10 — Wednesday, January 11, 2023
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
500 wins and counting: examining Kim Barnes Arico’s legacy so far
After beating Nebraska on
Dec. 28, Michigan coach Kim
Barnes Arico only wanted to
talk about her players.
In two postgame interviews,
the Michigan women’s basket-
ball coach praised individual
efforts from fifth-year senior
wing Leigha Brown and sopho-
more guard Laila Phelia, delving
into Brown’s success in games
past and acknowledging the
challenges of upcoming Big Ten
play.
What she spent less time dis-
cussing, though, was her own
monumental
accomplishment:
With the win, Barnes Arico
earned her 500th career victory
— the latest milestone reached
by the transformative leader
amidst another successful sea-
son.
Despite the magnitude of the
accolade, Barnes Arico acknowl-
edged her career landmark only
briefly.
“It means I’m old,” Barnes
Arico joked to Big Ten Network.
“That’s what it means. (And) I
never thought I would get old or
be old. In my mind, I still think I
might be 25, but I guess it means
that I’ve been in the game for a
long period of time.
“It’s a wonderful profession
to have, and I get to work with
young women every day that
keep me young, so it’s pretty
awesome.”
For the Wolverines, though,
it means much more than the
march of time. The win is anoth-
er milestone in their ascension
to the upper echelon of women’s
basketball, a process only pos-
sible under Barnes Arico’s lead-
ership.
Michigan, off to a red-hot
start, is excelling under the vet-
eran coach, who has elevated
the program to a new level of
prestige since taking over in
2012. Two hundred thirty-one
of her now 501 wins have come
during her tenure at Michigan.
When she joined the program in
April 2012, it had made just one
NCAA Tournament appearance
and three NIT appearances in
the previous decade, with that
lone tournament trip ending in
the Round of 64.
Coming from St. John’s Uni-
versity, Barnes Arico was tasked
with righting the ship. Her
approach to that monumental
task centered around identity,
with the goal of establishing a
new culture.
“Any time you have a new
coach we try to establish our
culture,”
Barnes
Arico
told
Michigan Athletics Oct. 5 2012,
just months after accepting the
head coaching job. “I think it’s
really important to build those
relationships
and
build
our
identity. Every day we step on a
court we want to be the hardest
working team in America. And
we have certain things that we
want to stand for, certain things
that when people watch us play.”
Coaches often express their
emphasis on “hard work.” But
Barnes Arico has reiterated her
commitment to that conviction
year-in and year-out, embrac-
ing the mantra as her program’s
foundation.
She instilled that culture at
St. Johns, where she was the
winningest head coach in pro-
gram history until only a season
ago. And during the 2018 season,
she accomplished the same feat
at Michigan.
Since that season, Barnes
Arico’s teams have only gotten
better.
The Wolverines have made
four consecutive NCAA tourna-
ment appearances — not includ-
ing the 2020 season that was
canceled due to COVID, which
they ended 21-11 and were
almost certain to get an invite.
They also made the school’s first
Elite Eight in 2022.
And so far this season, Barnes
Arico has continued to find sim-
ilar success. Michigan is 13-2,
ranked 14th in the country, and
beating tough teams despite los-
ing its best player in the draft
last season. In a conference
that boasts some of the highest-
ranked teams in the country, her
team currently sits fourth.
Despite the accolades and
success — amid the buzz around
the 500-win milestone — Barnes
Arico’s focus appears directed
forward.
The Wolverines, poised to
make another postseason run,
are embracing that culture she
aimed to establish a decade
ago. They’re winning games off
scrappy
defense,
three-point
shooting and well-rounded bas-
ketball. That “hardest working
team in America” mantra has
been evident most times they’ve
stepped on the court this sea-
son, as it has since that inter-
view more than 10 years ago.
“I’m excited to be here,”
Barnes Arico told the Big Ten
Network. “There’s no place I’d
rather be.”
SELENA SUN/Daily
And 231 wins later — with a
program transformed by her
guidance — Michigan seems
pretty excited to have her too.
