Arizona Women’s Basketball Jada Williams enters transfer portal

This season looked a little different for Adia Barnes and the Wildcats. After making it to the NCAA Tournament in the last four seasons, including a National Championship appearance in 2021, Arizona missed the tourney and accepted a WBIT invitation, before getting bounced in the first-round to the in-state rival NAU. More changes continued on Monday, as sophomore point guard Jada Williams announced she is entering the transfer portal, via her social media.

The sophomore point guard and co-captain was the undisputed leader of Adia Barnes’ young Arizona Wildcats squad. In two seasons in Tucson, Williams averaged 11.0 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.3 steals. This season, Williams improved her career averages across all areas, averaging 12.7 points, 3.5 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.6 steals.

The former Pac-12 All-Freshman selection had the second-highest free-throw percentage in the Big 12 this season, shooting 86.2 percent from the charity stripe. She also led the Wildcats in several statistical categories this season, including average points and assists per games, as well as total minutes, averaging 30.5 minutes per game.

Williams’ decisions opens up more questions than it does answer them. For starters, what does the future hold for Arizona head coach Adia Barnes? Barnes continues to be a candidate for open head coaching vacancies over the past couple seasons, including the Auburn job as recently as this year. It also begs the question, who’s next to enter the portal for the Wildcats? If Arizona’s young core of Breya Cunningham, Skylar Jones, and Lauryn Swann decide to enter the transfer portal, along with Jada Williams, the Wildcats could be in for a long season in 2025-26.