BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 4, 2022

Kim Barnes Arico

Naz Hillmon

Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Michigan Wolverines

Postgame Press Conference

Nebraska - 76, Michigan - 73

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach and then take questions.

KIM BARNES ARICO: Really tough game for our team. Obviously pretty upset about the loss. A great basketball game probably for the viewers. I thought two teams that played incredibly hard throughout the course of the game. That's it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. This makes it four losses in the last six games. For both of you, just what do you think is going wrong?

NAZ HILLMON: I think every game is a little bit different in terms of what happens, but I think our biggest thing is our defense. I think that that's one thing that really fueled us early in the season, playing teams with potent offenses.

And obviously in the first quarter we saw them score a lot of points and get in transition like that. You can't open a quarter like that.

And I think, again, the third quarter they scored a bunch of points. So I think if we were able to get some stops in a lot of those games, it would be closer or even a win, so I think right now our defense might be our biggest problem.

KIM BARNES ARICO: Well, one, we had a major injury and we've been without Leigha Brown for a month. So that probably had something to do with it.

Two, our schedule probably had something to do with it as well. So I think it's probably a combination of those two things.

Q. In the first quarter your defense didn't play well but in the second quarter you guys only allowed six points. Probably one of the best defensive quarters you had all season but at the same time the defense has been inconsistent. You guys know that you can be that capable of a defensive team. What is the message with all the inconsistency going on?

KIM BARNES ARICO: Yeah. I thought we played great in the second quarter after a really slow start. We didn't come out ready to go.

And in the third quarter part of our problem, and I don't have the complete box score here, was our foul trouble and I think we put them a bunch on the line and that's where they got a lot of their points in the third quarter which obviously came down to hurting us.

But, I mean, we're talking about how poorly we've been playing. We just played a really good team. So they deserve some credit too. I think that they have been a great team all year. I think they have been under the radar and sometimes our league doesn't get recognized as much as some other leagues out there.

But I have a vote in the top 25 every week and they have been in mine for a really long time. They started the season 12-0. They have some experience. They have some big-time players and Haiby made some plays down the stretch that big-time players make.

So I think it's a credit to Nebraska as well and not so much kind of what's wrong with us. But they played a heck of a game as well.

Q. The NCAA Tournament is coming up next. Obviously kind of the last chance for some of your seniors. What's the focus for this week off?

KIM BARNES ARICO: Yeah. I think our seniors are really crushed, and it's obviously going to take a minute for them to regroup. But they will.

I mean, they're just an incredible group and we talk about it all the time. But they just want it so much, so this really hurts them. This was one of their goals, and they pretty much managed to check all the boxes off of their list throughout their career, so this one really hurts 'em.

But we will bounce back and we will learn from it. I think we're going to be a dangerous team in a couple weeks in the NCAA Tournament. Leigha has been out for a long time and she's really rusty. She hasn't really practiced that much either. So getting us healthy is really important.

And then I think these last couple games have exposed the attention to detail that we need to have, which we definitely have been working on, but when everyone's not out there together, I think it's really important.

Q. You called the timeout with 21 seconds left. What did you want to see there and what happened on that play?

KIM BARNES ARICO: Yeah. I mean, we were trying to get the ball to Naz, and this is something that we talked about in the locker room. We talked about it at halftime and we talked about it at the end of the game. And I think for some people, especially not, you know, our older kids, I think in the moment they were trying to make a play and we didn't really execute what we were trying to do. And I could see Naz going down the other way and saying, I thought we were doing this, I thought we were doing this. And that happened to us a couple of times.

And I don't know if it's the pressure of the situation or what, but we were trying to get Naz on a staggered screen to get her a touch. We thought we got ourselves in really good shape in the fourth quarter in terms of drawing fouls and we knew that if she got a touch we would be in good shape.

Q. For both of you, you mentioned Leigha being rusty, but how much better is this team when she's out there? And I know you haven't seen her at her full strength yet.

NAZ HILLMON: I think we've seen that earlier in the year before she was out, just how potent our offense was, how fiery she is. She brings a lot of energy to our team. She's a playmaker. She makes it easy on everybody, if we're being honest, everybody on the floor. You have to pay attention to her when she's coming down the lane, pay attention if she's dropping off passes to post players to shooters. You can't necessarily sit in the paint on her because she is such a great playmaker.

But just those things. Also her intangibles. I always say her energy and her fire just brings a difference to our team and we've seen that earlier in the year when we had our hot streak.

KIM BARNES ARICO: Yeah. I just think she's a dynamic guard and without her -- she does so many things for us. She's a great passer. She's a great rebounder. She's a great scorer. So without her everybody else has to do a little bit more.

But I do think, you know, she's got to get herself back to where she was. I don't think she's there yet and this was her playing 30 minutes without much prep and she gave it her all and she does, she just brings a different fire and a playmaking ability for our entire team.

Q. What did you think of Laila's performance in the fourth quarter?

KIM BARNES ARICO: Yeah, I felt like we kind of went away from her late too. She made a bunch of plays down the stretch that were really incredible and we put the ball in her hands to make a lot of those plays and for a freshman to be able to do that I thought she started the game really shaky and real nervous and as the game progressed she became more and more comfortable and she really did a tremendous job down the stretch for us, for sure.