Yahoo Finance Adia Barnes on profane post-game pep talk after beating UConn: 'I’m not apologizing for it'
Arizona women's basketball head coach Adia Barnes wants the NCAA world to know everyone disrespected her team. Following Arizona's stunning upset over UConn on Friday, Barnes was captured on video giving an animated pep talk to her players.
While talking to her players, Barnes appears to drop an f-bomb and stick up the middle finger. It was her way of telling her team to ignore the haters ... but Barnes used a stronger term.
When asked about that pep talk Saturday, Barnes said she was "not apologizing for it."
Adia Barnes on a morning press conference and is asked about the TV clip showing her animated postgame speech to her team:
"I’m not apologizing for it because I don't feel that I need to apologize… I wouldn’t take it back." pic.twitter.com/C54yUIwqBb— Alec White (@AlecWhite_UA) April 3, 2021
Barnes' full comments read:
"I'm just myself. I don't really think of like, there is no strategy to it. There is no plan to be a certain way. I just do what I feel, I guess. Which is good and bad, because you saw at the end of the game, 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. And it just appeared different on TV. But 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.
"We've gone to war together. We look around the room and we looked around that circle. We believe in each other. So, I'm in those moments and that's how I am, so I don't apologize for doing that. I'm just me. And I have to just be me."
Barnes' players seemed to enjoy her post-game speech. They erupted in cheers after Barnes made the statement and gesture.
Adia Barnes led Arizona to huge win
While the Wildcats were a No. 3 seed, the team wasn't expected to move past UConn, a No. 1 seed. Arizona was motivated, however, after the NCAA excluded the team from a Final Four highlight video. The three other teams still in the tournament — Stanford, South Carolina and UConn — were all featured in the video. The NCAA apologized for the mistake.
Following the win, Barnes and Arizona will take on No. 1 seed Stanford in the championship game. If the Wildcats can pull off yet another upset, expect Barnes to continue letting critics know what she thinks about their predictions.
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