Kim Barnes Arico: Michigan basketball is 'battle tested,' looking forward to being 'upset team' in NCAA Tournament
Michigan Wolverines women’s basketball earned a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will take on No. 11 seed UNLV Friday at LSU. The winner gets No. 3 LSU — the first weekend host for that pod — or No. 14 Hawai’i.
Head coach Kim Barnes Arico met with the media following her team’s selection. Watch Barnes Arico’s press conference and read some of her notable comments below.
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• Michigan women’s basketball a No. 6 seed in NCAA Tournament, will take on UNLV
Opening comments on Michigan making 11th ever NCAA Tournament
“Super excited. Sometimes I have to reflect and remind myself that we weren’t always a team that was invited to the NCAA Tournament, so it’s really a big deal.
“The players in our program, I want them to have the opportunity to celebrate it. To get a 6-seed is great for us. Just excited about the opportunity to play on Friday.”
On how much she knows about UNLV
“Great question. Not much. I know that they had an unbelievable season. They only have two losses on the year. I’m on the coaches poll, so I get to vote every week so I get their updates on their scores every week and I’ve kind of been following their team. They have a great coach; I think she’s pretty young in the business, I think she played maybe at Stanford.
“She’s done a tremendous job, and in the last 15 minutes, I’ve been looking at all their box scores, going through their roster, having some film downloaded, so as soon as I finish with you guys I will definitely start watching them. But they have had a historic season, for sure.”
On if Michigan is ‘battle tested’ going into NCAA Tournament
“I think that’s really a great point, and that’s something that we’re going to emphasize this week with our team — we’re a really good basketball team. We’re a team that was under the radar at the beginning of the year. No one expected [us to be very good] with [former Michigan forward] Naz‘s [Hillmon] graduation. But then we went to some tournaments, we played on the road, we played at Miami — and we challenged ourself against some really, really good teams.
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“And then we got banged up. We had a couple things at the end of the year where we didn’t finish exactly the way that we wanted, but we weren’t 100 percent, either. This gives us an opportunity these last couple weeks to get back at it, and I think our players are getting excited about the opportunity to play in a different role — maybe be the upset team this year.”
On if Michigan has a chip on its shoulder since it’s not hosting the first weekend
“You have to go through the season, and we weren’t 100 percent down the stretch, and that’s probably why we didn’t get the seed that we were hoping for, projected for when we were 100 percent healthy.
“It’s tough in the women’s game when you don’t get to host, because now you have to win at somebody else’s home court, potentially; you’ve gotta get past the first round. But you’re not gonna have your fan base, you’re not gonna have your home court. That makes it more challenging.
“But last year’s team was a team that was 16-0 at home, and this year’s team is a team that played probably as well on the road as we did at home. We lost a bunch of home games. So the mentality for our players is, ‘OK, we’ve done OK on the road, we’ve done OK on neutral courts this season, so we’re not afraid to go on the road.'”
