. I think there’s a niche here. I think we can do it.�

Her goal is to increase season ticket sales eight-fold. It’s an ambitious one, but she may be arriving at just the right time to do so.

This spring, TCU turned from a conference bottom feeder to an Elite 8 program. No. 1 seed Texas advanced one round further and faced South Carolina in the Final Four. Weeks after that, the Dallas Wings drafted Paige Bueckers No. 1 overall, immediately re-energizing support around women’s hoops in D-FW.

The Dallas area and Texas have had no shortage of great women’s basketball products, but there’s still another level.

If SMU truly is a sleeping giant and can awake this fall, that potential may finally be reached.

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