Michigan
South Carolina
Wolverines to Kick Off 2024-25 Season Against No. 1 South Carolina
10/31/2024 2:06:00 PM | Women's Basketball
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan women's basketball team (0-0) begins the 2024-25 schedule on the national stage, facing off against No. 1-ranked South Carolina (0-0) in the Hall of Fame Series on Monday evening (Nov. 4) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The game is set for 4:30 p.m. PST and will be broadcast live on TNT.
Notes
• J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Head Women's Basketball Coach Kim Barnes Arico enters her 13th season in Ann Arbor as the winningest and longest-tenured coach in program history. She has 261 wins at U-M, the only women's coach to ever eclipse 200 wins. With 11 of Michigan's 15 all-time 20-win seasons, she is first all-time in winning percentage (.662) with a 261-133 record at Michigan. KBA is 17 wins away from John Beilein's total of 278 wins, the most in Michigan basketball history.
• U-M returns four letterwinners from last year's squad in Jordan Hobbs, Greta Kampschroeder, Alyssa Crockett and Macy Brown. Hobbs is Michigan's leading returning scorer after starting all 34 games last season, averaging 9.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 29.0 minutes per game.
• Michigan welcomes a five-member freshman class in Olivia Olson, Syla Swords, Mila Holloway, Te'Yala Delfosse and Aaiyanna Dunbar. The class is ranked No. 8 by ESPN, the highest-ranked recruiting class in program history. Olson and Swords are the two highest-ranked recruits in program history. Swords finished at No. 4 in the final ESPN rankings, with Olson coming in at No. 20 after being ranked as high as No. 3 during her high school career. It is the first time Michigan has welcomed two five-star recruits in the same class.
• Michigan brought in three players from the transfer portal in Ally VanTimmeren (Boston College), Brooke Q. Daniels (Oakland) and Yulia Grabovskaia (Middle Tennessee). All three have two years of eligibility remaining. VanTimmeren (Allendale) and Daniels (Macomb) are Michigan natives. Daniels has scored the most career points of anyone on the roster, entering her junior season with 758 career points. Over her first two years at Oakland, Daniels averaged 12.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.2 steals in 29.3 minutes per game.
• Michigan welcomes new assistant coach Justine Raterman to the coaching staff, as well as new assistant coach for player development Natalie Achonwa. They join Melanie Moore and Jillian Dunston, who are each in their second seasons back in Ann Arbor, on the Michigan coaching staff. Dunston was a four-year letterwinner for the Wolverines (2015-18), with Moore back for her second stint in Ann Arbor after spending four seasons as the head coach at Xavier (2019-23).
• U-M picked up an 81-52 exhibition win over Northwood, a Division II school in Michigan, last Sunday (Oct. 27). The Wolverines got a double-double from Olson, who went for 22 points and 10 rebounds. Holloway went for 15 points and Swords had seven points, three rebounds and five assists. Michigan forced 25 turnovers in the contest, with all 10 active Wolverines finding the scoring column.
• Michigan is facing the No. 1-ranked team for the second time in program history. U-M previously squared off against No. 1 Iowa on Feb. 7, 1988, dropping an 89-54 contest. Michigan has two top-five wins all-time in program history, both coming against the No. 5-ranked team during the 2021-22 season.
• Barnes Arico and South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley spent two summers together coaching for USA Basketball. In 2014, the U18 team won a gold medal at the FIBA Americas Tournament in Colorado Springs. In 2015, the U19 team won gold at the FIBA World Cup in Chekhov, Russia. Staley served as head coach of both teams, with Barnes Arico serving as an assistant coach for the first time in her coaching career.
• Swords represented Canada at the 2024 Olympics, becoming the second Olympian in program history. At 18 years old, she was the youngest basketball player to ever play for Canada at the Olympic Games. She appeared in all three games, averaging 3.3 points, 1.3 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 14.6 minutes per game. In summer 2023, she earned a pair of bronze medals in 14 days, collecting third place at both the FIBA U19 World Cup and as part of the 2023 AmeriCup team.
