She was someone too good to pass up. Even if there were no places left on the bench, Arizona women’s basketball head coach Adia Barnes felt she needed to hire Bett Shelby while the experienced assistant coach was available. So, she brought Shelby on in an administrative capacity as the special assistant to the head coach last June.
“I think it was a hard decision for her because...she’s been a longtime coach and she definitely wants to do it,” Barnes said last July. “But I felt like a lot of her strengths were kind of what we need in our office, and she’s not going to be in like a non-coaching position forever, but I thought it was a great opportunity for us to get her while we can.