Mistakes flashed throughout season cost
Michigan in loss to Iowa
Entering a top-20 matchup at
home, the No. 14 Michigan wom-
en’s basketball team had a lot to
gain from a win. It could have made
another statement asserting that it
is an elite women’s basketball pro-
gram while getting its revenge on
No. 16 Iowa — who beat the Wol-
verines in front of a sold-out crowd
to steal the Big Ten regular season
crown last season.
Instead, Michigan suffered its
second Big Ten loss in a tough con-
ference, and struggles that it has
displayed at times all year were to
blame.
“I think just you gotta lock in 40
minutes a game, and I don’t think
we did that,” graduate forward
Emily Kiser said. “… But I think
we’re just trying to battle with it.
Just not making the same mistakes
over and over again, like we can do
better than that.”
Those now-familiar mistakes for
the Wolverines have happened at
times throughout the season, but
all combined together Saturday
night against the Hawkeyes and
ultimately cost them an important
victory. Their bigs got into foul
trouble. They turned the ball over
15 times. They surrendered offen-
sive rebounds. And most conse-
quentially, their offense struggled
when facing a zone defense.
Sophomore guard Laila Phelia
and senior guard Maddie Nolan
completed a very tough defensive
assignment, holding star guard
Caitlin Clark near her season aver-
age with 28 points while only
allowing her to score nine in the
first half. But the rest of the Wol-
verines’ defense did not do enough
to help.
“We didn’t help out Laila,” Kiser
said. “(Clark) is gonna get hers, I
think we knew that. But limiting it
to one shot. I don’t know how many
o-boards they got, but that was kill-
ing us.”
Iowa had seven opportunities to
have a second possession and they
took advantage — scoring 18 sec-
ond-chance points. Those missed
defensive rebounding opportuni-
ties cost the Wolverines chances to
generate and sustain momentum
with defensive stops.
Guard Kate Martin snatched
an offensive rebound and went on
a six-point run of her own with
roughly three minutes left in the
third quarter to put Iowa up by five
points — the Hawkeyes led by at
least five for the rest of the game.
Iowa’s fifth through seventh-best
scorers all scored at least three
points above their season averages,
adding between eight and 10 apiece.
Entering the game, Michigan
considered Iowa an excellent test
for its defensive prowess. With the
Hawkeyes dropping over seven
points more than their season
average, the Wolverines clearly
fell short of where they wanted to
be. Throughout the season, they
have said that they want to be a top
defensive team in the league — and
most nights, they have been. But
when offensive rebounds provide
second chances to a team as offen-
sively lethal as Iowa, that causes
trouble, and that danger was per-
tinent Saturday afternoon.
Combining Iowa’s extra pos-
sessions with 20% of all of Michi-
gan’s own offensive possessions
ending without a shot and in a
turnover instead, and the effects
of those mistakes just continued
to accumulate.
“And it’s like, heading to this
game, I was saying like, we only
get to play them once,” Kiser said.
“The biggest thing is just don’t
regret anything. Especially with,
I mean me being a fifth year, but
like, telling you it’s gonna fly by.
Just don’t regret any of these
games. So just leave it all out
there.”
But as the final seconds ticked
down in Crisler Center towards
a loss, Michigan’s mistakes led to
plenty of regrets. As a team who
set an elusive Big Ten champi-
onship as a season goal, digging
itself a hole — no matter how
small — early in conference play
with a loss on its home court was
not the outcome the Wolverines
were looking for.
“It was kind of a bummer that
we weren’t able to get tonight’s,”
Michigan coach Kim Barnes
Arico said. “But we got to learn
from it and get better and get back
to work tomorrow. Because our
next game on the road is going to
be incredibly difficult as well.”
Against Iowa, the Wolverines’
weaknesses compounded in uni-
son. If they want to meet their
lofty goals for the season, they
can’t let that happen again.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
ANNA FUDER/Daily
JACK CONLIN
Daily Sports Writer
Michigan falls to Iowa, 94-85, allowing
most points of the season
LIZA CUSHNIR
Daily Sports Writer
When a high-powered offense
clashes with a staunch defense,
there’s always a good chance fire-
works will erupt.
