Michigan women's basketball leaned heavily on transfer portal to fill holes on roster

MINNEAPOLIS — It was a hot summer day in Italy and the Michigan women's basketball team had just defeated a Canadian national team for the second consecutive time.

Straight from the court, the whole team went to the pool located just outside the gym, jumped in and celebrated.

While that wasn't technically the players' favorite day from U-M's recent Euro-trip which stopped both in Italy and Croatia — all three of Michigan's player representatives at Big Ten basketball media days unanimously agreed the boat day in Sorrento took the top spot — it was a seminal moment for transfer point guard Lauren Hansen.

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"It was just in that moment where I felt us all click," Hansen, a Missouri transfer, explained Monday afternoon seated at a podium on the Target Center court. "Being on the floor together, being a team and having fun in a different country. I felt like that was when I was like 'OK, we're definitely a collective group'."

While off-court chemistry is always important, there's perhaps more of an emphasis on it than usual this season in Ann Arbor. It isn't often coach Kim Barnes-Arico, now in her 12th season at U-M, brings a transfer to represent her team at media days, but times have changed in college basketball.

The Wolverines went 22-10 overall a season ago and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament, where it lost to eventual national champion LSU. Worse yet, the program lost three starters, including WNBA draft pick Leigha Brown and Emily Kiser, who plays professionally in Greece.

Though Barnes-Arico liked the talent in her freshmen and sophomore classes, she felt it wold be asking them to take on too much of a role had she not brought in reinforcements.

"This is really, really different," Barnes-Arico said of the construction of her team. "We're the type of program, we build it, you pay your dues, you come in s a freshman and work hard then leave as an all conference player ... that's kind of been the history of our program, you com in, you work and reap the benefits later.

"With three players graduating, we needed to fill those holes with experience ... that was the direction we had to go in this year."

So, Michigan brought in three transfers: Hansen (Missouri), Elissa Brett (Bowling Green) and Taylor Williams (Western Michigan), who all scored more than 1,000 points at their former programs.

Hansen started all 32 games for Missouri a season ago, where she averaged 12.9 points per game, Brett ranked No. 7 all time in BGSU history in 3-pointers made (177) and No. 15 in total points (1,358) and Williams was named to the All-MAC defensive team last season and averaged 13.0 points and 9.1 rebounds across her career.

"We needed a point guard that could score, we needed a rebounding post," Barnes-Arico said. "When you lose Maddie Nolan, you need someone who can bang down threes and we found that in Elissa Brett. So we were really specific."

Barnes-Arico said Michigan will still be "selective" with using the portal moving forward and it will continue to assess it on a year-to-year basis, but there's no question, the foundation of the program still comes through high school recruiting, which is how she acquired the two focal points of this year's team, Laila Phelia and Cameron Williams.

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Phelia, a junior unanimously named first-team All-Big Ten, played in 26 games last year with 24 starts, where she averaged 16.7 points and 4.2 rebounds in 33.1 minutes per game.

Though she's widely expected to be one of the top scorers in the conference this season, that's not what has Barnes-Arico excited about her star's growth.

Instead, she praised Phelia's offseason development that came in particular from her time on Team USA and how she's no longer using the points column to determine her impact on the game, but rather the plus-minus ratio.

"With Team USA my role was defense and being able to stop the ball, stop the best player," she said. "Now, transitioning to Michigan, I feel like just really emphasizing that defense and being able to bring that ability to the team along with leadership, because we did lose some of the best."

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Williams, the 6-foot-3 center from Chicago, averaged 6.4 points and 3.8 rebounds as a junior. There is an expectation that she will take a leap.

The fact former star Naz Hillmon was around the program this past week — Barnes-Arico said plans for a jersey retirement are "in the works" for the greatest player of her era — and worked with Williams multiple times late after practice has only heightened the excitement.

"I keep kidding with her, but we could use her to average a double-double," Barnes-Arico said. "She's a returning starter, has experience in our program for four years. We need her to be that go-to post player."

As always, the question heading into the season, what are the expectations? Take a look around the league.

Iowa, the defending Big Ten Champion, brings back the best women's college basketball player in the country, Caitlin Clark. She led the Hawkeyes to the national championship game last season and already every season ticket has been sold out for all home games at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Ohio State started last season 19-0 and was ranked as high as No. 2 before injuries derailed some momentum. Still, the program went to the Elite 8. Maryland also made the elite 8, where it gave South Carolina (undefeated at 36-0 at the time) a run for its money. How about Indiana? The Hoosiers earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and though their season ended in disappointment, still made the Sweet 16.

Just about every coach who spoke Monday called the Big Ten not just the deepest, but simultaneously the most top-heavy league in America. That said, Michigan has made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament or farther five years in a row. So how about those expectations?

"When you're at the University of Michigan, the expectation every year is that you win championships," Barnes-Arico said. "Even though this is going to be a year with some inexperience, I think because we are back to a little bit of an underdog, a little bit of a chip on our shoulder, our players have something to prove.

"They're excited about being back in that position after being in a different spot for a couple years."

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan women's basketball leaned on transfer portal to fill holes