[Ed: Ace: Bumping matty blue again. All photos by JD Scott/MGoBlog.]

COVID.  That’s it.  That’s the intro.

Okay, fine, i’ll continue.  We knew that this was going to be a weird season, a ‘let’s cross our fingers and hope it all works out’ season.  Putting aside the obvious incongruity of even having a season when a meaningful portion of schools are limiting and / or eliminating in-person instruction, once it started you knew there’d be hitches.  UConn and Baylor were all set to play a hugely-anticipated game this past Wednesday.  It was scratched because of the euphemistic “COVID concerns within the programs,” one of which turned out to be Baylor Head Coach Kim Mulkey. 

Duke (once a Death Star program) shut its season down entirely, presumably setting the stage for Mike Kwerasdfdski to do the same so he can vacate the record of what appears to be one of his lesser teams.  Izzo preemptively whined about potential “asterisks” after winning at Cameron in one of the season’s early supposed marquee games.  Maybe he knew what was up - Coach K does like his asterisks.

But I digress.  The point is that something is gonna happen to every team.  What will separate good teams and programs from the rest is how they respond.  The Michigan women have spent the last month or so responding in some form or fashion: two games were cancelled / postponed and two more were spent with only eight players available.  They had, honestly, lucked out at that point - yes, several players had been unavailable, but none of them were starters. 

I happen to be of the mind that short-term injuries can sometimes be a net positive when players are challenged to do new or more or different things.  This seemed to be borne out when the ladies played one of their most complete games in KBA’s tenure on Sunday, blowing out a very good Northwestern team.  Backed against the wall of a short bench, with little or no margin for error, they beat the hell out of a good team.

Going into the season, I was curious about how Nebraska transfer Leigha Brown would mesh with a veteran team that returned everyone from an solid run in the B1G tournament.  I knew she was obviously a good scorer, but beyond that…well, you never know.  Sometimes a ‘scorer’ can disrupt the chemistry of a team.

She didn’t, and I think it’s because she’s not Just A Scorer (™).  She runs the floor, she facilitates, she defends.  She fits.  Naz Hillmon is obviously the engine that makes this team go, and Amy Dilk has been the driver, but Leigha Brown is the turbocharger.  She’s made every part of the team a little better.

[Hit THE JUMP for Naz carrying a Leigha Brown-less squad.]

I was glad to hear that Michigan was getting some players (Maddie Nolan, Elise Stuck, Michelle Sidor, at the least) back for a game against a good Nebraska team.  Unfortunately, their longer bench was one shorter than it might have been, with the COVID-related absence of Leigha Brown.  “Okay,” I thought, “we’re kinda back to where we were at the end of last season.  We should be okay.”  And we probably would have been, if anyone had been able to hit a shot.  They weren’t.

With Brown out, the clear emphasis was to get Naz Hillmon going, early and often, and for Amy Dilk to take back some of the scoring load that she has given up with Brown on the floor.  The first part of that went fine, as Naz played perhaps the best game of her career, scoring seemingly at will against a taller Nebraska post player and getting every rebound in reach.  The second part, not so much.

My first takeaway from the Northwestern blowout on Sunday was that yes, these ladies shot the lights out, but - and I stand by this - that performance was in some part due to a series of great looks…and those great looks are the result of a really elegant offensive approach that relies on constant ball movement around a great post player in Naz Hillmon.  I still think that’s true - but it relied on having someone like Leigha Brown on the floor to open up the passing lanes for everyone else.  Danielle Rauch, Michelle Sidor, even Maddie Nolan - they’re all good players, but they don’t demand the same defensive focus that Leigha Brown does.  And on nights when the shots aren’t falling (3 for 20 on threes, and 6 of 31 on non-Naz twos)?  Yikes.

My other takeaway was that defense and rebounding travel, and thankfully, that’s exactly what happened.  The defense was, as usual, excellent.  It’s really remarkable how few open shots this team gives up, and it doesn’t matter who is on the floor.  Every player gets after it on that end, and they did once again.

But it was the the rebounding that saved the game.  On the offensive end, the defensive end, long bounces, tips; Michigan out rebounded Nebraska 59-32 overall and got 30 - three-zero - offensive rebounds.  It was a remarkable performance, to the point where it was, honestly, slightly surprising when Michigan was beaten to a loose ball anytime after halftime, when Michigan outrebounded Nebraska 34-15.

But that’s how you win a rockfight.  If the shots aren’t falling, you bust your ass on defense and you crash the glass like a lunatic.

It’s funny - in some way, this game made me more optimistic about the ceiling for this team, not less.  Sometimes you have to win a game on sheer grit and determination.  That’s what this was.

Basketbullets

• Much has been written about Naz’ remarkable night.  35 and 22, including 13 offensive rebounds, and a huge block - the team’s only one - that caused Nebraska’s coach to have a huge, tech-inducing fit.  That said, it wasn’t a perfect game - she went 5 / 10 from the line and turned it over six times.  One wonders if some of that was from the sheer exhaustion of carrying the entire team on her back.  And she was absolutely gassed - I think I’ve seen about 90% of her collegiate minutes, and this was as tired as I’ve ever seen her.
• Amy Dilk did indeed try to take on some of the offensive load and definitely looked to take shots.  At a glance, she had a rough night, finishing with only 11 on 3 / 15 from the floor and 4 of 8 from the line and only 2 assists.  but she also had 8 rebounds and only 1 turnover.  The upshot - she didn’t score, but they also couldn’t have won without her.  She was fine.
• Again, she wasn’t the only one having a lousy shooting night Hailey Brown was 3 / 13, and AK was 3 / 16.  Those three were 3 / 15 from three.  It’s hard to overstate - nobody made a shot all night.
• And the bench was, frankly, pretty lousy, too.  MGoFave Maddie Nolan was…fine, although she didn’t score in her 24 minutes.  But Sidor, Stuck, and Kiser were non-contributors offensively.

So, we won a game where we didn’t play particularly well, against a not-great team.  As I said, sometimes you have to do that - Northwestern, in an almost-identical situation against this same Nebraska team, failed to do so.  Credit to the Michigan women for gutting one out.