Whats the deal with the WBB team

Submitted by superstringer on

The women's hoops team is only 6-5.  Lost to a few ranked teams, but recently blown out by Detroit (!).  The turnaround to 21-10 last year doesn't seem to be taking root, absent some kind of massive turnaround in the B10 season that is utterly unlikely to happen.  Meanwhile, our coach's former team, UW-Green Bay, is ranked (!).  That's two coaches in a row who had great success at small schools, only to come here and be unable to sustain it (or, in the previous coach's tenure, even come close to duplicating it).

Does anyone follow this stuff -- what is the hex on this program?  I had a diary topic on this a couple weeks ago, the age of Crisler clearly is having a continued impact in chasing away any recruit that halfways cares about the arena in which he (here, she) is gonna play.  But that can't explain it all, can it?  B-line's got a competitive team, to say the least.  Why does it seem UM cant have a half-way decent women's hoops team for a few seasons in a row.

DrewandBlue

December 20th, 2010 at 4:29 PM ^

You may want to retract your last question regarding DD!  May catch some slack for that one...  Discussed way more than even should be in recent posts.  Be well!

Ypsiwolverine

December 20th, 2010 at 4:46 PM ^

The Detroit loss was frustrating, but in general the team is playing fairly well this year.  A couple of things to remember - this is a very young team - 1 senior, 3 juniors, 5 sophomores and a freshman.  Add in a couple of key losses from last year - Krista Phillips (graduated) and Dayeesha Hollins (transfer) and I think they were bound to struggle a bit.

Their other losses were against very good teams - Xavier (#5), Texas A&M (#7), Iowa State (#21) and Marquette (unranked but currently #24 in Jeff Sagarin's ratings). 

I expect them to be in the middle of the pack in the Big 10 this year and have a shot at the NIT - I think the NCAA is probably a reach...

Raoul

December 20th, 2010 at 4:48 PM ^

I've seen very few of their games this year, and I'm no expert on women's basketball, but Dayeesha Hollins's transfer clearly hurt the team and the only new player (Val Driscoll) doesn't play much. So I'm not surprised they aren't doing as well as last year, although to be fair (as you note) their nonconference schedule has been pretty tough.

It should also be noted that the team is still very young as they start three sophomores and two other sophomores get significant minutes off the bench.

It does seem to be a program with a curse hanging over it. One thing Borseth has been unable to do is land a top recruit who could perhaps get the ball rolling and get other top recruits to begin taking serious looks at Michigan. For example, Asia Boyd, a guard from Detroit Renaissance in the top 50 of the 2011 class, could have been that player, but she picked Kansas last month (which is rather ironic given that Michigan just beat Kansas in what was their best win of the season).

Bosch

December 20th, 2010 at 5:24 PM ^

for top quality female basketball players to come to Michigan. 

Michigan:

  1. Has subpar facilities
  2. Has no history of sustained success
  3. Has minimal fan support
  4. Is a football school (or resembles one occasionally)
  5. Has a struggling men's basketball program
  6. Is in a conference with few perennial power female teams

It's not a good equation.  I don't see us ever having a women's team to brag about but if it were to happen, I think that it would have to rise from sustained success from the men's team. 

MGoBender

December 20th, 2010 at 7:23 PM ^

We lost Veronica Hicks, our leading scorer.

Also, for people that complain about Crisler: have you ever been there when it's full?  It's a GREAT atmosphere and loud when it's full.  The concourse sucks and needs to be updated, but there's nothing wrong with the rest of it (from a fan's perspective).

And with the practice facility coming, people won't be able to complain about player amenities for much longer.

What they should do at Crisler is replace the outer concourse walls with some kind of window or glass structure.  This would immensely brighten up the councourse.  Then they need to dress it up a bit (similar to what the Palace has done) so it's not all concrete. 

Crisler isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be.

Raoul

December 20th, 2010 at 7:37 PM ^

I agree with what you say about Crisler, particularly about the concourse--it needs a lot of work.

You must be thinking of Dayeesha Hollins, who transferred to Cincinnati after last season. Hicks is still on the team (and is the lone senior this year), and for the record it was Hicks who led the team in scoring last season. I agree, though, as I mentioned above, that the loss of Hollins was a pretty big blow.

Talpostal

December 21st, 2010 at 1:17 AM ^

Michigan has quality players in Hicks and Carmen (and Rachel Sheffer and Nya Jordan are solid as well) but losing Krista Phillips sucks because having a true center seems pretty key to success.

I think we're seeing this year what happened last year for the men's team--they have a bunch of shooters but not many other ways to score (excepting Hicks) so they're living and dying by their 3pt %.