I don’t know anything about Ole Miss but, looking at their stats, they don’t have any 3-point shooters in their rotation and their leading rebounder (Madison Scott) is only 6’2". ESPN has chosen to not list player weights for women’s teams, which would be useful information.
Okay, I just found a highlight clip of her. She’s probably about the same size as Cam but a little more muscular. But not a wide-body like the Iowa or Nebraska bigs.
So, if that projected matchup comes to fruition, I don’t feel too bad about those aspects.
I’d think yes to both. ESPN has them as the first of four teams listed in the “last four byes” section; HerHoopStats has them as a 10-seed and not listed in the Last Four In section. I think the IU win put them in securely.
Would the NCAA committee avoid early season rematch in the 1st round? If they’re projected to face Ole Miss, surely they’ll swap Michigan with the other team on a same seed line in the S curve?
Update here: looks like HHS and ESPN both have Michigan safely in as a 10-seed and there are very few potential bid stealers left, so at this point they look to be not only safely in the field but also safely out of a play-in game.
Truthfully, I’d almost rather them get an 11-seed. I don’t think there’s that much difference between playing a 6-seed and a 7-seed, but there’s a much bigger difference between playing one of the projected 2-seeds and playing one of the projected 3-seeds in the second round (if they get there), especially if you end up drawing the first 2-seed on the S-curve. Since they’d avoid putting Michigan in a region with Ohio State, we could end up playing someone like LSU again (ugh).
Not that I think it’s extremely likely, but I’d love to see this team find a way to pull a couple upsets and get to the Sweet 16 in what has definitely a wait-til-next-year kind-of-year. That would generate some great momentum heading into 2024-25.
I think I said elsewhere at the beginning of the season that a S16 bid looked like the absolute ceiling for this team and that something like 21/22 wins and a second-round exit was the most likely scenario, so I can’t say I’m disappointed.
The former Wolverines who are in (or at least their teams are) the tourney are Maddie Nolan with 5-seed Colorado, and Izabel Varejao with 6-seeded Syracuse. Izzy’s been dealing with some injuries, so I don’t know if she’ll play or not. Theoretically, Michigan would meet Syracuse in the Elite 8.
I rather have them being the 10th seed as opposed to the 9th seed. 8/9 isn’t the best seed for NCAA tourney in general. Facing JuJu will be a tall task and Michigan WBB needs to do the Caitlin Clark gameplan and hope JuJu will shoot her way out of the tourney in order to have a chance.
Syla’s dad was a terrific player at Laurentian. Played in Europe for 10 years, coached at Laurentian for 15. Syla might end up geing her best recruit barring injury.
