New can really feel totally different. Scary even. For Kim Barnes Arico, who has been head coach of the Michigan girls’s staff because the ’12-13 season, 12 months 12 has been simply that: “Completely different.”
The Wolverines, who completed with a 23-10 file final 12 months, misplaced three starters after their second-round exit within the NCAA match, together with All-Massive 10 standout Leigha Brown, who was drafted within the second spherical of the 2023 WNBA Draft, two-year starter Maddie Nolan, who transferred to Colorado, and Emily Kiser, who’s now hooping abroad in Greece. For Barnes Arico, totally different is now the Wolverines’ actuality. “That is actually, actually totally different,” Barnes Arico mentioned within the Detroit Free Press. “We’re the kind of program, we construct it, you pay your dues, you are available [as a] freshman and work laborious then go away as an all-conference participant…that’s type of been the historical past of our program, you are available, you’re employed and reap the advantages later. With three gamers graduating, we would have liked to fill these holes with expertise…that was the course we needed to go on this 12 months.”
Barnes Arico and her teaching employees acquired proper to work in the course of the offseason by profiting from the switch portal and bringing in three graduate college students to assist lead this Wolverine squad. There’s former Missouri starter Lauren Hansen, who averaged 12.9 factors, 2.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists per sport final season and excels off the court docket, too—the 5-8 guard graduated from Missouri with a level in communications.
Australian standout guard Elissa Brett made a reputation for herself at Bowling Inexperienced, the place she is ranked No. 7 all-time in threes made and fifteenth all-time with 1,358 factors. In the meantime, Michigan native Taylor Williams is a 6-2 ahead who led Western Michigan in rebounds for 3 years and topped the 1,000-point mark for her profession in her ultimate sport with the Broncos. Based on Barnes Arico, the Wolverines wanted a degree guard, somebody to carry it down on the put up and rebound, and a sharpshooter “who can bang down threes.”
Michigan additionally has some returning bucket-getters, together with junior Laila Phelia, who hung out with Crew USA and, whereas there, centered totally on her protection. Based on the Detroit Free Press, the 6-0 guard says she’ll be “emphasizing that protection and with the ability to carry that skill to the staff together with management, as a result of we did lose a few of the finest,” which is precisely the type of vitality the Wolverines will want in a stacked Massive 10 convention that features powerhouses like Iowa and Ohio State.
With a remaining roster that features seniors Cameron Williams, Whitney Sollom and Elise Caught, a stable junior class that options guards Greta Kampschroeder and Jordan Hobbs (each of whom had a number of begins final season), sophomores Chyra Evans and Alyssa Crockett and freshmen Taylor Woodson and Macy Brown, the Wolverines may be deemed “inexperienced” by some, however not us. Don’t sleep on ’em. Suiting up in maize and blue comes with excessive expectations.
“While you’re on the College of Michigan, the expectation yearly is that you simply win championships,” Barnes Arico informed the Detroit Free Press. “Regardless that that is going to be a 12 months with some inexperience, I feel as a result of we’re again to a bit of little bit of an underdog, a bit of bit
of a chip on our shoulder, our gamers have one thing to show.”