Michigan Women's Basketball on Twitter

It looks like the team has an "official" twitter feed. One of the most recent posts is a link to this photo of Krista Phillips, Ashley Jones and Jamillya Hardley reading to a class at Mitchell Elementary School.

Jenny Ryan named Miss Basketball

From the Detroit Free Press:

“It’s surreal,’’ said Ryan, a 5-feet-9 guard who has signed to play at Michigan. “It still hasn’t hit, I can’t even believe it. The other five girls are all so talented with amazing stats and to be considered is one thing, but to actually walk away with it is all together unbelievable.’’

Ryan has had an unbelievable career, totaling 1,405 points, 443 steals, 368 assists and 344 rebounds while leading Nouvel to Class C state championships as a sophomore and junior.

This season Ryan averaged 16.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 5.5 steals. She is also No. 2 in her class with a 4.3 grade point average.

Fellow Michigan recruits Rachel Sheffer of Watervliet finished 3rd and Nya Jordan of Detroit Community finished 6th.

Ryan is the third Miss Basketball to commit to Michigan, joining Tabitha Pool (200) and Krista Clement (2003).

Samantha Arnold Update

A bit belated, but incoming freshman Samantha Arnold's team won their 4A regional final:

Michigan signee Samantha Arnold dominated, finishing with 21 points, 10 rebounds and eight blocked shots--seven after halftime.

The lost their sectional final 70-47, though Arnold did have 13 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks. She was also named to the Illinois 4A All State team.

Last Season

I'm still trying to understand this past season - early on the team showed great promise with wins over Notre Dame and Vanderbilt (and to a lesser degree wins at Southern Mississippi and a close loss to Texas A&M). Ending up 10-20 (with relatively few injuries) raises many questions.

Ultimately the responsibility falls on Coach Borseth, regardless of *why* it happened. The Michigan Daily has a take on this - not sure I entirely agree, but its worth reading:

Their problem was mental. At times, it was amazing how quickly they could be taken out of games mentally. After Indiana implemented its full-court press early in the second half and turned Michigan’s 12-point lead into a six-point advantage of its own, you could almost see the Wolverines wilt.

At that point, the six-point deficit might as well have been 600.

And that problem is coachable. It's Michigan coach Kevin Borseth’s job to make sure his team is mentally ready for every game. This season, there were times it clearly wasn’t.

Go read the whole article.

Update to Last Year vs. This Year

Here are the end of year totals (updating this post). The only major change is Krista Phillip's FG % - while still below last year, it moved up a fair amount. She played quite well at the end of the season. Let's hope it carries over to next year.

	Overall FG%			Three Point %
	2008-9	2007-8	2006-7	2008-9	2007-8	2006-7
Carly Benson	.361	.405	.393	.328	.313	.353
Jessica Minnfield	.323	.421	.291	.278	.406	.237
Veronica Hicks	.379	.355		.309	.250
Stephany Skrba	.489	.535	.354	.000	.167	.000
Melinda Queen	.368	.311	.458	.268	.105	.368
Krista Phillips	.421	.468	.465	.205	.264	.400
Kalyn McPherson	.267	.313	.268	.000	1.00	.333
Carmen Reynolds	.405			.370
Courtney Boylan	.351			.333
Ashley Jones		.450	.273		.346	.000
Janelle Cooper		.389	.338		.352	.270
Krista Clement		.358	.273		.336	.269
Ta'Shia Walker		.395	.458		.200	.233
Team	.380	.419	.367	.301	.330	.274

Indiana 68 Michigan 50

Double uggh. Michigan jumped out to a 12-0 lead and led at halftime 28-26. The second half was not so good as michigan ended up losing by 18.

From mgoblue.com:

The University of Michigan women's basketball team was unable to overcome a 24-6 run by Indiana in the middle of the second half and fell, 68-50, in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday afternoon (March 5) at Conseco Fieldhouse. U-M held a two-point lead at halftime before being outscored 42-22 in the second stanza.

Junior center Krista Phillips (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan/Aden Bowman Collegiate) led the Wolverines with 13 points, seven rebounds and three blocks, while senior forward Carly Benson (Carney, Mich./Carney-Nadeau Public School) added 11 points and senior guard Jessica Minnfield (Toledo, Ohio/Central Catholic) grabbed seven boards in the defeat.

The Maize and Blue jumped out to a 12-0 lead to open the contest. Phillips made a pair of layups, while Benson and Minnfield both converted triples to help spark the quick start as the Wolverines opened the game 5-of-6 from the field. The U-M defense held Indiana scoreless for nearly seven minutes to open the game.

Indiana

Ugh. Michigan led through much of the game (including by as much as 15 early in the second half), but couldn't stop Indiana's comeback and fell 67-61. From mgoblue.com:

Senior forward Carly Benson (Carney, Mich./Carney-Nadeau Public School) recorded her 1,000th career point and became the 19th 1,000-point scorer in program history as the University of Michigan women's basketball team dropped its regular-season finale at Indiana, 67-61, on Sunday afternoon (March 1) in Assembly Hall.

U-M had four players in double figures led by 13 from Benson. Junior center Krista Phillips (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) and freshman guard Courtney Boylan (Chaska, Minn./Chaska) each contributed 12 points, while senior guard Jessica Minnfield (Toledo, Ohio/Central Catholic) led the way on the glass with a team-high seven rebounds

Michigan came out of the second half gates on fire, converting on three of their first four shots and holding the Hoosiers scoreless through the first five minutes of the half as the Wolverines extended their lead to a game-high 15 points at the 15:24 mark. The Hoosiers would not go away, however, and used a 20-6 run over a span of six minutes to get back in the game, cutting the U-M lead to 54-53 at the 7:35 mark.

The Hoosiers took their first lead since the opening minutes of the first half with a basket from Jori Davis at the 5:11 mark and the teams exchanged buckets with neither team taking a lead of more than four points, but IU hit timely baskets down the stretch and forced the Wolverines into crucial turnovers to pick up the win.

Michigan faces Indiana today in a rematch in the first round of the Big 10 tournament. Let's hope they can find a way to turn things around and keep playing a bit longer.