 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

