Women's Basketball

Not a jam-packed day in Michigan Athletics, but a very nice one. 

Michigan Volleyball (12-14, 7-9 B1G) pulled out a great upset win over #17 Ohio State at Cliff Keen Arena. They won a close set one, 25-23. In the second set, they blew OSU away winning 25-14. The Buckeyes took the third in a back-and-forth set 3. And in set 4, Michigan pulled out a thriller, winning it 25-23 and taking the match.

Frustrating set 4. Michigan was up 24-17 and nearly lost their sure-thing victory as OSU rallied and pulled the score to 24-23. The star of the match, Caroline Knop, ended OSU's comeback hopes with a kill that sealed the upset.

Knop had a team-high 14 kills and 12 digs with 1 ace while Lexi Dannemiller led Michigan with 5 blocks.

NCAA Tournament hopes look very slim. But this is a good start if they are going to pull off a miracle run. The team has been rocked by injuries this season, causing the disappointing record. Their schedule does not get any easier as they will host the dynasty, Penn State, at Cliff Keen Arena for their next match.  

#8 Michigan Wrestling (1-1, 0-0 B1G) went 1-1 today at the EMU Duals in Ypsilanti. They dismantled #24 Ohio University by the score of 28-3 in the first dual of the day with Michigan claiming two upset victories in the 174 and 197 matches-

A much tougher test came against #14 Edinboro. Michigan was down 20-0 at one point and could not make the early deficit up as Edinboro clinched the dual victory with their win in the 184 match.

Future WWE Champion Adam Coon starts his season 2-0. Next up, the Wolverines will face Central Michigan on 11/25 which will be their final dual meet until B1G competition begins in January.  

#8 Women's Cross Country and #12 Men's Cross Country both received at-large bids for the NCAA Championships which will be held next Saturday in Terre Haute, IN. 

I was in attendance at the MBB game, the Volleyball match and Hockey's game. I'm glad I typed this in between MBB and VB in my car because I'm exhausted. 

Only one sport is in action tomorrow...

W Basketball: vs Bucknell (2pm/BTN Plus)

Michigan Women's Basketball opened their 2014-15 season at Crisler Center earlier this evening.

They faced Detroit, an annual opponent who they have faced 11 times since 1998-99 and every year since 2009-10. Detroit did well early and took a 37-26 lead into halftime.

What happened next was the ultimate halftime adjustment. Michigan went on a 21-2 run to take the lead, 43-39, and never looked back. Michigan outscored Detroit 50-20 in the second half to take the season opener, 76-57.

Star Cyesha Goree and captain Nicole Elmblad had point-rebound double doubles and SIX (Goree, Flaherty, Elmblad, Smith, Dunston and Thompson) Wolverines were in double figures. The highly ranked freshman PG Katelynn Flaherty was the one who started the comeback.

Michigan is now 26-16 all-time in season openers and has won 8 of its last 9 season openers. Next up, they'll take on Bucknell at Crisler Center on Sunday.

#8 Women's Cross Country took 4th place today with 137 points at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional in Madison, WI. It looks as if they will be without the all-world sophomore Erin Finn for the rest of the season due to her foot injury. A real shame. This team was the undisputed #1 team in the nation at one point during the season. 

#12 Men's Cross Country finished in 3rd place today with 94 points at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional which was also held in Madison. Top-10 finishes by Mason Ferlic and Ben Flanagan helped Michigan to their 3rd place spot. 

Ferlic, Flanagan and August Pappas received All-Great Lakes Regional honors. A good showing for first year head coach Kevin Sullivan. Somewhat disappointing since Michigan took the regional championship last year, though. 

Both Cross Country programs will finish their seasons next weekend at the NCAA Championships which will be held in Terre Haute, IN. It looks like these two teams will be the only two fall sports that will reach the postseason. Yeah. That doesn't sit very well with me.

A potential Football win against Maryland is the only thing keeping the fall sports season from being over by the first week of December. This has probably been the most disasterous fall sports season.....maybe ever? I literally do not know the last time none of the fall sports that have tournament-style championships did not qualify.

Regardless, I will be doing a fall sports wrap-up post (when the time comes) and will talk about why this fall has been a disaster across the board (barring Football or Volleyball suddenly pulling off incredible upsets).

Here's the slate for the rest of the weekend in Michigan Athletics...

