2022-23 Week 6 with the Pac-12
Former Pac-12 Players of the Year Sabrina Ionescu and Aari McDonald are giving back to their alma maters
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It’s not unheard of for former WNBA players to come back to their alma maters and be involved in their former programs in some capacity. In the Pac-12, Adia Barnes parlayed a career overseas and in the WNBA into a career as the only Arizona coach to ever take the program to the Final Four.
It’s something different for current players to work for their alma maters while their professional playing careers are in full swing. That’s exactly what Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu and Arizona’s Aari McDonald decided to do this year.
Their paths back to their alma maters and their roles at their former programs are different, but the players that put Oregon and Arizona on the map provide far more to those programs than what’s in their job descriptions. It’s an opportunity to give current players a regular opportunity to interact with those who have walked the college path and parlayed it into successful professional careers.
Ionescu’s role at Oregon is unique. Her job title is director of athletic culture. She provides a resource for Oregon’s current players.
“She'll know maybe what players are struggling a little bit with, maybe their confidence or whatever,” Graves said. “I mean, she's been through it, so she can help those kids navigate their own personal issues. She's just gonna be a great sounding board for them.”
McDonald is fulfilling a more traditional role at Arizona. She is the recruiting coordinator for the Wildcats. It’s often the first step to an on-court coaching role. That’s exactly why Barnes brought her in. It’s the coach’s aim to give her former protégé a taste of coaching and hopefully convince her to follow that path when her playing career in the WNBA is over.
While Barnes was the initiator of McDonald’s return to Arizona, Graves said that Ionescu was the one who suggested the possibility of coming back to Oregon.
“I think for me, just wanting to continue to give back to the school that’s done so much for me–I’m still close to the coaching staff and a lot of people at the university and the players, as well,” Ionescu said. “So, I just wanted to continue to find ways to help the other generations of athletes coming through the program.”
McDonald echoed that feeling. If she opts to stay in coaching after her playing career is over, the players will be why she does it.
“I've done pretty good for myself so far, but just pretty much inspiring them,” McDonald said. “Giving back. Giving them the knowledge that I wish I had when I was their age and just making sure that once they leave college, whether they want to play or not, that they're just great young women.”
Getting their former players formally involved with their programs wasn’t automatic. It involved some legwork for both Graves and Barnes.
For Graves and Ionescu, the tasks were all internal to UO. They had to decide the capacity in which Ionescu would serve. How could she best help the program and meet her goals, while also fulfilling all of the other responsibilities she has, both to the WNBA and in her outside pursuits?
They sat down with former Oregon senior woman administrator Lisa Peterson, who has since moved on to the position of Pac-12 Senior Associate Commissioner for Sports Management. She helped them with the creation of the position from a human resources perspective.
For Barnes and McDonald, the hurdles weren’t internal to UA. The recruiting coordinator position is one that already exists at most schools, including Arizona. The Wildcats lost Kortney Dunbar, their former director of recruiting, when she took an on-court coaching position at IUPUI in the offseason. It opened the door for Barnes to invite McDonald into the ground floor of the coaching profession.
The nature of McDonald’s professional basketball career, her relationship with some of Arizona’s current players, and the NCAA regulations around recruiting required several people to sign attestations and waivers.
“We had to show that there was no affiliation with recruiting with any of the current players,” Barnes said. “And then she had to sign documents with the players she played with, like Cate [Reese] and Madi [Conner] had to sign documents about recruiting and that had nothing to do with them being here. Then we had to get a waiver from the Pac-12, which I don't know what exactly that entails.”
There are also rules about how McDonald works out at Arizona. She has access to the Wildcats’ facilities and training staff. She uses those resources to follow training plans laid out by her trainers with the Atlanta Dream. However, her ability to even be on the court with the current players is limited by NCAA rules.
“Her trainer comes here every few weeks or so,” Barnes said. “So she will do her own workouts around practice time, but sometimes she'll be ending or beginning when our stuff’s finishing, so some of the players will sneak in and try to watch before, but she can't be on the court [with them]. She can't work out with them. But the rules are when a coach is gone, like a coach is off the court or recruiting, she can fill in. But she's learning, so she's not going in there and trying to run something. She's passing and learning or she'll do ball-handling or some drills that she likes. But I'm just trying to teach her.”
The jobs at their former schools also give both women a way to stay involved in basketball during the WNBA offseason. Neither currently plays overseas.
McDonald gave the European basketball scene a brief chance the winter after her WNBA rookie season. It wasn’t to her taste, though, and she was back in the U.S. within a few days. She said that she doesn’t want to play basketball all year for the sake of her health and longevity.
Ionescu hasn’t decided whether she will eventually play overseas or not. For now, she’s more focused on community involvement when she’s not playing for the New York Liberty.
