Big Part of Sarah Ashlee Barker's Success is Her Ability to Handle Failure

Crimson Tide women's basketball senior, coming off emotional performance against Auburn, a key reason for Alabama's successful season.

Sarah Ashlee Barker doesn’t like to overthink things on the basketball court.

The Alabama senior prefers to control what she can—playing hard, having a positive impact on the team and, hopefully, the outcome.

“You want to play in a way where you don’t have to think about it because it adds pressure to yourself and makes you want something so bad,” Barker said.

It was hard to do Sunday when Auburn visited the Crimson Tide.

Sunday was her late grandmother’s birthday. It wasn’t easy for Barker to clear her head and just play.

There was more pressure, too. Barker was seven points shy of 1,000 for her career. Barker surpassed that mark in the first quarter. In the third quarter, Barker kept the Crimson Tide within striking distance of Auburn by scoring nine of her team-high 26 points.

She played a huge role in Alabama’s fourth-quarter rally. Barker got the win, achieved her milestone and gave her “Nonie” one heck of a birthday present.

“it’s not about how many points I scored,” Barker said. “It’s about how I got to do it on her birthday. I know she’s proud of me and had the best seat in the house.”

Sunday was a good day, but it wasn’t Barker’s best. She went off for 34 points against Kentucky last month, which was the start of a four-game win streak.

Barker scored 92 points during the four-game stretch for a 23-point average. She also averaged 8.5 rebounds during the streak.

“I knew that we really needed that game,” Barker said of Alabama’s three straight losses heading into Kentucky. “We had a week off before that game and I think it gave me a chance to mentally reset. Going in I really felt good about where I was. Things started to click, and once I got going there was no way they were going to stop me.”

Barker’s had plenty of big games with the Crimson Tide, and in her first two seasons with the Georgia Bulldogs, where she was a member of the 2021 All-SEC Freshman team

Barker’s development as a player from her freshman season at Georgia to her senior year back home at Alabama has been more about failure than success.

“Basketball is a game of mistakes. I’ve accepted that. I love that,” Barker said. “Just knowing that I’m not perfect and I’m probably going to make more mistakes than anything else. You have to be OK with that as a player to help you grow. I’ve really embraced the word failure.”

Barker grew up as a competitor and comes from a competitive family. Her dad Jay was the quarterback for Alabama’s 1992 national championship football team.

Despite the Crimson Tide connection between father and daughter, Sarah doesn’t talk about athletics too much with dad.

“My dad has always just tried to tell me good luck in games, and he’s praying for me and he loves me,” she said. “We never talk about sports unless I bring it up. He understands that this is my journey. We have talked about the mental aspect of being a college athlete and how you have to be mentally sound and not let plays affect you. But I don’t have pressure on me because my dad played here.”

Alabama (20-7, 7-5 SEC) has a huge challenge Thursday with a road game against unbeaten and No. 1 South Carolina.

Alabama is in a good spot for postseason play with four games left on the regular-season schedule. The Crimson Tide is hoping to earn a No. 4 seed for the SEC Tournament to get a double bye.

“There are some games you wish you could’ve gotten back, but the most important thing you can do in February is look forward and get the next one,” Barker said. “We know when we put 40 minutes together, we are a good basketball team. That’s our focus.”