Michigan women, Barnes Arico living up to lesson from UConn legend
The date was March 19, 2006, and Kim Barnes Arico’s St. John’s women had just defeated California to earn the first NCAA tournament victory of her career, and the program’s first in 18 seasons.
Barnes Arico, then 35, was literally jumping for joy in the Bryce Jordan Center tunnel in University Park, Pennsylvania, as legendary UConn coach Geno Auriemma — whose Huskies were also in Happy Valley, albeit in a different region than the Red Storm — strolled up to her with a smile and a message.
The future Michigan women’s basketball head coach was ready for his kudos.
Not so fast.
“Of course Geno had to come and burst my bubble when he gives me a hug to say congratulations,” Barnes Arico said with a laugh during a video conference call Monday. “The next thing out of his mouth is, like, ‘It’s easy to get here, the hard part is staying here.’ And I was like, ‘Golly, I wanted to enjoy this moment.’
“But that was something that has always, always stuck with me . ... It’s stuck with me about what’s your legacy and what does your program stand for?”
Barnes Arico now has been at Michigan for a dozen seasons and these days, the program now stands for consistency.
Her Wolverines (20-13) officially received their sixth consecutive NCAA tournament berth Sunday evening; they’ll be the 9-seed in the Portland 3 region, facing 8-seed Kansas in Los Angeles at 2 p.m. Saturday (ESPNews). The winner will face Saturday’s winner between 1-seed USC and 16-seed Texas A&MCorpus Christi on Monday in L.A. with a trip to Portland, Oregon, on the line.
It will be Barnes Arico’s seventh NCAA tourney at U-M, with her first coming in her first season in Ann Arbor (2012-13). Before her arrival, the Wolverines had made just five NCAA tournaments in the previous 31 seasons of the event.
U-M went four years without a March Madness appearance after that first season under Barnes Arico, including 2017, a snub that still bugs her and one she noted Monday she’ll “have to get over eventually.”
Peeved about the perceived snub — Barnes Arico told the Free Press in 2017, “We’re really, really disappointed with the way things turned out” — U-M went on to win six straight (including a triple-OT final vs. Georgia Tech) for the
WNIT championship.
Since then, Michigan hasn’t missed the NCAA tourney.
Saturday’s opponent, Kansas, has a vibe similar to Barnes Arico’s 2017 and 2018 Wolverines; they’re coming off of a WNIT title last year, following the program’s first NCAA tournament in a decade the year before that.
Still, Barnes Arico said she likes her group’s chances, given her program’s more recent experience.
And yet, despite the Wolverines’ run of NCAA berths, they had just one truly proven player returning: junior guard Laila Phelia.
So, Barnes Arico turned to the transfer portal, bringing in guards Lauren Hansen (from Missouri) and Elissa Brett (Bowling Green) and forward Taylor Williams (Western Michigan) — each of whom had more than 1,000 career points at their previous schools.
“Heading into this year I probably had a belly ache every day,” she said Monday. “Just this incredible unknown of what this season would be. I think from a coach’s perspective, it kind of was exciting though, because we hadn’t been in this position in a while.”
After a 7-1 start, Michigan didn’t put together a three-game winning streak until March. Still, sitting on the bubble again, the Wolverines played their way in with a pair of Big Ten tourney wins, including a phenomenal rally against No. 12 Indiana sparked by the team’s veterans.
Michigan has never lost in the first round under Barnes Arico, but they’ll face a tough test in the Jayhawks.
It’s the time of year for special treatment and while it’s always fun, it has become a bit routine at this point.
The win over Indiana on March 8 gave Barnes-Arico 11 20-win seasons over 12 campaigns in Ann Arbor. (Her only season without 20 wins came in 2020-21, when the team won 16 of 22 games — a 22-win pace in a 30-game season — and then advanced to the program’s first Sweet 16.
It’s a consistency few expected a decade ago.
“Coming into this season, we knew we’d have a lot of new pieces, knew it would be a work in progress, knew there would be some ups and downs,” Barnes Arico said. “But (we) also knew we had a talented team; that if we had a talented team, we would be able to accomplish some great things.
“There were so many unknowns, for us to be here in this position today, I’m just really proud of our group.”