Women's hoops HC Kim Barnes Arico opens up on Michigan's response to transfer portal and NIL

ANN ARBOR – Michigan Wolverines women’s basketball head coach Kim Barnes Arico started her 13th season with the program having to process a surprising amount of attrition that wound up being incredibly hurtful.

Following a 20-14 campaign that ended with a loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Michigan lost its leading scorer and star player to the transfer portal, and ultimately Texas, in Laila Phelia, who led the team with 16.9 points per game and was an All-Big Ten selection. It also lost a few other pieces in Chyra Evans (Utah), Taylor Woodson (Minnesota) and Elise Stuck (Ball State).

Barnes Arico has gradually built one of the most consistent programs in the conference over the last several years, but the offseason bit her for the first time in the new college sports landscape of massive portal departures and NIL inducements.

“I was crushed. I was really hurt,” Barnes Arico admitted during her press conference at Michigan women’s basketball media day. “I think everybody that would probably be in that position would be. You develop these relationships and build something. We consider ourselves in this program as builders, and what we do may be different than a lot of other programs. We’re not a program that’s based on the transfer portal year in and year out. That’s not the University of Michigan. That’s not the culture of our university as a whole. We really pride ourselves on building something. And when you come in as a freshman, you’re here. And when you leave as a senior, you’re here. And the relationships that you build with the players and their families and the people along the way,

“I think it was eye-opening. I had a bunch of coaches reach out to me at that time. Some in our league, some top coaches in the country. They said, we know it hurts and we’ve been through it already and this is your first time. You’re going to be okay. The landscape has certainly changed. [Jillian Dunston], my young member of my staff always says to me, ‘Coach, we have to grow and we have to evolve. The times have changed and we either grow and evolve or we’re left behind.’ I think this is an opportunity for us to learn and to grow and evolve.”

Michigan’s issues in retaining top talent, outside of the football program, have not been limited to women’s basketball. Plenty of the other sports have dealt with transfer portal attrition due to NIL, such as All-American center Hunter Dickinson’s transfer to Kansas two offseasons ago.

So how does the sport level itself out from all of the changes in roster construction? Michigan’s head coach doesn’t quite know the answer to that.

“Can anyone answer that? Can you ask that to everyone in the entire world?” Barnes Arico asked. “The thing about everything that’s going on in college athletics is it changes by the second.What happened on April 24th was different than on April 25th, than on May 25th, than yesterday. It is incredible. I can’t even begin to answer those questions.

“We’re waiting to get some information on revenue sharing. We’re waiting to gather all the information to be in a position… retention is going to be really important because we have some other special players in our program. So that’s going to be super important. We haven’t had signing day so I can’t comment on all the things that are happening in our world right now. But there are a lot of really good things happening. I know that those questions will need to be answered so that way we can compete with the rest of the world.

“That’s always the goal for Michigan Athletics is to be in a position to compete against the best.”

Michigan is a name-brand school that has found itself still making adjustments to an ever-changing NIL landscape, and often circumstance creates solutions. Coming off the offseason, Barnes Arico discussed some of the collaboration since that has taken place between her program, the athletic department and the NIL collectives.

“When [the start of the offseason] happened, it was kind of all hands on deck,” Barnes Arico said. “I think everyone has been trying to help and everyone has been trying to wrap their head around really what this looks like and what this is. I think a lot of people really don’t understand and I didn’t understand. It really had to happen to me at the level that it did for me to really understand what was going on?

“We’ve had some different engagements in the offseason, a bunch of different things that I’ve been at to try to communicate that message, whether that’s our donors, whether that’s our season ticket holders, whether that’s the people in the community to really try to get people outside of athletics, because if it’s happening this quick inside, the outside doesn’t understand what’s going on. So I think the education piece is very important.

“But I think the response to our Michigan people has been incredible. The Michigan brand and the Block M is special. Michigan wants to help Michigan people and wherever you go in the world, Michigan is there. I think it’s just about getting people to understand the landscape. It’s a process, but we’re all growing and evolving.

“We gotta learn, and we gotta have all hands on deck.”

Despite all of this, the program’s re-tooling comes at a exciting time. Michigan just signed its best recruiting class in program history, headlined by five-star recruits Syla Swords and Olivia Olson, and the youth and potential star power mixed with the remaining veterans and some fresh blood via the transfer portal has Barnes Arico excited for the season.

“I would probably guess to say [we’ll have one of] youngest lineups in all of college basketball,” she said. “I think one of the greatest things about them is our team so far is their willingness to learn and to want to grow and to want to get better and to want to be a part of something special. This team has really been exceptional. They come to practice every single day eager and there’s no negativity, There’s no poor body language, there’s no, ‘Hh this is too hard, this is too challenging.’ It’s more, ‘What can I do? how can I get better? What can I learn?’

“Your questions might be how many games are we going to win? Or what does that look like? I can’t tell you all the answers to those good things, but if you asked me in May or June if I would be feeling the way I’m feeling today, I don’t know what my answer would have been. I thought maybe I’d walk in here like, ‘Oh my gosh, what do I do?’

“That’s a credit to our players and to our staff that really energized and fired me up. I’m excited for this year’s team and for the future of our program.”

Michigan kicks off its season on Oct. 27 in an exhibition game against Northwood before opening the season on Nov. 4 in Vegas against defending national champion South Carolina.