{"id":4519,"date":"2026-02-16T15:49:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/02\/16\/michigans-youth-cant-be-an-excuse-because-it-can-compete-now\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T15:49:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:49:34","slug":"michigans-youth-cant-be-an-excuse-because-it-can-compete-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/02\/16\/michigans-youth-cant-be-an-excuse-because-it-can-compete-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan\u2019s youth can\u2019t be an excuse, because it can compete now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>So far this season, the No. 7 Michigan women\u2019s basketball team has lost just four games. Three of those losses were in top-five matchups \u2014 against then-No. 1 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/womens-basketball\/no-6-michigan-weak-start-detrimental-in-72-69-loss-against-no-1-uconn\/\">UConn<\/a>, then-No. 5 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/womens-basketball\/vanderbilt-jumps-on-michigan-early-hangs-on-for-72-69-win\/\">Vanderbilt<\/a> and then-No. 2 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/womens-basketball\/michigan-defense-keeps-ucla-panting-in-cut-throat-loss-69-66\/\">UCLA<\/a> \u2014 where the Wolverines lost by just three points in every game.<\/p>\n<p>Each of the three games followed the same trend, Michigan fell behind in the middle of the game and had to play catch up at the end. Against the Huskies, the Wolverines scored just five first-quarter points. Against the Commodores, they were down by 15 at the half. And against the Bruins, Michigan lost the second and third quarters by a combined 13 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yet the Wolverines\u2019 ability to claw their way back and still have each come down to the final possession proves two things true at once: They\u2019re still growing because of their youth, but that\u2019s not an excuse to lose because they\u2019re ready to compete for banners now.<\/p>\n<p>Michigan\u2019s inexperience may have been the reason it struggled to compete for a full 40 minutes against its top-five opponents, but going 4-0 in all other ranked matchups proves the talent and potential are still there for both this year\u2019s team and for seasons to come. With the Wolverines completing the season sweep over No. 13 Michigan State in a dominant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/womens-basketball\/after-slow-start-no-7-michigan-rebounds-en-route-to-86-65-victory-over-no-13-michigan-state\/\">win<\/a> at home after pulling off an overtime <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/womens-basketball\/michigan-takes-down-michigan-state-94-91-in-back-and-forth-thriller\/\">win<\/a> just two weeks prior in East Lansing, it\u2019s proven yet again that Michigan can compete against top teams.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIf I was reflecting at the end of last year or in the preseason, and someone had said, \u2018You\u2019re a No. 7 team in the country and (you\u2019ve lost to three top-five teams) by a combined nine points,\u2019 I probably would have said, \u2018Okay, we\u2019re headed in a good direction, and we might be ahead of schedule a little bit,\u2019 \u201d Wolverines coach Kim Barnes Arico said.<\/p>\n<p>Despite being \u201cahead of schedule,\u201d the fact is those games are a testament that Michigan is competing tightly with top teams in the country and taking down teams of its caliber. As it continues to grow, the mindset and emphasis shouldn\u2019t be about its youth or how it will be ready in the future, because it\u2019s ready now.<\/p>\n<p>The consistent rotation for the Wolverines includes only one senior in guard Brooke Quarles Daniels while the rest is made up of five sophomores, two juniors and a freshman. Quarles Daniels is the only major contributor who is guaranteed to depart following this season. With a trio of starting sophomore guards \u2014 Mila Holloway, Syla Swords and Oliva Olson \u2014 who have all won various Big Ten accolades and received national nominations, the core of Michigan\u2019s contributions is intact for years to come.<\/p>\n<p>But why look past this season or dwell on their youth when the Wolverines are a top-10 team with tight losses to other teams at the top of the country and four ranked wins to boot?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey don\u2019t want to hear that they\u2019re young,\u201d Barnes Arico said. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to hear that they\u2019re sophomores. They want to win, and they want to win for Michigan, and they want to leave a legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>The transfer portal is the only major factor that could dictate Michigan\u2019s roster construction negatively for the future. Despite the evolving landscape with the portal and NIL, Barnes Arico has stayed committed to the development of players from high school recruitment to graduation. But nothing is ever guaranteed, so the Wolverines might as well take advantage of the opportunity to utilize the team they have now and commit to cementing their legacy this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The final stretch of games in February will be a true test before Michigan heads into the postseason. Each of the final three games is against a ranked conference opponent, two of which are on the road. With those games serving as final postseason preparations, the emphasis for the Wolverines can no longer be on their youth.<\/p>\n<p>After securing the season sweep over the Spartans, playing down to the wire against three top-five opponents and having the entire postseason in sight before turning the page to the future, Michigan needs to focus on the now. Because it\u2019s ready to compete for titles.<\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So far this season, the No. 7 Michigan women\u2019s basketball team has lost just four games. Three of those losses were in top-five matchups \u2014 against then-No. 1 UConn, then-No. 5 Vanderbilt and then-No. 2 UCLA \u2014 where the Wolverines lost by just three points in every game. Each of the three games followed the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1919,4258,726,4257],"class_list":{"0":"post-4519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-compete","9":"tag-excuse","10":"tag-michigans","11":"tag-youth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4521,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4519\/revisions\/4521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}