The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1178918
NOVEMBER 2019 THE WOLVERINE 53 BY BOB MILLER E ntering her eighth season as head coach of Michigan's women's basketball pro- gram, Kim Barnes Arico has achieved an unprecedented level of growth for the program. The growth is shown by the team posting at least 20 wins in each of her seven seasons, a WNIT champion- ship in 2017 and three NCAA Tour- nament appearances, two of which came in the last two seasons. On her way to becoming the win- ningest coach in Michigan women's basketball history, she also oversaw the player development of Katelyn Flaherty, Michigan's all-time leading scorer with 2,776 points over her four seasons. Extending that constant growth into the future is her goal for the program even if she sometimes can't help get- ting stuck dwelling in the moment. "Sometime, I think as a coach, you never really reflect on, 'Okay, where was the program when you got here, and where is the program now, and what are the next steps in terms of where we want to take the program?' Barnes Arico said. "Because you are al- ways worried about the moment, and, 'Okay, what are we going to do today?'" Barnes Arico and her team over- came loss to graduation of Flaherty last season by implementing a plan of spreading the offensive wealth around among a handful of players. She faces a similar dilemma this sea- son, having lost a pair of graduat- ing seniors, Hallie Thome and Nicole Munger, who contributed a com- bined 3,091 points to the Michigan offense over their four-year careers. "I think at least it gives me hope," Barnes Arico said of successfully re- placing Flaherty's offensive output last year. "After Katelyn left, when you lose that many points and she's kind of a once-in-a-lifetime player, you have to adjust. I didn't think about it that much, but every person I talked to reminded me of it. "So I was a little concerned going into last season, but we had Hallie Thome returning, who'd had a heck of a career, and Nicole Munger, who was a great shooter, returning. We knew that we were going to be in great shape. We knew we would have some pieces to fill that void." Big replacements are needed again in 2019-20. "But now, here we go, losing 2,700 [points after Flaherty's graduation two years ago] and another 3,000 [in Thome and Munger] on top of that," Barnes Arico continued. "That's a lot of points. So, if I lay down at night and think about it, it could give me a stomachache — but then I get up ev- ery day and go to practice, and I feel so excited about our team this season and where we are. We're a different team than we've ever been before. We're a long team and we're a defen- sive team. We're a team that can affect the game in ways other than the scor- ing that we relied on in the past. "We sat down this week and wrote out individual goals and team goals. A lot of players on the team spoke about how we can affect the game on the defensive end. I was really happy when I read what they had written because we know that we may have to be a little bit different. With our length, we're capable of doing that, and I think there are going to be some players that surprise the rest of the conference and the rest of the country. "Two of those are [senior forward] Kayla Robbins and [senior guard] Akienreh Johnson. I think those two are going to be a surprise to the rest of the league." That difference in this season's team will rely on the growth of that pair of seniors, Johnson and Robbins, and a pair of sophomores, Naz Hill- mon and Amy Dilk. Johnson and Robbins played much of their first three years as part-time players, but both stepped up pro- gressively as last season wore on to the point where they both were major contributors when postseason games rolled around. The duo fin- ished the year averaging a combined 11.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, but Robbins started to break out at the end of the year. Though she never started, the 6-1 Robbins notched a career-high 15 points against Illinois in February and then broke into double digits in both of the NCAA Tournament games, two of the six times she did so last season. "I think Kayla can affect the game like we've been talking about, on the defensive end with her length 2019-20 BASKETBALL PREVIEW CONTINUED GROWTH Coming Off Two Straight NCAA Tournament Bids, Kim Barnes Arico's Squad Looks To Keep Getting Better 2019-20 MICHIGAN WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Times (ET) Oct. 30 Northwood# 7 p.m. Nov. 8 Western Michigan (BTN+) 7 p.m. Nov. 10 Bradley (BTN+) 2 p.m. Nov. 15 Kent State^ 2 p.m. Nov. 16 at Akron^ 2:30 p.m. Nov. 23 Notre Dame (BTN+) 1 p.m. Nov. 27 at Eastern Michigan 2 p.m. Dec. 1 Morgan State (BTN+) 1 p.m. Dec. 5 Syracuse$ (ESPN) 9 p.m. Dec. 8 Oakland (BTN+) 2 p.m. Dec. 14 Appalachian State (BTN+) 3:30 p.m. Dec. 22 Florida State% (ACCN) 1:30 p.m. Dec. 28 at Maryland* (BTN) 8 p.m. Dec. 31 Penn State* (BTN+) 2 p.m. Jan. 5 Michigan State* (ESPN2) 12 p.m. Jan. 9 at Ohio State* (BTN) 6 p.m. Jan. 12 Maryland* (ESPN2) 12 p.m. Jan. 16 at Wisconsin* (BTN+) 8 p.m. Jan. 19 at Nebraska* (BTN) 5 p.m. Jan. 26 Rutgers* (BTN+) 2 p.m. Jan. 30 at Northwestern* (BTN+) 8 p.m. Feb. 2 Iowa* (BTN) 12 p.m. Feb. 6 Purdue* (BTN) 6 p.m. Feb. 10 at Minnesota* (BTN) 7 p.m. Feb. 13 Northwestern* (BTN+) 7 p.m. Feb. 16 at Rutgers* (BTN) 12 p.m. Feb. 19 Illinois* (BTN+) 7 p.m. Feb. 23 at Michigan State* (BTN) 5 p.m. Feb. 27 at Penn State* (TBD) TBA Mar. 1 Indiana* (TBD) TBA Mar. 4-8 Big Ten Tournament! TBA # Exhibition; ^ Akron Classic in Akron, Ohio; $ Big Ten/ ACC Challenge; % Basketball Hall of Fame Women's Showcase in Uncasville, Conn.; * Big Ten Conference game; ! at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis