Women's Basketball | 3/19/2014 10:58:00 PM
Montclair, NJ - The 2014
Women's NIT opened up on Wednesday, March 19 however it will be one of Friday's first-round matchups that is the most appealing for Montclair State and the women's basketball program.
When Stony Brook and the University of Michigan square off on Friday, March 21 at 7:00 pm in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the game will match a pair of head coaches with Red Hawks roots as former Montclair player
Kim Barnes Arico leads her Wolverine squad against former MSU head coach
Beth O'Boyle, in her the third-year at Stony Brook.
Michigan enters the WNIT at 18-13 and is in the postseason for the fifth straight year and second under Barnes Arico while Stony Brook is 24-8 falling short in its bid for a first America East title on March 10. The Seawolves fell to top-seeded Albany 70-46.
Barnes Arico, in her second season with Michigan, played three seasons for Montclair State in the 1990s after beginning her career at ironically Stony Brook. A native of Mastic Beach, NY, Barnes Arico helped lead Stony Brook University to the 1989 NCAA Division III Tournament as a freshman before closing out final three seasons with the Red Hawks, serving as captain during her junior and senior seasons. Barnes Arico led the team to back-to-back ECAC Tournament appearances in 1991 and 1992 and was the team's leading scorer both seasons. In 79 career games with MSU, Barnes Arico scored 843 points and handed out 254 assists including back-to-back seasons of over 100 assists in 1992 and 1993.
A scholar-athlete award recipient, Barnes Arico graduated from Montclair State in 1993 with a bachelor's degree in physical education and health. She spent two years teaching and coaching at the high school level and started her head collegiate coaching career at Fairleigh Dickinson-Madison (now FDU-Florham) in 1996. She led the Devils to a 13-11 record during the 1996-97 season before accepting the head coaching post at New Jersey Institute of Technology for two seasons (1997-99). Helping the program transition from Division III to Division II, Barnes Arico was named the New Jersey Coach of the Year after taking the program from the five-win total in her first season to 11 victories in year two.
In 1999, Barnes Arico took over as the head coach at Division II Adelphi University where she was extremely successful in three seasons leading the Panthers to three consecutive postseason appearances, posting a 65-24 overall record and a 51-13 league mark, and guided Adelphi to a 28-win season in 2001-02, the year the program returned to the NCAA Tournament field for the first time since 1987.
In 2001-02, Adelphi won its first New York Collegiate Athletic Conference (NYCAC) championship and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. The Panthers won their first 21 games of the season, finished with a 28-3 record, and earned the school's first national ranking in school history. Adelphia completed the season ranked No. 12 in the final polls. Barnes Arico was named the NYCAC, NIT/Metropolitan Basketball Writers Division II and Nassau County Sports Commission Outstanding Female Coach of the Year.
In addition to her coaching responsibilities, Barnes Arico served as an assistant athletic director and was the academic liaison for student-athletes at Adelphi. She also served as a member of the NCAA Division II Northeast Regional Selection Committee and the ECAC Advisory Committee.
Barnes Arico made the jump to the Division I level in 2002 at St. John's University and spent 10 seasons at the helm of the St. John's women's hoops program, building the Red Storm into a national power and one of the elite teams in the Big East Conference. She guided St. John's to four NCAA Tournament appearances, with the Red Storm advancing to the Sweet 16 in 2012 after back-to-back second-round appearances (2010, '11). In 2006, she led St. John's to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1988.
Barnes Arico led her Red Storm teams into postseason competition seven of her 10 seasons, with four NCAA Tournament berths and three WNIT appearances. She reached at least the second round of each national tournament in all seven appearances.
The winningest women's basketball coach in St. John's history, Barnes Arico compiled a 176-133 overall record with the Red Storm, with five 20-win campaigns, including three straight to end her tenure. She was twice named Big East Coach of the Year (2006, 2012) and had 11 of her players earn All-Big East honors and six receive all-rookie team selection.
