Last week, the sprint to the college basketball season began.

Fall practice officially opened with the time and scope limits drastically decreasing.

Sure, plenty of work gets done in the summer, but there are caps on it all.

Now it's game on.

Well, practice on, but you know at Chrysler Center and around the PDC, it's starting to feel like basketball season.

For Michigan women's hoops, this is a time of year the program embraces.

After all, you can't be the hardest working team in America, something the Wolverines pride

themselves on, without busting your tail and enjoying the work during the lead-up to the season.

There's much to do for the maize and blue here this

season. Michigan is hoping to continue its steady climb by reaching the program's first final four

after getting to the elite eight a season ago. Now that might be difficult to envision from the outside,

considering who Michigan lost, led of course by the great Naz Hillman. Yet there is an

emphatic belief that Michigan can be as good

as it was a season ago, and it will no doubt require that and probably a bit more to get to the

final four. You'll hear it from her in a bit, but Kim Barnes-Riko certainly believes her program

can accomplish that. It'll be hard, but that's why the work is necessary.

That hardest working moniker has been around for a while, but as the work continues

a pace, Michigan's results have gotten better and better.

Their tournament runs have gotten deeper and deeper.

Will it be enough to get to Dallas and the Final Four?

Well, that certainly remains to be seen, but you better believe that Michigan will not be outworked during that journey.

So let's hear from head coach Kim Barnes-Zorico about the early days of practice,

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