How the 'Quad Squad' maintained winning culture for Michigan women

Fort Worth, Texas – When a transfer portal exodus hit the Michigan women’s basketball team after the 2023-24 season, four players, later dubbed by coach Kim Barnes Arico the “Quad Squad,” remained. That was the core group that established Michigan’s culture, a bridge from the success Naz Hillmon had helped build with an Elite Eight run in 2022 to now. The four welcomed a highly-regarded group of freshmen and a couple transfers before the 2025-26 season and worked to carry on the culture of success.

More: Michigan women's basketball's super sophomores playing beyond their years With those who stayed and the addition of the young, fearless talent, the Wolverines have parlayed that into Arico’s best, most overall skilled team. Ninth-ranked Michigan, a No. 2 seed, has reached its third Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament and will face No.

3 seed Louisville on Saturday at Dickies Arena. The winner advances to play in the Elite Eight on Monday against Texas or Kentucky. The Wolverines will face the Cardinals without Macy Brown, one of the four Quad Squad members, whose season ended last Saturday in practice when she suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee.

Brown is with the team in Texas and rode an exercise bike courtside Friday morning at Michigan’s practice. “She's just absolutely the most incredible human that you've ever been around, the most unselfish person, the biggest heart, the biggest cheerleader for everyone in our program,” Barnes Arico said Friday. “When she went down in practice the other day, it was just crushing.