The Michigan women’s basketball team had just made all kinds of history. The Wolverines had won their first- and second-round games of the NCAA Tournament while hosting (for the first time in program history), and in the Round of 32, they had taken down Villanova, advancing to the Sweet 16 (for the second time in program history). Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico had barely put on the headset for her postgame interview when the M-V-P chants raining down on Naz Hillmon hit her in a different way. She tried to answer the questions, but through most of the interview she held back tears (to varying degrees of success), espousing how proud she was of the senior class for what they had built and continued to build.
A few different times, she peaked over her shoulder to glimpse Hillmon, the player who had almost singlehandedly brought Michigan to this point. In her answers and tears, the joy and sadness all wrapped together for Barnes Arico. At some point, she had to reconcile the fact that it was both her last game in Ann Arbor with Hillmon and the best team this program had ever seen.
Why not cry while on national television?
So, it must have been strange that by the time Barnes Arico got to the locker room she was greeted with something unexpected: Silence. No celebrating, no…
