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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S MEDIA DAYOctober 16, 2014Kim Barnes AricoCHICAGO, ILLINOIS THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Michigan head coach Kim Barnes Arico. We'll start with an opening statement. COACH BARNES ARICO: Good morning. I'm thrilled to be here, as always. It's a special day for us and for our program. And really I think for the league. A few years ago I was at St. Johns, and we were in the Big East, the old Big East, and I was there during a time where we had eight and nine teams be eligible for the NCAA Tournament. And I feel like our league has now become like that. We have so many great teams with Rutgers and Maryland coming in, but also with Michigan State and Iowa and Nebraska and Northwestern and I can go on and on, just returning a great group of players. I think everyone is going to challenge for the NCAA Tournament and for championships. So I think it's really an exciting time to be in the Big Ten, and the league is tremendous. The players returning, the incoming kids, and the coaches, they're just phenomenal. So I'm thrilled to be here and great to see all of you, as always. Q. You have your top two rebounders back. I was wondering if you could talk about Cyesha and Nicole and how you've seen them develop since they got on campus and what strides do you expect them to make this year? COACH BARNES ARICO: It's exciting for me to have both those players returning. Cyesha came off an outstanding year last year, outstanding. She came in really and didn't play a lot prior to last year and finished the season as a Second‑Team All‑Conference player. Almost rebounding, I think, ten a game, which was pretty impressive. She's a driven kid. She's always in the gym. She wants to be better. So I'm excited to see with a year under her belt of experience how she's going to perform this year. And Nicole Elmblad is just a special, special kid. Last year she was named an Academic All‑American. I think she's received one grade under an A, might be a B plus or an A minus. If it's a B plus and I'm saying this, she's going to give me a lot of grief for it, in her time at Michigan. Not only is she driven on the basketball court but also in the classroom. And she is our leader. She's just tremendous in everything she does. She sets an example each and every single day and she plays extremely hard. I think rebounding a lot of times is effort. And Nicole gives that effort each and every single day. We chart it every day in practice. So at the end of our first week of practice, Nicole and Cyesha were at the top of the rebounding board. Now we just have to get a couple of the young ones up there as well. Q. Playing 18 games in the conference, how much did that change what you want to do at a non‑conference not only this year but also moving forward as far as still maintaining the strong RPI and all those factors? COACH BARNES ARICO: I think it will really make a difference. And it will be interesting to see how that works out at the end of the year. I think that's going to be really difficult because I think our league is so strong. And each and every night there's not a team on our schedule that could say this is a guaranteed win or this is a guaranteed loss. I think every game is going to be a battle and physically we might wear each other down. I think you have to be smart about your non‑conference, definitely. But I think I'm not sure how it's going to pan out. We still have Notre Dame in the non‑conference and some other tough games, but we've kind of tried to be smart about our scheduling and see where we are at the end of the year, moving forward. Q. I noticed that the new team, Maryland, was preseason pick by both coaches and the media, but how do you see the league in terms of overall maybe that wouldn't be true, maybe somebody out there who might make that untrue? COACH BARNES ARICO: Well, you know, being from the east, I've had an opportunity to play against Maryland a couple times. I had an opportunity to play against Rutgers many, many times. So I know the talent and I know the coaches pretty well. They're both Hall of Fame coaches in my opinion. And top programs in the country that are returning. I mean, Rutgers is returning everybody and they have a number of all Americans on their team. So I think those two teams will definitely add strength to our conference. No question about it. But being in our league for the last couple of years, I think Rutgers and Maryland, by the end of the season will say oh my goodness because I know I did after my first season here. This league is incredible and Iowa the players they have returning and Nebraska the players they have returning and Michigan State, and you can go on and on and on, and I think the other thing besides the players that we have returning, are the incoming kids. I mean, last year we spoke a lot about the freshmen and the impact that the freshmen in our conference made was incredible. Well, I'm interested to see now what the incoming freshmen as well as those young women that are now sophomores, the impact that they are going to have in our conference and really in the country. So I think it's really exciting time for our league. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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