In 1996, a 26-year-old Kim Barnes Arico recorded her first-ever victory as a women's basketball head coach with Fairleigh Dickinson-Madison. Now, 26 years later, Barnes Arico is a member of the 500-win club.

Michigan defeated Nebraska, 76-59 on Wednesday night, as Michigan improved to 12-1 on the season, giving Barnes Arico her 500th career win.

Following her first and only season with Fairleigh Dickinson-Madison, Barnes Arico spent two seasons with the NJIT Highlanders. She won 16 games in two seasons with the Highlanders as she was still looking to find her footing as a head coach.

From 1999-02 she went 65-24 with the D-II Adelphi Panthers. The 2001-02 season was especially remarkable as Barnes Arico led the Panthers to a 28-3 record and a Sweet 16 appearance in the D-II NCAA Tournament.

Barnes Arico then scored her first big-time gig as a head coach in 2002 when she became the head coach of the St. John's Red Storm.

In her 10th and final season with St. John's, Barnes Arico broke the school record for most wins in program history. She finished her St. John's tenure with 176 wins before she arrived in Ann Arbor.

As Michigan fans have now become well aware of, Barnes Arico has had immense success in her time with the Wolverines. Wednesday night's win marked her 230th win as Michigan's head coach, and she isn't anywhere close to being done adding to that total.

She has won at least 20 games in each of her first 10 seasons with Michigan, apart from the Covid-shortened 2020-21 season.

Michigan had arguably its best season in program history last year as it finished the season with a 25-7 record and made an appearance in the Elite Eight for the first time in program history.

Barnes Arico has now led Michigan to 12 wins in 13 games so far in her 11th season with the team. She has built an improving program that is still thriving in the post-Naz Hillmon era.

She is Michigan women's basketball's winningest coach, and she has built, and is still in the process of building, something special in Ann Arbor. In September of 2021, she signed a contract extension through the 2025-26 season.

There, perhaps, has never been a higher moment in both Barnes Arico's career, and in the history of the women's basketball program. It truly is a match made in heaven, and Michigan fans should be ecstatic about the direction that Barnes Arico has the program heading.

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