kim barnes arico

In the aftermath of yesterday's disastrous Men's Basketball loss to Rutgers in the BTT, I decided to pivot to a different winter sport that will actually be making the NCAA Tournament this year, Michigan Women's Basketball. I know we've been scant on the WBB content this year, but that ought to end with the big dance right around the corner and the Wolverines looking to return to the second weekend for the third straight tournament. This piece will not be an in-depth look at the team, for I am not a WBB expert, but rather will be a quick summary of the regular season, who the key players are, the feel of the team, and what to expect when the bracket is unveiled. The goal is this should be a helpful crash course for folks planning to watch the tournament who want to know the basics about the Michigan Women's Basketball team. 

How's the season been?

In two words, pretty good. The Michigan Women's team finishes the regular season/BTT at 22-9 overall and 11-7 in conference play. They finished tied for 5th in the conference standings but the B1G is an excellent conference this year and Michigan is replacing the best player in program history, Naz Hillmon. Acceptable when you consider the context. They started the season rolling over easy non-conference opponents at Crisler before traveling to Estero, FL, over Thanksgiving weekend for the Gulf Coast Showcase, where the team defeated Air Force, USF, and a solid Baylor team in successive days. After that they knocked off Miami in the B1G/ACC challenge, won their first conference game over Northwestern, but then suffered a shocking loss at the hands of Toledo. In fairness to Toledo, they are a very good mid-major team, 27-4 overall and 16-2 in the MAC, playing tomorrow for the conference's autobid to the NCAA Tournament. Still, it was not a good loss, a game Michigan trailed nearly wire-to-wire, finally taking the lead with 1:41 to go only to relinquish it with 20 seconds left in an ultimate three point loss. 

It was the one black mark on an otherwise crisp non-conference, which included another top 25 win over North Carolina twelve days later. The Wolverines beat Nebraska in Lincoln on December 28, with their record sitting at 12-1 at that point and their ranking being #14 in the country. That's when the meat of the B1G slate picked up, starting with a clash in Columbus against #3 Ohio State, which didn't go well. In a theme that we will return to later, Michigan battled non-stop turnover problems and also were ice cold from three, which doomed them 66-57 despite playing good defense and holding OSU well below their season scoring average. 

[David Wilcomes]

The loss to the Buckeyes is the beginning of a broad theme for Kim Barnes Arico's team this season in the B1G, success at swatting aside lesser teams but struggling in the marquee matchups. As January rolled along, the Wolverines handled unranked PSU, Purdue, Rutgers, and Minnesota all by double digits, while going 0fer against ranked teams, with losses to #16 Iowa, #6 Indiana, and #10 Maryland, by an average margin of defeat of 8.7 points. They were dealt a very difficult blow at the end of January against the Gophers when star guard Laila Phelia, one of the three offensive engines and the defensive anchor, was injured and would not play again in the regular season. The team was 17-5 with Phelia healthy, but would trudge through February struggles without her. 

They started off the post-Phelia slate alright, more wins over unranked teams in Illinois, MSU, and Nebraska, though their tussle with the Huskers at Crisler was closer than most of these games (Nebraska was within one score with six minutes to go). Michigan then faced their most daunting game of the season, going to Bloomington to face #2 Indiana with star Mackenzie Holmes. It went about as you'd expect, a blowout by halftime as the Hoosiers took control. Michigan failed to get their revenge on OSU next time out and then another blow was dealt, with star wing/guard Leigha Brown missing the final two games of the regular season with an "internal issue". That led to Michigan losing on the road at Wisconsin, a team that was 6-12 in B1G play, to close out the regular season. 

