Ugh. GTHO with that halfcourt prayer. Cuts the 4-point lead to 1. Gaaaah!
Great 3rd quarter from womens team but only lead by 1 with 10 mins left. Half court buzzer beater for msu feels could be massive swing in game here. Cmon girls bring it home! 57-56 UM
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Then again, maybe they come out in the 4th with their hair on fire! HUGE game for Maddie!
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No doubt! Looking at a double digit win, on the road, against a rival minus two major contributor. Massive 2nd half for the girls!
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The girls showed some serious resilience on the road in a hostile environment after spotting State 10 to start the game. Their defense in the second half was exceptional.
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The women take down Little Sister. Well done!
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Top 4 seeds get the first two rounds at home.
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Phelia is still out but we’re doing okay. Up 11-5.
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There’s also a really good crowd here. It’s the Pink-out game but i thought the Super Bowl might thin things out. Almost the whole lower bowl is full.
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Only up 5 at the half.
They need phalia back for any chance on Thursday and Monday’s game coming up.
Started slow out of the half but now have the lead back.
After a shaky start to the 3rd, we got control back and won semi-comfortably, 80-75.
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Yep I was getting nervous in the 3rd qtr but they just didn’t cave like the last 5 min yesterday by the guys. Evans,Hobbs,Stuck,Crockett have been getting valuable extended minutes too.
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We were at the game yesterday so I didn’t get to post thoughts until now.
Random Thoughts
- It was a very fun game to attend as it was a game pretty much throughout and Nebraska is a fun opponent. Also loved seeing the usher who always works right behind the ladies’ bench honored at halftime along with other breast cancer survivors.
- My 10-year old daughter has assured me that when she plays college basketball she will not play for Ohio State or Nebraska because she does not like how much their coaches argue with the referees.
- She’s not kidding, though. I love when we play Nebraska because the comedic value of watching Amy Williams absolutely lose her mind on the sideline is like a free sideshow.
- The officiating yesterday was abysmal. So bad. They called Evans for a travel on the same move she made 3-4 other times without a whistle. All of them were legal. The official who made that traveling call did it from halfcourt while the baseline official right in front of the Evans saw nothing to whistle. They called some fouls both ways that were head-scratchers. They called a double-dribble at one point where the official on one sideline made the call at the same time that the official on the opposite sideline – standing mere feet from KBA – signaled that there was a touch by the Nebraska player. That one really got the crowd fired up.
- My daughter and I had the Kiser Count
at 4.5 for the game.
Game Thoughts
Crockett and Evans both played very good minutes yesterday. Cam’s minutes seem to be disappearing steadily. The last four games (after Evans returned from injury) have looked like this for Williams/Evans/Crockett:
- Williams: 18:03, 18:17, 16:36, 11:02
- Evans: 3:01, 9:58, 15:40, 19:17
- Crockett: 2:01, 3:10, 10:39, 14:53
That’s a pretty clear trend. Other than the Ohio State game (12/31) where Cam played 37 minutes, she has only crested 20 minutes once in 2023 (1/3 vs Penn State). Her fouls/40 rate is 4.8 which I think is a major factor, but I honestly think she is just getting passed. Chyra Evans has been playing more and more, even with a fouls/40 rate of 6.8.
I think Chyra Evans has a very bright future. She has exceptional footwork already and seems like a smart player. Her blocks/40 is 1.9 to 0.3 for Williams. Turnovers/40 is 3.6 for Williams and 2.8 for Evans. Assists/40 is 0.7 for Williams and 1.9 for Evans.
You can also see a pretty natural shooting stroke and that she isn’t afraid to take a 3 when she’s open. I wouldn’t be surprised to see KBA work to expand that and make her a threat to stretch the floor in the years to come. I would not at all be surprised to see her in the starting lineup next year.
In other notes, LB just continues to dominate and make plays when the team needs a spark. 10/10 no notes. All-Big Ten first teamer.
Conference Standings
Overall, the ladies have put themselves in a great position. The remaining four games are @ IU, vs. OSU, vs. Rutgers, and @ Wisconsin. They really should finish no worse than 2-2, and I still think – though it will be a very tough game – that they have a toss-up chance of beating Ohio State to get to 3-1.
Currently, they are two games clear of Illinois and Purdue and 4 games clear of Nebraska. They also have the tiebreakers over all three of those teams, so realistically they have pretty much cemented a finish no worse than 5th. That’s the floor.
The ceiling is probably 4th. They are tied with the Buckeyes right now and have a head-to-head left to split the season series. While Michigan will almost certainly lose to IU on Thursday (here’s hoping I’m wrong), Ohio State has a much tougher schedule left: vs IU, @ PSU, @ Michigan, vs. Maryland. If Michigan beats them head-to-head they are likely to end up with 2 losses in there so 4th would come down to tiebreakers.
In terms of the conference tournament, it probably doesn’t matter a whole lot in the end. While the #4 seed will get a double-bye, they are likely to play the #5 seed anyway after getting the winner of #12/#13. Michigan and Ohio State are almost certainly going to see each other again with the winner taking on IU.
NCAA Tournament
In terms of the tournament resume, I think the ladies have done a great job of positioning themselves for a top-16 seed. They have 5 total losses, and 4 of them have come to teams that are currently in the selection committee’s top 16 (#1 IU, #2 Iowa, #3 Maryland, #4 Ohio State). Their other loss came against #56 Toledo. As such, they are currently at #11 on the committee’s list of top 16 seeds and in very good shape to host first- and second-round games again this year. I don’t know how many of you were able to attend last year’s games, but it was such a fun environment! Very much hoping they get to host again this year!
All in all, if they finish 2-2 at worst, they will finish the regular season 22-7 (12-6) with a likely shot at another 3-seed in the tournament. Last year they were 22-6 (13-4) to finish the regular season and secured a 3-seed in the tourney. To be fair, the two cancelled games would have been wins so it should have been 24-6 (14-4) with a regular season conference championship.
Still, in an absolutely brutal Big Ten this year they have not really missed a beat post-Naz and have managed to keep things held together even with Laila, Greta, and Chyra all missing multiple games during conference play. They’re a threat to make a 3rd straight Sweet 16. There’s a reason KBA gets the cheer she does during pre-game intros!
Sure hope Laila can get back soon. Seeing her and Greta both in sweatpants and not warming up (Laila never even left the bench during warmups) is not encouraging.
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Laila had a knee-brace on, as well. I don’t have any inside info, but I’d agree with your assessment. I doubt she plays this week.
I agree about last year’s NCAA’s. They were a lot of fun to shoot and the atmosphere was great.
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IU ran Ohio State out of their own building Monday night, leading 54-29 at halftime.
That’s good for Michigan in terms of its Big Ten seed, but hoo boy is it a harbinger of what tomorrow night could look like. Mackenzie Holmes is ridiculous:
33 points on 15/18 shooting. Eighty three-point-three percent on high volume. Absurd.
In case you’re curious, that number is 70.9% on the season as a whole. Going to be a real tall order for the Kiser/Williams/Evans trio (to say nothing of the fact that someone has to guard Grace Berger and it almost certainly won’t be Laila).
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Is Laila playing?
Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll hear any update on Laila until these games start. It sure is frustrating but Twitter doesn’t have any updates.
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Yeah, I have a bad feeling about this game…