"Wild": Marina Mabrey's sister, Notre Dame Assistant Coach reacts as SMU coach Adia Barnes comes under fire for controversial comment

Coach Adia Barnes was hired as the SMU Mustangs coach on Apr. 5 after nine years of coaching the Arizona Wildcats. Barnes had been a player for the Wildcats before she took over the head coaching job in 2016.

After Barnes' departure, the Arizona Wildcats hired Becky Burke as her replacement. Before she got the Wildcats job, Burke coached at the University of Buffalo, a mid-major program, for three years.

During an Apr. 9 news conference, Barnes gave a scathing remark aimed at her former team for hiring coaches from mid-major programs.

"It's just a fact, if you look across the country, if you look at all the recent hires, they've all hired mid-major, underqualified people, because they don't really care," Barnes said.

The comments caused a storm of discourse among college basketball fans on X and one of the people who chimed in was Notre Dame Fighting Irish assistant coach Michaela Mabrey who is the elder sister of Connecticut Sun guard Marina Mabrey.

Michaela quote-tweeted a clip of Adia Barnes making the highly-charged comments with a one-word comment:

"Wild," Michaela Mabrey wrote.

Adia Barnes apologizes for scathing comments

Adia Barnes's comments on sides hiring mid-major coaches for high-profile jobs caused a furor and, on Saturday, she fervently apologized for her controversial remarks on X.

"I want to sincerely apologize for what I said the other day — it wasn’t what I meant at all. I have a deep respect for the incredible coaches at mid-major schoolsnand I recognize the hard work and talent across the board…," Adia Barnes tweeted.

Barnes further clarified her comments to a fan in the comments section who asked which coaches the elite sides were supposed to hire.

"I didn’t mean it at all and I feel really bad I meant that it’s just not a priority now but I also understand why. Ugh," Barnes tweeted.

Adia Barnes had a stellar tenure in charge of the Arizona Wildcats after a legendary playing career which saw her lead the team to their first-ever Big Dance appearance. As a coach, she led the Wildcats to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments and even reached the national championship game in 2021 when they were beaten by the Stanford Cardinal in the natty game.

Despite her long association with Arizona, Barnes has not hesitated to plunder her former team. Three former players, including Paulina Paris, Mailien Rolf and Sahnya Jah, have entered the transfer portal from Arizona and joined their former coach's revolution at SMU.