11
Thursday, July 30, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS
Barnes Arico wins
gold with USA team
By BRAD WHIPPLE
Daily Sports Writer
Sunday,
Michigan
women’s
basketball coach Kim Barnes Arico
watched her players celebrate a
championship win.
But
they
weren’t
wearing
maize and blue. And she wasn’t in
America.
Instead, she was in Chekhov,
Russia, surrounded by the best
19-year-old talent in the world.
And her team — donning red, white
and blue — stormed the court as
confetti rained from the ceiling.
And soon, Barnes Arico held a gold
medal in front of a wide smile.
In her second
straight summer
as
an
assistant
coach
for
USA
Basketball,
Barnes
Arico
helped lead the
USA team on a
7-0 run in the
FIBA U19 World
Championship,
a campaign that
began July 18 and
ended Sunday with a 78-70 win
over Russia, giving the team its
sixth straight gold medal.
Barnes Arico also guided the
U18 team to a gold medal last
summer, qualifying them for a
shot at this year’s trophy.
“It was an incredible feeling,”
Barnes Arico told USA Basketball.
“For the last two years, I feel so
honored to have been asked to help
coach for USA Basketball. To have
the opportunity to be surrounded
by greatness, whether it is the
players that I have opportunity
to coach that are the best in
their particular age group, or the
coaches and the staff that I get to
work with everyday. … It has been
a dream come true.”
After going 3-0 in group play to
earn Group B’s top seed, the United
States cruised past Argentina,
Canada and Spain to earn a spot in
the championship game. Against
Russia, the United States turned
an eight-point deficit into a five-
point lead by halftime.
U.S. center Chatrice White
finished the third quarter off with
a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to
maintain her team’s momentum,
and the United States ultimately
survived, led by forward A’Ja
Wilson’s 30 points, a U19 single-
game record that made the captain
the tournament’s Most Valuable
Player.
Wilson, who helped South
Carolina to this year’s Final Four,
carved her name in the record
books as one of the world’s best
19-year-old basketball players, and
is the stand-out example of the
excellence Barnes Arico has been
surrounded by this summer.
“Every game that we’re in, I can
pick up something from the other
team (and) from our team,” Barnes
Arico told MGoBlue.com on July
13. “Maybe a new out-of-bounds
play,
maybe
a new set, or
maybe this is
how this coach
does
things.
I
think
it’s
always
great
to learn new
things, and to
just
continue
to learn and
continue
to
grow.”
Aside from exposure to the
world’s best players, Barnes Arico
worked with a coaching staff that
boasted a heavy resume.
Assistant coach Jeff Walz, the
winningest coach in Louisville
women’s
basketball
history,
used
to be a regular
opponent
for
Barnes
Arico
during her time
in the Big East.
Since
2007,
Walz
has
led
Louisville
into
the national spotlight with five
NCAA tournament appearances,
including this year’s Sweet 16.
Walz’s
success
mirrors
what
Barnes Arico hopes to achieve at
Michigan.
U.S. head coach Dawn Staley
has always caught the admiration
of Barnes Arico. The WNBA
veteran and three-time Olympic
gold medalist led Wilson and the
Gamecocks to the this year’s Final
Four with a heavy defensive focus,
a focus Barnes Arico continues to
instill in Michigan.
“For the last two years, I have
had the opportunity to work
with (Staley) and I have learned
so much from her,” Barnes Arico
said. “It has been great to be
surrounded by her for an extended
period of time, to be surrounded
by excellence. I have enjoyed
every minute of it.”
Barnes Arico nearly had one of
her own appear on the international
stage. Back in May, sophomore
guard
Katelynn
Flaherty
was
invited to compete at the U19 trials
in Colorado Springs. But among the
34 attendees, she didn’t make the
final 12-member team.
As for Barnes Arico, she moved
on to find success at an even higher
level.
“This is another opportunity to
(learn and grow) at a high level,”
Barnes
Arico
said. “So when
I come back to
Michigan,
if
I can tweak a
couple
things
or pick up some
things
from
other
coaches
and
programs
that have been
champions, that’s only going to
help our program be better.”
This
season,
Barnes
Arico
nearly became the first coach to
hang a banner for the Wolverines
this when they reached the WNIT
Semifinals. Still, she’s off to the
best three-year start for any coach
in program history. Her growth
hasn’t stopped in the summer, as
she was surrounded by the best
talent in the country and in the
world.
It earned Team USA a gold
medal. And it could earn Michigan
its first banner.
RITA MORRIS/Daily
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico will look to apply what she learned as part of the USA team to her team’s upcoming season.
“This is an
opportunity to
(grow) at a high
level.”
“I have enjoyed
every minute of
it.”