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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.”

