Ladies came up short, 72-64. They had it down to 6 pts with just under a minute left, but couldn’t get the stops or scores they needed. Nolan fouling out with just under 2 minutes left certainly hampered their comeback effort; her 3 pt shooting was sorely missed down the stretch.
1 Like
She was only 3 for 10 from behind the line, but having her out there as a threat might’ve helped. Of course, Diamond Miller had already fouled out for Maryland.
Maryland, at least in the Miller-era, has always been tough. We don’t host them this year, so any rematch will have to come in the post-season. Sunday’s game is another roadie, but at least it’s against Minnesota. That should be a W.
The women had blowout road win at Minnesota today. Also of note: Whitney Sollom made her season debut and got a bucket.
7 Likes
It was great to see Sollom get in and get a bucket yesterday! Ari also had a smooth drive to the bucket in garbage time that was a flash of what could be.
1 Like
Ari’s been getting more minutes lately. I’m hoping the trend continues.
I did notice last week that Izy was participating in warmups and was dressed for the game. But, she still hasn’t played.
1 Like
She (Izy) made some plays in limited action last season that made me optimistic about her going forward. Not sure what has been keeping her off the floor, but it’d be great if she was able to realize the potential she showed.
1 Like
For those of you guys who follow the Women’s team closer or maybe for Dylan & crew…might be getting time to do a “where things stand” piece since we’re about at the halfway point. I know it has been a good season and they’ve been consistently ranked, but the B10 is tough this year and their overall resume is probably still in need of some work.
Given that a lot of people visiting this site are running out of reasons to be excited about the Men’s team, might want to get everyone up to speed on what to root for with the Women.
1 Like
I feel like reading @bmcarteruiuc’s posts functions like that for me. extremely informative and in-depth.
6 Likes
Yeah, @bmcarteruiuc is the guy to ask, but my impression is that they’re a solid, not great team. We’ve dropped most of our games against our ranked opponents, beaten basically everyone else.
1 Like
That’s true, I may have overstated things. Still, she was the only volume 3 pt shooter in the game (next closest attempts was 4 by Hobbs, 3 by Leigha Brown, the rest 1 or fewer), so she would’ve at least kept the defense honest.
2 Likes
Well, thanks! I’d agree that they’re good not great. @mgl recently said that the Big Ten is stratified, and I think that nails it. OSU/IU/Iowa/Maryland are clearly the top 4 and on a different plane. Michigan has lost to each and their only remaining games against that bunch are @ IU and home against OSU. They’ll be underdogs in both, most likely.
I think tonight’s game is going to be interesting because it kind of establishes for sure whether Michigan is that 5th banana in the conference. There are 3 other teams in that potential range:
- The Illinois team they play tonight (and only play once this season so they need the tiebreaker). Illinois is also 7-4 in conference with their four losses being to IU twice, Ohio State, and Purdue. They still have Maryland again and Nebraska twice.
- Nebraska is 4-6 in conference but their losses are to Michigan, IU, Maryland, Ohio State, Iowa, and Rutgers. All but one of those are to those top teams. They did also beat Maryland on the road earlier in the season. Michigan needs to beat them again next Sunday at home. Nebraska’s only other game against the top half of the conference this year is a home date with Iowa.
- Purdue is 6-5 in conference play with losses to Michigan, Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska, and Penn State. They are on a two-game win streak where they beat both Illinois and Ohio State on the road. They still have to play IU twice. Michigan has the tiebreaker here.
All told, Michigan is 5th right now and will have sole possession of that spot with a win tonight. They have the toughest remaining schedule with Illinois, IU, Ohio State, and Nebraska still to play so they must hold serve tonight and next Sunday at home and then win at the Breslin, RAC, and Kohl Center. They will be favored in all of those games.
Assume at this point that the IU and Ohio State games are losses, but it wouldn’t be entirely impossible for them to pull the upset at home over the Buckeyes.
If everything plays out according to expectations they would finish the regular season 22-7 (12-6) with all of their conference losses coming to the top 4 teams. To put that in perspective, last year they finished 22-6 (13-4) so that’s not all that far off (to be fair, it almost certainly would have been 24-6 if the EMU and Illinois games had been played). If the OSU game ends up being an upset win you’ve basically held serve from last year to this year.
12-6 or 13-5 in a brutal Big Ten with neutral court wins over Baylor and Carolina in the non-con might be enough to sneak them into the top 16 to host first/second round games again. Fingers crossed! That was such a fun atmosphere last year! FWIW, ESPN’s bracketology had them at a 3 seed before Sunday’s blowout win at Minnesota.
Finally, to get an idea of where they stand in relation to the top half of the conference and teams they’ve beaten in non-con (per HerHoopStats):
- #5 Indiana (L home, TBD)
- #10 Iowa (L home)
- #13 Ohio State (L away, TBD)
- #14 Michigan
- #16 Maryland (L away)
- #18 Baylor (W neutral)
- #20 North Carolina (W neutral)
- #25 South Florida (W neutral)
- #43 Miami (W away)
- #49 Purdue (W away)
- #52 Toledo (L home)
Outside of the one outlier Toledo game (which still sticks in the craw, ugh), they have pretty much cemented themselves as a top 15-20 team who beats the teams ranked below them and loses to the teams ranked above them. Pretty cut-and-dried.
4 Likes
The Illinois game is Thursday, not tonight.
2 Likes
Welp.
I’ve Had Tuesday in my head for several days, but had I just stopped and thought about the fact that they played 3 games last week – including one on Sunday – I would have realized how wrong that was.
2 Likes
Phelia out tonight with a leg injury but it hasn’t mattered so far.
3 Likes
Great first half for the ladies! The zone came out of nowhere but worked well. They’re moving the ball beautifully on offense, LB is still playing out of her mind, and Jordan Hobbs continues to come on strong. Also, a couple of deep threes for Maddie!
Cam can’t seem to stay on the floor and out of foul trouble. And Ari continues to get more minutes, seemingly coming to about equal (although I haven’t fact-checked this) with Greta.
Anyone hear why Phelia isn’t there? We turned it on halfway into the 1Q and missed if they said why.
Edit: the post above came in while I was typing, so thanks! She did go down in the last game. Came back in, but I’m sure that’s what is bothering her.
2 Likes
Exercising self care and deciding to watch this live and men on tape was a good call.
Brown in unreal
It’s funny to see she has 5 dimes while having half the teams points.
Wiggins looks good?
2 Likes
Well I’m not sure how to rank Phelia, Kiser, and Brown, but good to win a game against a quality team without one of your big three
3 Likes
Ari getting to the cup twice at the end of the third quarter was huge when they were scuffling and Illinois was threatening. That 3rd quarter was rouuuuuuugh offensively. As good as the first half was offensively, the 3Q was a disaster.
At the end of the day it’s a 17-point win over a good Illinois team without Laila and I have no complaints. LB is just killing it. All-Big Ten level. She is so in control all the time.
Really hate seeing Laila in street clothes. Hope that’s not a sign of the severity of the injury.
Incidentally, the closeup shots of Phelia did answer my questions about whether Sidor has been on the sidelines. Didn’t see Varejao, but maybe I just missed her.
Keep it rolling at the Breslin on Sunday and then get a week to get healthy before a brutal 3-game stretch.
1 Like
Ari was great. I was surprised that she wasn’t in when the 4th quarter started. I’d like to see some scenarios where she and Leigha are in together.
I didn’t see Varejao on the bench, either. She definitely wasn’t in the front row.
Great win, though!
1 Like