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