Wisconsin Game

I should have posted something sooner, but I wanted to avoid thinking about the game. As many of you know by now, Coach Borseth's press appearance after the game was rather animated, to say the least:

Nobody had time to ask a question.

Kevin Borseth, the University of Michigan women's basketball coach, made it from the interview door to the podium in seemingly three strides, smashed the stat sheet from the Wolverines' 69-67 loss to Wisconsin down with such force that everybody jumped and started shouting.

"Twenty-five offensive rebounds!?!"

Then the podium again.

Whack!

Borseth's behavior was noted by a couple of bloggers who don't typically cover the women's team a great deal - umhoops.com, michigansportscenter and gobluemichiganwolverine.

From what I saw last night, the officiating was rather inconsistent, but I didn't think it particularly favored one side or another. Michigan certainly had their chances to win the game.

Wisconsin 69 Michigan 67

That was disappointing. After a strong first half where Michigan led 36-18, Wisconsin came back and won a close game. Michigan had plenty of chances, but too many turnovers, missed shots and missed rebounds. Wisconsin deserves plenty of credit for hitting plenty of big shots, especially 3 pointers in the second half. After scoring only 18 points in the first half, the Badgers had 51 in the second for their fifth straight win.

Coach Borseth's Coaching Style

Today's Ann Arbor News has an article about Coach Borseth and his rather "animated" behavior during games:

Kevin Borseth is a kinesiologist's dream personified.

His arms flail. His feet stomp. His face contorts, producing an assortment of purposeful expressions.

In moments of enthusiastic over-exuberance, the University of Michigan women's basketball coach will occasionally lose his balance, falling awkwardly backward into the laps of players who have learned to remain on the ready.

Borseth is a case study in constant movement - a collection of anatomical oohs and ahs - each tied to a correlating therapeutic release of emotion.

All of which is routinely put into the open by Borseth for all to see. Not for show, but rather out of competitive necessity.

"When I coach, I live -

every play, every second of every play,'' Borseth says.

Next: Wisconsin

Michigan hosts the Wisconsin Badgers tonight at 8pm. Michigan won the first game of the season in overtime, after Krista Phillips hit a very long 3point shot to tie the score. Both teams have been playing well - Michigan has won four of five, while Wisconsin has won four straight games. Wisconsin is led by Jolene Anderson (20.3 points/game) and Janese Banks (13.8 points/game).

A preview from the Wisconsin web site:

The Badger (15-11, 8-8) buzz saw keeps a hummin’ towards the Big Ten Tournament after taking down three opponents in six days last week. UW has four-straight wins as it heads to Michigan (16-10, 9-7) Thursday for a game broadcast live on the Big Ten Network at 7 p.m. CT. The Badgers are 3-5 in Big Ten road games, one win more than last year's 2-6 record and the most conference roads wins since 2002-03.

Last week’s trifecta of games started with a win on Monday at Northwestern, 79-65. UW beat Indiana Wednesday at the Kohl Center in one of its most complete games of the season, 81-51. The Badgers concluded the week at Minnesota on Saturday with a Border Battle victory at “The Barn”, 59-57.

After struggling with a 1-6 record to open the conference season, the Badgers have won seven of their last nine conference games and perhaps have turned the corner on expectations. Picked to finish among the top three in preseason predictions, the Badgers had some tough luck in the season’s early going and are 3-5 in games decided by six points or less, and lost three overtime games.

Wisconsin Green Bay

The Green Bay Press Gazette has a column about Wisconsin-Green Bay's first year under new coach Matt Bollant. It touches on the difficulty of evaluating a coaches first year, particularly if they follow someone who had long term success:

Borseth, who began his UWGB coaching career by losing eight of his first 11 games, was intent on ingraining his way into his players even though he took over a highly successful team with returning players. Bollant largely went the other way, giving in to a group that was used to playing Borseth's way. It's been a healthy move for the short term, but if at some point he wants his philosophies to come through, it might be tougher because his foundation hasn't been completely built.

Williams takes leave from Penn State

Mashea Williams is taking an indefinite leave of absence from the Penn State team. Her last game was last Thursday - she missed the game Sunday against Northwestern. I expect this will hurt the Nitany Lions, who are already struggling in the second half of the season.

New column up at umgoblue.com

Vince Prygoski has a new column up over at umgoblue.com, covering the last few weeks of the season:

Michigan has been especially impressive on defense this season. They are allowing the fewest average points per game in the Big Ten both in all games and in conference games, with averages of 57.7 in all games and an even lower 56.8 in the conference. As the late, great Coach Bo Schembechler used to like to emphasize...Defense Wins Championships!

And so Coach Borseth's team heads into the final stretch of the season with a winning record and with the potential for so much more. After all the years of suffering, it is so very nice indeed to see Michigan women's basketball having some success again.