Michigan Women's Hoops

Gotta get out of this rut.

Awful stretch. Fail to capitalize with Clark on the bench and a good run by Iowa when she came back in

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Welp. This one got out of hand fast. Always something Iowa is capable of doing to you.

I expect them to go right at Evans with Czinano here.

Still lots of time left.

Didn’t mean to imply it’s over, but they have got to get a lot of stops now against a team shooting >50%. Very uphill climb.

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Hot take. Not an ideal day of basketball for the U of M :frowning:

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It’s desperation time.

Czinano was just too much tonight. Her positioning allowed her to get so many feeds from Clark and her gravity allowed her to feed Clark back so often.

I am encouraged by the high-low game between Evans and Kiser. And I like seeing Jordan Hobbs shoot confidently and take the ball to the hoop off the dribble.

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Well…got it down to 5.

It’s tough to come back when you’re down big late, since we’re not a heavy 3-point shooting team.

Nice game for Jordan Hobbs. I hope she can build on that.

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Felt like turning them over early kept us in it, but short of that, we couldn’t remotely stop them.

Caitlyn Clark is a special player, and we didn’t have anyone quick-footed enough to keep up with her.

Speaking of, I just notice that Wikipedia is using one of the photos I took of her last year.

For the record, I didn’t post it. :rofl:

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Agreed. We were watching the highlights on sport center and my wife pointed out how Clark was moving so quickly while our players looked like they were standing still. It’s like one chess/checker piece moving around the board while the rest are stuck in place. Michigan didn’t have a good enough gameplan to contain her or deal with Iowa’s post presence. A tough 1-2 punch to handle for sure, but some form of box plus one and doubling could have given them another look to handle. Maybe it just ultimately comes down to personnel and when the other team has Caitlin Clark and a competent post, maybe it’s just too much to overcome.

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The only person we have that quick is Ari Wiggins. I believe she had some injuries last year. I’m not sure what’s holding her back this season. Maybe the same thing?

For sure. I was kind of surprised they had Maddie guarding her for so much of the night. Maybe there was another matchup problem I was missing that forced it. Out of the gate I thought it was Laila guarding her (which, IIRC, is what they did last year), but then at some point in the first half that shifted. Laila has more foot speed than Maddie, but maybe they were hoping that they could keep Laila more fresh on offense by not having her guard Clark?

Maddie is a very sound, fundamental player and defender, but by her own admission* she doesn’t have the foot speed to keep Caitlin Clark in front of her. Not many do, of course, but it was still surprising that it ended up being the gameplan to have her spend so much time guarding her.

At the end of the day, Clark is a boss and is going to get hers. If there was a special sauce to shutting her down then she wouldn’t be averaging 27/7/7. No shame in getting beat by her.

*My wife and daughter had the opportunity to meet Maddie and spend some time talking with her this summer, and, ironically, this exact topic came up in discussion. My daughter said something about Caitlin Clark and Maddie admitted – no shame in it! – that she doesn’t have the foot speed to keep up with her on defense.

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The women had a nice road win at Purdue tonight. Next up, MSU at home this Saturday!

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One thing of note was that Ari Wiggins got some run last night and had a really nice assist in the 2nd quarter.

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Nice bounce back week for the girls.

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The women blow out Sparty, 70-55. I wish it had been on TV.

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It was on BTN +.

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