The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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women's basketball During head coach Kim Barnes Arico's first season in Ann Arbor, U-M tied a program record for wins in a season (22) and won a game in the NCAA Tournament for just the third time in program history. photo by per kjeldsen when they met No. 1 seed Stanford in the round of 32. The Cardinal won 73‑40. Since the women's tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994, No. 8 and No. 9 seeds are a combined 3-76 against No. 1 seeds, including four losses in the 2013 tournament. Rebuilding Job Ahead For U-M It's hard to imagine a smoother coaching transition than the Wolverines enjoyed this season. During head coach Kim Barnes Arico's first season on campus, the team tied a program record for wins in a season (22), beat Michigan State for the first time in five years and won a game in the NCAA Tournament for the third time in program history (60-52 over Villanova). Now, comes the hard part. The Wolverines were led by a solid senior class that is graduating this spring. Michigan's top five scorers were all seniors this year: guard Kate Thompson (14.3 points per game), forward Rachel Sheffer (12.6), guard Jenny Ryan (10.2), forward Nya Jordan (8.4) and forward Sam Arnold (5.2). Of the 1,984 points the Wolverines scored in 33 games this year, 1,666 of them were scored by seniors (83.9 percent). Just one returning player scored more than 100 points this year: sophomore guard Nicole Elmblad, who finished with 143 points (4.3 per game). "Every program goes through losing seniors and starters," Elmblad said. "But all of us are looking forward to establishing a new identity, but also keeping the culture we built this year. We're looking forward to getting back in the gym, coming together as a team and starting as soon as we can on next year." Besides Elmblad, just three other returning players tallied points: sophomore guard Brenae Harris (88 points), freshman guard Madi-