Tomorrow, Saturday, 11/15
#8 Wrestling: #24 Ohio University -- EMU Duals in Ypsilanti (10:30am)
#8 Wrestling: #14 Edinboro -- EMU Duals in Ypsilanti (Noon)
#24 M Basketball: vs Hillsdale (2pm/ESPN3)
Volleyball: vs #17 Ohio State (5pm)
Hockey: vs American International (7:35pm/BTN Plus)

Sunday, 11/16
W Basketball: vs Bucknell (2pm/BTN Plus)

Pretty cool. 

http://www.mgoblue.com/allaccess/?media=461264

He also nominated Michigan WBB head coach, Kim Barnes Arico, who accepted the challenge and posted a video of it. She then nominated Bacari Alexander, Brian Wiseman and her assistant coach Melanie Moore.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=850919534920996&set=vb.148838328462457&type=2&theater

Kim Barnes Arico and the Michigan women's basketball program rounded out their terrific 2015 recruiting class with a verbal commitment today from Hallie Thome, a 6-5 center from Chagrin Falls, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland). Two major ranking services have her in their top 100 for 2015: Blue Star has her at #63 and ASGR at #82 (the latter may be out of date as it's from an October 2013 posting, but it's the most recent public ranking that I know of).

I don't have a recent scouting report to post, mainly because Thome suffered a torn ACL last December and missed the rest of her junior season at Chagrin Falls. During the seven games she played before getting hurt, she averaged 19.8 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks. She's now back with her AAU team, SMAC, playing with them during last week's evaluation period.

Here's a brief scouting report from Blue Star from back in 2012:

This 6-4 center from Chagrin Falls is becoming one of the best interior players in this class. She can post up and score with a variety of moves including the step thru. The ability is there to use her left and right hand equally well inside. She can rebound and is very mobile. Thome plays physically and can defend her position well.

Thome took her official visit to Michigan back in May. The last I heard she had narrowed it down to U-M, Michigan State, and Louisville, taking official visits to each. There were a bunch of other high-major programs who had pursued her, including Kentucky, Ohio State, Purdue, and Vanderbilt. (EDIT: The News-Herald article linked in a reply includes Kentucky among her finalists, so she likely took an official there as well.)

The Michigan staff has now essentially assembled a full squad in the 2015 class:

• PG: Lauren "Boogie" Brozoski (Hello post)
• SG: Nicole Munger (Hello post)
• W: Naomi Davenport (Hello post)
• F: Sam Trammel (Hello post)
• P: Hallie Thome

All five players are ranked in the top 100 by at least one of the major recruiting services. Blue Star has four of the five in their top 100—Davenport #27, Munger #52, Thome #63, and Brozoski #67—with Trammel at #163. Michigan's 2014 class was consensus top 25; the 2015 class will certainly be ranked even higher. The combination of the two should have Michigan competing for Big Ten titles and advancing further in the NCAA tourney than they ever have.

For the 5th straight time, the Women of Basketball defeat Illinois, 70-63.

Cyesha Goree had an incredible 30 points and 19 rebounds. She is only the second Wolverine ever to score 30 points in a game, per @umichwbball.

This is a key stretch for Michigan as the regular season winds down if they want to impress the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

Right now in current bracketology, Michigan isn't even listed as a next four out team.

They will most likely have to win out in the regular season and make some noise in the B1G Tournament. Or they could just win the whole B1G Tournament.

The problem with winning out in the regular season is what waits for them in the finale--#11 penn state.

Remaining schedule-

• 2/19 at Indiana | 7pm/MGoBlueTV
• 2/22 vs Iowa | 1:30pm/BTN
• 3/1 at Penn State | 3:30pm/BTN

The Michigan women's basketball team has an important home game today vs. #25 Purdue, tipping off at noon and televised on the BTN. The Wolverines beat the Boilermakers in convincing fashion earlier this year in West Lafayette, 65-49. A win today would translate into Michigan's first season sweep of Purdue since the 1997-98 season. Purdue is now playing without their leading scorer, KK Houser, who suffered a torn ACL a week ago. Despite the loss of Houser, the Boilermakers beat OSU on Thursday, 74-58.

Michigan is currently tied for fourth in the Big Ten, and I think any run at the conference title is unlikely given the team's youth and inexperience and a very tough schedule down the stretch. That schedule, though, provides the team with four golden opportunities to pick up signature wins to enhance their NCAA tourney resume. In addition to today's game, the remaining schedule also include matchups against three other top Big Ten teams (and teams with top 50 RPIs)—Nebraska, Iowa, and Penn State.

If the Wolverines can win two of those four games and win the other two upcoming games (road tilts against Indiana and Illinois), that might be enough to get them in. That would put them at 19-10 overall, give them a couple more signature wins, and boost their RPI. They really need to improve their RPI to have a chance at a berth, as it currently stands at around 80. Winning four of the last six would give them a 10-6 Big Ten record and probably put them in fifth or sixth place. That would mean a first-round BTT game against one of the lesser teams, giving them a good shot at 20 wins.

Massey has today's game as a close one, with Purdue predicted to win 72-69. The win probability for Michigan is 43%.