First-year Michigan women's basketball coach's optimism strong

Ann Arbor ? Michigan's new women's basketball coach, Kim Barnes Arico, hopes to duplicate the success she had at St. John's last season when she led her team to the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history.

The Wolverines should have a strong nucleus. The team's top recruit is Madison Ristovski, who was named Miss Basketball last season for Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett. Senior guard Jenny Ryan (6.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4 assists last season) joins Ristovski in the backcourt with 6-foot-1 senior Rachel Sheffer (12.8 points) up front.

"Madison Ristovski has come in and really been tremendous," Barnes Arico said. "I think she can really be a special player for us. She's really come in and adjusted to college basketball pretty smoothly.

"Jenny Ryan is really a special young lady. She is truly the heart and soul of our team. I've been doing this for a long time and I've really never found a leader as strong as her for her age. And Rachel Sheffer is probably our most talented kid. She works extremely hard every day."

Barnes Arico is pleased with how the players have responded to her, especially since they liked playing for their former coach, Kevin Borseth, who returned to be the head coach at Wisconsin-Green Bay, a job he formerly held before coming to Michigan. Borseth guided the Wolverines to a 20-win season and their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 11 years last season.

"Their coach wasn't let go," Barnes Arico pointed out. "They really loved their coach, so I wasn't sure what things were going to be like. When you take over a team, you never know how the players and the program are going to respond. But these kids are incredible kids. They embraced me and that has made my transition a lot easier than it could have been."

Barnes Arico talked about what style of ball the Wolverines will play.

"My first couple of years it's probably going to be a combination of the style that I played for the last few years at St. John's, but also a style that fits our program," she said. "I'd like to pick up pressure defense and play full-court type of style. Our team really shoots the 3s really well. We move the ball well. We share the basketball extremely well."

The Big Ten is expected to be strong. It had a record seven teams advance to the NCAA Tournament last year. Barnes Arico is planning on an upper division finish and, in the process, trying to end that 11-game losing streak against arch-rival Michigan State.

"Last year was really a big step for the Big Ten and they kind of took that first step," Barnes Arico said. "Being in the Big East for the last 10 years, I've kind of watched it go from a league that had five to a league that had record-breaking teams go, and it was really kind of neat to be a part of that because you knew that you didn't have to win the league and it was always pretty tough to win the league with Connecticut and Notre Dame.

"You knew if you were in the top of the league, you were probably a top-20 team in the country, and that's kind of special. You knew you were going to get a berth every year being in the top half of our league."

Barnes Arico knows the importance of playing in March. She has earned respect from coaches, players and media after taking over a 3-24 program at St. John's, one that was winless in the Big East, and turning it into a top-20 program, a reason the Red Storm have been ranked No. 12 in Lindy's publication and another reason the Wolverines are ranked No. 22 by Athlon's magazine.

david.goricki@detnews.com

Source: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121105/SPORTS0201/211050349/1131/rss17

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