Everything Kim Barnes Arico said at Big Ten Media Days

The Big Ten held its Media Days in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Each men's and women's coach was given about five minutes to talk about their team and answer any questions the media had. Here's everything women's basketball coach Kim Barnes Arico had to say.

Thank you, commissioner Warren, that was an amazing and embarrassing introduction. It is wonderful to be here today in Minnesota. I got a bunch of questions correct about the twin cities and the lakes so I'm pretty proud of myself that I knew a little bit about Minnesota.

Our league is absolutely incredible, and if you are a women's basketball fan, you get to follow the best league in the country. Back-to-back years we had four teams advance to the Sweet 16, which is pretty incredible. And us at the University of Michigan, made it to the Elite Eight last season, first time in program history.

Obviously we were led by Naz Hillmon, who happens to be here today and she is a wonderful player but even a better person. And our team will be different this year but excited for the challenges that lay ahead. I think we led the country last year in points scored through the post, so this year that won't be the case, but I think that's what makes it exciting for a coach and the players in our program to play differently than we have in the past.

I think our league is going to be more challenging than ever. Obviously Caitlin Clark is a phenomenal basketball player, but I think from top to bottom there are tremendous players in our league as well as coaches, and I would not be surprised if we have a national championship ahead of us representing the Big Ten conference.

So, just excited about this season, excited about our team. We'll probably be led by Leigha Brown, who is a phenomenal guard, had a great season for us last year, but also Emily Kiser, who's a fifth-year player, Naz's best friend, who decided to come back, and is in the Ross School of Business, getting her Master's degree. But she's been practicing exceptionally well.

And Laila Phelia, who had a great freshman season for us this past year, is having a great start to her sophomore season in practice. So, thrilled to be here today and excited to represent this incredible conference.

Yeah Greta has been phenomenal thus far. She just fits the culture of our program. She's an incredibly hard worker. I came back the other night to pick up something from the office at 10 o'clock and I looked into the gym and there was Greta getting up shots, so she has just been unbelievable.

She is a great scorer, high IQ player, can run all day. I think she's going to give us an additional, she's going to be able to play multiple positions for us, anywhere from point guard all the way through the '4.' So, she's just a great kid, great student, great family and really going to give us something that we needed this season for sure.

Yeah it's funny you see on social media all the time when your university, or when your football program and men's and women's basketball program have great success and fortunately, we have been one of those teams or one of those universities that has had tremendous success with our football program and men's and women's basketball program the last few years.

I think it's definitely something in the water in Ann Arbor. It's something that drew me to Ann Arbor, is the opportunity to be surrounded by excellence. And you can go across the board from softball to gymnastics to football to men's and women's basketball. Every program has rich tradition and success. And coach Howard is doing an amazing job. His young men are incredible people and they really connect with our program as well.

I say this all the time but he's at all of our games, he's in the front row with Jenine [Howard] and the guys are there cheering for our team, so we really try to support each other, I think at Michigan we do that and they just have a great thing going and for both of us to have Michigan basketball having the success that it's had the last few years is really special.

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