Adia Barnes aims to snap a decades-long tournament drought by swapping short-term patches for a sustainable foundation, banking on roster continuity to transform the Mustangs into ACC contenders.
The SMU women's basketball team hasn't posted an overall record above .500 since the 2022-23 campaign.
Heading into the Mustangs' third year in the ACC ... which coincides with head coach Adia Barnes' second at the helm ... the program believes the losing will soon come to an end.
Barnes appeared on The IX Sports Podcast this week and expressed confidence that SMU is positioned to take a meaningful step forward during the 2026–27 season.
"We're going to be a lot better this year. We're going to build it the right way," Barnes said.
The former WNBA champion with the Seattle Storm left Arizona in April of 2025 to take over on the Hilltop — leaving the university she guided through four consecutive NCAA Tournaments and a national title appearance in 2021.
SMU hasn't made the NCAA Tournament since 2007-08 ... the first and only in the program's 50 years of existence.
"Are we going to be a Final Four team? Probably not this year, but we are going to be significantly better," Barnes continued.
The optimism stems less from immediate expectations and more from the foundation SMU is attempting to establish.
Barnes inherited a veteran-heavy roster in her first season and was forced to construct much of the team on short notice, resulting in significant turnover following the 2025-26 season.
The Mustangs return just five players from last year's squad — but the current roster is considerably younger and appears intentionally built with long-term continuity in mind.
"If I can keep this core together and after two, three years — that's Arizona, we were together three years and I know because we can coach, we develop, then when we get that we're really good," she said.
... of course, building a young nucleus is only half the battle in modern college athletics.
"The challenge will be keeping everybody together, keeping everybody happy and getting those young players experience — the balance of that, but winning games and having some older players," Barnes continued.
For Barnes, that's the balancing act that will likely define her second season in Dallas.
The Mustangs are no longer simply trying to patch together a competitive roster for one season at a time. Instead, SMU appears focused on building a sustainable winner capable of competing in one of the nation's deepest conferences.
Whether that approach ultimately results in the program's second-ever NCAA Tournament appearance remains to be seen — but Barnes believes the foundation is finally in place.
