Impressive First U-M Recruiting Class for Kim Barnes Arico

Submitted by Raoul on

Kim Barnes Arico's first Michigan recruiting class is a pretty impressive one, especially considering she was hired only about half a year ago. At least according to one rankings list, two of the four signees for the class of 2013 are top 100 players nationally. The only downside is that all four are guards. Michigan was a finalist for two top-50 prospects—one a center, the other a wing—but both chose other schools.

Here's the first part of the mgoblue.com press release. See the full release for details on the signees. (Note also that the last paragraph below [see the bolded part] makes the first mention that I'm aware of that the team is planning a foreign trip next summer.)

Nov. 14, 2012

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- University of Michigan women's basketball head coach Kim Barnes Arico announced Wednesday (Nov. 14) the signing of the following players to National Letters of Intent. They will join the Wolverines for the 2013-14 campaign.

Name Pos. Ht. Hometown (High School)
Paige Rakers G 5-11 Carlyle, Ill. (Carlyle)
Shannon Smith G 5-7 Gastonia, N.C./Forestview [Trinity Valley CC]
Siera Thompson PG 5-7 Gardena, Calif./Serra
Danielle Williams PG 5-9 Phoenix, Ariz. (St. Mary's)

"I am excited about the young ladies who will be joining our program," Barnes Arico said. "I think it was really important for us to make inroads and get this first recruiting under our new coaching staff on board. They are all tremendous young ladies who come from very successful high school programs. They have played in AAU programs that compete at the highest level. It was important for us in the process of building our culture to get players that come from winning programs. These young ladies are all from great families and are excellent students. They will represent Michigan in the best way. They are leaders and best in everything that they do.

"Considering this was our first year and I didn't get hired until late in the recruiting process, I think this is an exceptional class," Barnes Arico said of the quartet. "We are really excited to get them on campus and coach them. We have a foreign trip next summer, which will give us the opportunity to get in the gym with them prior to practices starting in the fall. The staff did a great job of getting involved with players at this high level, considering how late we got started in the process. We are thrilled and think they will do a great job here at Michigan, representing the University the way they should."

Mich Mash

November 14th, 2012 at 11:30 PM ^

...she paid homage to Brady Hoke and continued what may become a fun tradition for new coaches at Michigan, responding to a question about accepting the job: "It's the University of Michigan, fergodsake."  This sound byte is also part of the in-game entertainment at the Big House on football Saturday's if you pay close enough attention to the video board during TV timeouts.

Hurricane

November 14th, 2012 at 8:17 PM ^

Is it easier for Michigan to accept a recruit in women's bball from a community college than for a men's sport? Seeing a recruit from a community college immediately brings to mind one Demar Dorsey.

Raoul

November 14th, 2012 at 8:26 PM ^

Shannon Smith is a bit of a different case because she spent two years at North Carolina (one of which was a medical redshirt year) and just starting attending Trinity Valley CC this fall. I don't think she'll have any problem qualifying. My guess is that the only reason she didn't transfer directly from UNC to Michigan was because Michigan didn't have a scholarship to offer her this year.

YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

November 14th, 2012 at 8:20 PM ^

Good to see momentum in various parts of the athletic dept because it helps the premier sports.Hopefully she'll build a top program.

I won't watch a single game as women's b-ball is the most grating sport IMHO, but I'll root for her success and these young ladies.

WolverineBlue

November 14th, 2012 at 8:52 PM ^

Barnes Arico seems to be off to an excellent start, I'm impressed.

Since this is the first day of the early signing period for most sports (incuding men's basketball) I am surprised to see so few announcements from Michigan's 20+ varsity teams that could be announcing signings today. Does anyone know if Derrick Walton, Mark Donnal, and Zak Irvin submitted their basketball LOIs today?

Raoul

November 14th, 2012 at 9:09 PM ^

The programs usually wait for all the LOIs to come in before putting out a press release, so that's probably why others (men's basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, etc.) have yet to be issued. And a lot of the other sports have much larger classes than basketball, so the LOIs aren't necessarily all going to come in on day one.