“For me, I just want to continue to give back and find ways to do that–whether it be through my camps, my foundation, or through the University of Oregon,” she said. “I just want to continue to be the best that I can in the community and give back.”
Both women have a lot to juggle. Not only must they keep up with their offseason training regimens and current jobs, but they have other responsibilities outside those jobs. For Ionescu, that means that most of her work with Oregon will be done remotely.
“Sabrina is perhaps the most highly-endorsed women's basketball player in the world,” Graves said. “In fact, currently she's in Great Britain. She’s got so many things going on in her life that she needs to attend to.”
McDonald has personal responsibilities to keep up with. She married Devon Brewer, her longtime boyfriend who became her fiancé at the 2020 Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Tournament. He stays in Atlanta while she is working in Tucson. That leaves her spending much of her free time with Barnes, her husband and assistant coach Salvo Coppa, and their two children.
“I feel like college all over again, just the long distance,” McDonald said with a laugh. “It's hard, but, I mean, this will pay off for the future, so I'm not really complaining”.
Her WNBA responsibilities may create roadblocks for McDonald going forward, though. In November, the league announced that it will be extending its season beginning next year. That would keep McDonald away from Tucson until at least September, a time when many recruits are taking visits to campus.
During the WNBA season, there are limits to what she can do as far as promoting Arizona.
“She can't sit there and be promoting–through the Atlanta Dream–Arizona,” Barnes said. “But she could do what she did as an alumni promoting Arizona women's basketball, but not using the platform of the Dream. It's kind of confusing because she does play with the Dream, but she could still retweet, pomp, do all that stuff. But I think that the way we structured it is where in Arizona’s offseason, her season in the WNBA, she's focused on the WNBA. She'll still do some stuff–calls and stuff–but more focused on being a pro, which I want her to do well, and then come back to Arizona focused on Arizona.”
The schedule changes are not as difficult to manage for Ionescu since her job is remote. Players can contact her via phone or text. Technology like FaceTime or Zoom also make interpersonal interaction possible without her needing to be in Eugene.
When players do reach out to her, their concerns vary. Graves said that he wants them to feel like they can go to Ionescu without her automatically telling him what they say. If it isn’t something that he has to know, he would prefer it be kept between the player and her mentor. Ionescu also wants to keep the interactions within her realm of expertise.
“I don’t want to feel like a counselor or a psychologist because that’s not what I studied or my profession,” Ionescu said. “I think just having a relationship and a conversation with someone about what they're experiencing, what they're going through because I was also in their same shoes. It’s really what we talk about–whether it’s basketball or school, it really changes. But I think just being able to be a sounding board and someone they can come to me for whatever it is that they need or want to talk through.”
McDonald has a more regimented workday. Part of it involves coordinating with Bett Shelby, who was hired as Arizona’s Special Assistant to the Head Coach in the offseason. Shelby oversees recruiting from a high-level perspective, especially in regard to social media. A typical day for McDonald is long and involves wearing a lot of hats.
“I come in and see if anyone needs help,” McDonald said. “We're about to go on Christmas break and coaches are going to recruit, so I go over stuff with Bett. You know, coordinating the locations of coaches, where they’re going to, and the players they are going to see. I go over some basketball stuff with Adia and sometimes Salvo, and then go to practice. Help with workouts. Practice is three hours. I gotta get used to that. Then, after that, I go and do my own workouts.”
All of the responsibilities have given McDonald more appreciation for the jobs Barnes and the other on-court coaches have.
“I'm like, if I would have known you did this, I would have had a little more grace,” McDonald said. “They do a lot. So, I respect them because it doesn't look easy, and I know it's not easy.”
McDonald can give the players something that the other staff members can’t, though. She has current words of wisdom about what it takes to make it in the modern WNBA. That was a big reason Barnes wanted her to return to Arizona. While Barnes has WNBA experience, it’s from decades ago. She felt the voice of a current player would have more impact.
Having a star from your program and a top WNBA pick taking an interest in you can be both exciting and intimidating, as Graves has seen at Oregon with Ionescu.
“[The players] love it when she's around, because she's so real,” Graves said. She's not going to sugarcoat stuff. She's coming at it from a place of love. I mean, she truly loves Oregon, loves this program, and loves our team, likes our individuals. I think there's still a little intimidation with some of them around her, but the more she's around the team, the more comfortable they'll be.”
For Ionescu, it’s just one more way to fulfill what she thinks is an important role for WNBA players, regardless of how they choose to do it.
“I think for everyone it’s different,” Ionescu said. “If they want to give back to their alma maters or if they want to do other things in the community. I don’t think there’s one right way as long as you’re doing something for the people in a community and the people around you and help them in any way that you can with the platform you have.”
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