Back on January 14th, 2021, Daniel Rauch, a junior, shifted from the starting lineup to the bench and played 12 minutes against a Wisconsin program she strongly considered playing for during her high school recruiting process.

The rest of that regular season, the bubble season, as COVID remade the sports experience, Raoush only played 16 more minutes total.

And in a 16-point loss in Michigan's lone Big Ten tournament game, Roush logged just four

minutes of action.

Ten days later, circumstances dictated that Roush needed to play more, much more, as a starter.

She played 35 minutes against Florida Gulf Coast, 28 against Tennessee, and 38 in the

overtime loss to Baylor and Michigan women's basketball's first ever Sweet 16.

101 game minutes that felt unfathomable helping a program go further than it had ever gone as part of a

special 2018 recruiting class that shattered previous ceilings for this program. So it does feel

fitting that three years later, with the program possessing another potential ceiling elevating class,

the class of 2024, Roush is back.

At just 25 years old, to be an assistant coach where she played four years, where she was

coached by her new boss, Kim Barnes-A-Riko, where she had to learn invaluable lessons while going

from little on-court value for a stretch to playing big minutes in the most important

games in program history. Now, you don't hire an assistant because of one thing, one stretch of time,

but there's no doubt that how Danielle Roush handled that situation, both when she was a deep reserve

and when she was a necessary and productive starter,

that helped start the process of coach Rausch coming to Ann Arbor.

Because Rauch almost did it all as a player in the maze and blue.

The only thing she didn't is the only thing this program hasn't.

And that's get to a final four.

Roush is back and that has meant great things for the program in the NCAA tournament.

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