As the No. 14 Michigan wom-
en’s basketball team hosted No.
16 Iowa, an eruption was pre-
cisely what the Wolverines were
hoping to avoid. And for the first
15 minutes of play, it looked like
Michigan (13-3 overall, 3-2 Big
Ten) might be able to do that. But
by the time the dust settled — and
the Hawkeyes (12-4, 4-1) took
over — the Wolverines’ defense
faltered in a 94-85 loss.
“Michigan plays very good
defense and it rattled us for the
first five minutes, we had quite a
few turnovers,” Iowa coach Lisa
Bluder said postgame. “Then we
settled down and did a great job,
I thought, of finding good shots,
shooting the ball well from the
free throw line, two point and
three point (lines).”
Michigan exploded first. Up
just 20-18 at the end of the first
quarter, the Wolverines came out
of the break strong, sending the
largest home crowd of the season
into a frenzy as Michigan built its
lead to 10 points with 6:09 left in
the half.
Contained primarily by the
relentless defense of sophomore
guard Laila Phelia, star Hawk-
eyes guard Caitlin Clark mus-
tered just two points in the first
quarter. They turned to their
second-leading
scorer,
center
Monika Czinano, to keep them in
the game with her strong inside
presence.
But Iowa’s dynamic offense
could only be kept quiet for so
long. As it woke up, it paired that
with a switch to a zone defense
that gave the Wolverines trouble.
“Our zone defense really kind
of turned the tide for us,” Clark
said. “We were able to get a lot of
stops. I think we forced five turn-
overs there in the second quarter
in just our zone defense. So that
helped us out a lot.”
Michigan coach Kim Barnes
Arico agreed:
“They went to a zone and
we really got on our heels and
we stopped being aggressive
and stopped getting downhill,”
Barnes Arico said.
Facing the Hawkeyes’ zone,
the Wolverines’ offense faltered.
Phelia — who scored 14 points
in the first quarter alone — went
cold for the rest of the game, not
making another field goal.
And as the clock wound down
on the first half, Clark drained a
long 3-pointer to put the Hawk-
eyes up 41-39 at the break, com-
pleting a 12-point swing for Iowa
and giving it a lead it never relin-
quished. Despite being held to
just nine points in the first half,
Clark still ended the night with
28 points, one point above her
season average.
For the first six minutes of
the second half, the teams trad-
ed baskets, with the Hawkeyes
maintaining their lead but unable
to build much separation as
Michigan repeatedly answered.
Then, Iowa went on a 10-0 run in
less than two minutes, one that
put them up 62-51.
Throughout the second half,
Clark and Czinano delivered for
the Hawkeyes when they need-
ed it.
“I don’t think we did a great
job of even helping off of our
players,”
graduate
forward
Emily Kiser said. “I think a lot
of times we got worried, I mean
when a team has that many
players like that. I don’t think
we were playing our defensive
help side … we were kind of just
focused on our own.”
As Iowa built up its largest
lead of the game, going up 77-63
with 5:46 to play, the Wolver-
ines’ defense couldn’t find stops.
Facing that 14-point deficit,
Michigan found one final surge,
but it wasn’t enough.
The Wolverines pulled close
as fifth-year senior wing Leigha
Brown and sophomore guard
Jordan
Hobbs
scored
eight
points apiece. Michigan’s impos-
ing second-half deficit dwindled
to a mere five points with 32.1
seconds to play.
But those late offensive fire-
works came too late for the Wol-
verines, and those five points
were as close as they came to
tying it up. After delivering on
its game plan for the first 15 min-
utes of play, Michigan failed to
match Iowa’s adjustments, suf-
fering its first home loss to the
Hawkeyes since 2014.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
MARIA DECKMANN/Daily
TAYLOR DANIELS
Daily Sports Writer