In 2011-12, St. John's posted a 24-10 overall record and finished second (13-3) in the Big East standings, trailing only Final Four participant Notre Dame and pushing Connecticut to third in the league with a win over the Huskies during the regular season. Barnes Arico was named the 2012 Big East Coach of the Year and was a finalist for the USBWA National Coach of the Year award. St. John's finished No. 15 in the final USA Today Coaches poll and reached its highest-ever ranking of No. 13 by the Associated Press (March 5, 2012).
The highlight of the 2011-12 season and the St. John's program was when Barnes Arico and her Red Storm ended Connecticut's 99-game home winning streak with a 57-56 score on Feb. 19, 2012, at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn. Shenneika Smith's three-pointer from the wing with eight seconds left lifted the Red Storm to victory over the No. 2 Huskies. It was also the UConn's first home loss to an unranked opponent in nearly 19 years.
She was announced as the ninth head coach in the 40-year history of Michigan women's basketball program on April 20, 2012.
Michigan went 22-11 in Barnes Arico's first season, tying the mark for most wins in school history. The Wolverines earned their second straight NCAA Tournament bid and advanced to the second round for the first time since 2001. U-M was ranked as high as No. 22 in the Associated Press poll in January, the first time the Maize and Blue was listed in the poll since the 2002-03 season. The Wolverines tied the longest winning streak in school history during the season, winning 10 straight games from Dec. 1, 2012-Jan.17, 2013.
O'Boyle guided MSU for three seasons from 2004-07 compiling a 51-32 mark, a .614 winning percentage, that included an 18-10 record and the ECAC Metro Championship in her final year. Only Maureen Wendelken and current MSU head coach Karin Harvey, an assistant with O'Boyle, reached 50 wins quicker in the history of the program and O'Boyle's victory total is currently fifth-best. Equally impressive was O'Boyle's record in NJAC play as Montclair went 33-14 (.706) during her tenure, including a 14-4 mark during the 2005-06 campaign - Montclair's best league record in seven years.
In addition to her career with MSU, O'Boyle also served as the head coach of two Division III All-Star teams that have competed abroad. O'Boyle guided her squad to a bronze medal at the 2005 Eastern University Games in Tamworth, Australia and in 2006 led a team that competed in the Brazilian Basketball Experience.
Arriving at MSU in 2004, O'Boyle led the Red Hawks to a 15-12 mark and berths in the NJAC and ECAC Tournaments. After the solid first season, O'Boyle's team stepped it up in 2005-06 as the Red Hawks recorded to an 18-10 overall mark, including the aforementioned 14-4 ledger in the rough-and-tumble NJAC finishing in second place. For the second straight year Montclair reached the postseason earning the No. 1 seed in the ECAC Tournament and advancing to the semifinals. She would be named the NJAC's Co-Coach of the Year and also produced Montclair State first Division III All-American in 15 years as conference Player of the Year Stephanie Machin was named Honorable Mention by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA). Machin would repeat the honor in 2007.
O'Boyle left Montclair State to become an assistant coach at Canisius College and later an associate head coach for the Griffins. O'Boyle helped Canisius to its best season in school history in 2008-09 as the Golden Griffins won 24 games, advanced to the MAAC Championship game and qualified for the WNIT for the first time in program history. The 24 wins were the most in the program's Division I history and the most by a Canisius women's basketball team in 25 years.
Named the eighth head coach in Stony Brook history and the the fourth in the Division I era in April 2011, O'Boyle mentored the Seawolves to their best season in recent history in 2012-13. Picked to finish last in the preseason America East Coaches' Poll, SBU proved to be a competitor, producing a 10-win improvement from the 2011-12 campaign and earning a No. 4 seed in the conference tournament. The 14 victories Stony Brook racked up were the most for the program since 2006-07, while the seed was the team's highest since 2009-10.
Defense was a hallmark of the 2012-13 squad as the Seawolves finished 44th nationally in scoring defense and third in the conference in steals. SBU was also a force to be reckoned with on the boards, holding the second-best rebounding margin in the league.
O'Boyle also coached at the University of Rochester, where she served as an assistant coach for the Yellow Jackets for four seasons (2001-2004), including back-to-back NCAA Division III Final Four appearances in 2003 and 2004. Rochester won back-to-back ECAC titles in her first two seasons with the program.