With the 5th seed in tow, the Women's Basketball team trekked out to Minneapolis, MN, for the Big Ten Tournament. Their first game was against 12th seeded Penn State, Brown and Phelia's return to the lineup. It was not nearly as smooth as some may have hoped, with Michigan committing 20 turnovers against the Nittany Lions' press and the score was tied in the early fourth quarter. A 9-0 Michigan run sustained by excellent defense gave Michigan a seemingly firm lead, one they would almost blow but Makenna Marisa's shot at the buzzer was off the mark and Michigan hung on 62-60. Given one more crack at Ohio State in the semifinals, the two bitter rivals engaged in a back-and-forth affair and Leigha Brown got a jumper on the final possession with a chance to go to OT but it was not to be and the Buckeyes had eliminated Michigan from the event. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Players, playing style, and bracketology]

The 2021-22 season of Michigan Women's Basketball met its unfortunate end on Monday night at the hands of the 1st seeded Louisville Cardinals. Michigan played a solid game and kept it within striking distance for all but the last couple minutes, trailing by two with only five minutes to go before running out of gas offensively. The loss closes the book on this season, with Michigan finishing at 25-7 and making the Elite Eight for the first time in program history. It was a season with a lot of high notes and will definitely be remembered down the line as one of the peaks of a rapidly improving program. Today we're going to do a quick review of the season for those who may have missed parts (or only jumped on the bandwagon in March), talk about what it means in context, and give a brief preview of next season's roster. 

A Season Synopsis  

Sometimes it's easy to forget the happy moments from a season in the immediate aftermath of a tough loss, but this year was rife with them for the Michigan women. They started the season 12-1, losing just one game in the 2021 portion of the season, which was also to Louisville in early December. Mixed in were some big wins that affirmed the potential of this team, most notably over a Baylor team who had knocked them off in the preceding year's tournament, in addition to a throttling of Ohio State on New Year's Eve, and victories in the Daytona Beach Invitational over Mississippi State and Oregon State. By the time the calendar flipped from 2021 to 2022, it was clear that Michigan Women's Basketball this season had a good shot to be the best team in program history, something that would be proven true later on. 

From the get-go of the season, Naz Hillmon remained the superstar, but it was the efforts of some of the pieces around her that made the season feel so hopeful going into the new year. That win over Baylor was the handiwork of Leigha Brown (and Laila Phelia), after Naz fouled out of the game, with Brown carrying the load in OT. To win against a highly ranked team away from home without Naz was a sign that the team had made improvements to the supporting cast that would give them a shot to go even deeper in the tournament. 

The team was also getting contributions from other, lesser-known pieces. The team entered the season knowing they'd need to replace key pieces like AK Johnson and Hailey Brown, and they were able to do so thanks to Emily Kiser and Danielle Rauch stepping up. Kiser was never more than an occasional role player in her first three years in Ann Arbor, but this season she snagged the starting center role, giving Michigan a strong interior presence next to Naz. Rauch was a backup guard with little starting experience who elevated her game by moving into the starting lineup and her hot three point stroke was especially useful in the fall (before cooling off later). 

[David Wilcomes]

They started 2022 with a rough loss against Nebraska, but Michigan was quickly right back on their winning ways. They cruised through the month of January and quickly started to look like the team to beat in the B1G. Michigan's big win over Maryland in College Park, made possible by Maddie Nolan's three point assault (21 points), was an important touchstone that solidified the Wolverines near the top of the league. They went into Columbus and polished off the Buckeyes for the second time on the season, and then returned home to play #5 Indiana in the biggest home game in program history. A complete effort from the Maize & Blue gave them a 15 point win and put them in the driver's seat of the conference. 

Unfortunately, at the tail end of the Indiana game, Leigha Brown sustained a lower leg injury that would change the trajectory of the regular season. Michigan hosted #21 Iowa in early February and were able to prevail with a victory thanks to Phelia's best game in a Michigan uniform to that point, but the offense would soon find a rut due to the loss of Brown. Michigan struggled offensively with high turnovers in back-to-back losses to Michigan State and Northwestern, two middle tier B1G teams (both of whom they probably would've beaten with a full lineup), and in the span of a week went from prohibitive conference favorites to a lagging candidate. 

With the season pushed to the brink, the Wolverines responded. They played great defense to beat Maryland for the second time on the season, and then Naz carried the team on her back (28 points) on Senior Night in Ann Arbor to beat MSU. This set up a winner-take-all battle for the conference regular season title against Iowa in Iowa City. In front of a raucous Hawkeye crowd, Michigan got out to a hot start, but things crumbled from there as Iowa superstar Caitlyn Clark played the game of her career to win a conference title. Clark led Iowa in points, assists, and rebounds, with 38-11-6, and the entire Hawkeye team shot the lights out from distance. Not much Michigan could really do about that. Leigha Brown returned in that game but was not remotely close to full strength.

