Cha-ching! Hoops coaches cash in on March Madness, none greater than UM's Kim Barnes Arico

Forget the pizza party. Let them eat steak.

Three state of Michigan college basketball coaches collected substantial performance bonuses during March Madness, though nobody padded their paycheck like Michigan women's coach Kim Barnes Arico.

Barnes Arico, who guided the Wolverines to the program's first trip to the Elite Eight, will be due at least $120,000 in bonuses — including $100,000 for making the Elite Eight, plus another $20,000 for being named Big Ten coach of the year. She could earn $50,000 more if she wins a national coach of the year award; if she collects one of those awards, her salary will top $1 million for the 2021-22 season under terms of the extension she signed last year that pays her a base of $850,000.

Michigan made the Sweet 16 for the first time last season, then topped that this season, in which at one point the Wolverines, led by senior forward and future WNBA Draft pick Naz Hillmon, were ranked inside the top five of the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Michigan's season ended in the Elite Eight on Monday night, in a 62-50 loss to Louisville.

"Michigan women's basketball history is not written that way," an emotional Danielle Rauch, Michigan's senior point guard, said late Monday night. "And we made it that way."

Barnes Arico, who just finished her 10th season on the job and has led Michigan to the last four NCAA Tournaments, could've earned another $25,000 bonus had the Wolverines won their first Big Ten regular-season championship. But a Feb. 3 game against Illinois was canceled and never made up, and the Wolverines finished a game out of a three-way tie for the championship with Iowa and Ohio State.

Michigan finished the season 25-7 and 13-4 in the Big Ten.

On the men's side, third-year head coach Juwan Howard earned an additional $100,000 — $50,000 each for making the NCAA Tournament and advancing to the Sweet 16, where the Wolverines fell to Villanova, 63-55, to finish the season 19-15. The bonus will ease the sting of Howard's five-game suspension late in the regular season, which came with a $40,000 fine for the altercation with a Wisconsin coach.

Howard's base salary, under a new contract signed in November, is $3.2 million.

At Michigan State, men's coach Tom Izzo, who guided the Spartans to a 24th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament, earned an additional $25,000 in bonus cash before his team lost to Duke, 85-76, in the Round of 32. The Spartans finished the season 23-13.

Still, Izzo, who in his 27th season made $3 million a year, stands to be the biggest winner in the state this spring. On April 30, a $4 million retention bonus triggers, payable by the university by July 15, under the terms of a contract signed in July 2018.

We're running a new-subscriber special. Support local journalism, and subscribe here.

tpaul@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @tonypaul1984