[AFTER THE JUMP: Feelingsball and a look to 2022-23]

It's been a couple weeks since we checked in on women's basketball and the regular season chase is reaching the final push. Indeed, it's down to the last week of the season and Michigan has just two contests remaining, Thursday against Michigan State at home (6:00 PM) and then Sunday against Iowa (4:00 PM) in the Hawkeye State. As it stands presently, Michigan holds the conference lead, but their margin is quite thin after a pair of clunker losses two weeks ago. In today's piece, we will briefly recap some of the recent results, talk about the B1G chase, and then check in on national bracketology: 

Recapping the Last Few Weeks 

Since the last update, things continued rolling along very well for the Wolverines at first. My last piece was the day of the Ohio State game in late January, a game Michigan won with a sizzling offensive performance and good defense. They followed it up with a huge win over Indiana in what was, at the time, the biggest home game in program history. They held the rather shorthanded Hoosiers to just 50 points and notched another double digit win over a top 25 conference rival. That night saw an extremely concerning development though: Leigha Brown appeared to injure her ankle in the closing minutes of the game. Brown has not played since then. 

The initial effects of losing your 2nd-best player and a hugely important offensive engine for your team were not immediately felt because the Wolverines torched Iowa in the next game on Feb. 6. The Hawkeyes put up 90 points, including a staggering 46 from Caitlin Clark, who made national highlight reels for her absurd 30-foot buckets in the game, but Michigan won because they scored at will, hanging 98 points of their own. Reserve guard Laila Phelia was the story of that one, driving offensive play without Brown on the floor by scoring 24 on 9/16 from the field and getting eight at the free throw line: 

Laila Phelia had a career night in @umichwbball's win over Iowa!

The freshman scored 24 points and notched 3 assists, both career-highs! She also secured 4 rebounds.

She is the 𝘽1𝙂 𝘾𝙤-𝙁𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙝𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙚𝙚𝙠! pic.twitter.com/3d83rzBn3V

— Michigan On BTN (@MichiganOnBTN) February 7, 2022

Unfortunately, the rosy outlook of offense without Leigha Brown fell apart pretty shortly after in consecutive losses to MSU and Northwestern in a brutal week that seemed to sink Michigan's conference title hopes altogether (we have since learned that that is not the case). The loss in East Lansing was one defined by Naz Hillmon's ice cold second half, missing a bunch of easy layups she normally makes and not much else happening offensively, while Spartan star Nia Clouden turned it on in the second half: 

You may have heard we 💚 a buzzer beater! @NiaClouden pic.twitter.com/IY7InMuIVC

— Michigan State Women's Basketball (@MSU_WBasketball) February 11, 2022

A concerning development beginning in the MSU game has persisted to the present in Brown's absence, which is a shockingly high number of turnovers, frequently disrupting offensive flow. They turned it over 17 times against MSU, 21 times against Northwestern, and then 22 times against Maryland on Sunday. This needs to get cleaned up ASAP. 

The turnovers did the team in against the Wildcats in a 2OT game that saw Michigan's offense come grinding to a halt in two painful overtime periods. Defenses have become very comfortable doubling Naz Hillmon to deny entry passes to force Michigan to find someone else to take the reins. The main culprits of the turnover bug have unfortunately been guards Danielle Rauch and Amy Dilk. The latter has always had some issues with mistakes, but Rauch's turnover problems are a rather new development and probably the result of the increased load handling the ball placed on her due to Brown's injury. 

On Sunday against Maryland, Michigan still fought the turnovers, but the combination of relentless team defense and dominance from Naz Hillmon (29 points) was able to get it done:

Check out the highlights from today's 71-59 win over No. 13 Maryland!#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/hOXIOFUSDG

— Michigan Women’s Basketball (@umichwbball) February 20, 2022

At the end of the day, you win quite a few games when you have the best player on the floor, and Naz Hillmon is frequently the best player on the floor. Credit the Michigan defense for suffocating a good Terps team, though, and helping to not let a great Naz performance go to waste. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: B1G and national implications]