Women's BB Team Shoots for 3rd Place at Wisconsin on BTN at 1:30 ET
The Michigan women's basketball team is currently in fourth place in the Big Ten, trailing Wisconsin by 1 game. Here are the standings:
| STANDINGS | CONFERENCE | OVERALL | ||||
| Big Ten | W-L | GB | PCT | W-L | PCT | STRK |
| #11 Michigan State | 11-2 | -- | .846 | 23-3 | .885 | W5 |
| #23 Penn State | 10-4 | 1.5 | .714 | 21-7 | .750 | L1 |
| Wisconsin | 9-4 | 2 | .692 | 14-11 | .560 | L1 |
| Michigan | 8-5 | 3 | .615 | 15-10 | .600 | W1 |
| Iowa | 8-6 | 3.5 | .571 | 20-7 | .741 | W3 |
| Purdue | 8-6 | 3.5 | .571 | 18-9 | .667 | W2 |
| Ohio State | 7-6 | 4 | .538 | 16-9 | .640 | W3 |
| Northwestern | 5-9 | 6.5 | .357 | 16-11 | .593 | L3 |
| Minnesota | 3-10 | 8 | .231 | 11-15 | .423 | L3 |
| Indiana | 3-11 | 8.5 | .214 | 9-17 | .346 | L2 |
| Illinois | 2-11 | 9 | .154 | 7-19 | .269 | L9 |
With a win today over Wisconsin and victories in their two other remaining games, Michigan would be guaranteed to have at least the number three seed in the Big Ten Tournament. They beat Wisconsin earlier this year at Crisler 75-59, so a victory today gives them the edge over the Badgers in a head-to-head tiebreaker for seeding. One development in U-M's favor in the matchup (noted from a story in the Michigan Daily): One of Wisconsin's seniors, and the team's third-leading scorer, Tara Steinbauer, is out for the season after suffering a torn ACL in the Badger's loss to Iowa on Wednesday.
The #3 seed would not only give the team a first-round bye in the BTT, it would also most likely mean that they would not have to face MSU until the tournament final given that the Spartans are likely to win the Big Ten. (Michigan has lost nine straight times to MSU.)
Michigan's last two regular-season games are against two of the bottom teams in the conference--Minnesota at home on the 24th and a road game vs. Illinois on the 27th. If they could possibly win these last three games, they should be in good shape for securing their first NCAA tourney bid in a decade.
Right now, both Michigan and Wisconsin are squarely on the bubble, making today's game that much more important. In his women's Bracketology feature, Charlie Creme has had Michigan in the field in his last few brackets (right now as a #9 seed), but their position is fairly precarious. Jeff Sagarin ranks Michigan at #36, RealTimeRPI.com has them at #41, while CollegeRPI.com has them at #35. Michigan has a superior strength-of-schedule rating (in the 8 to 11 range), but the problem is that their better wins on the season (Boston College, OSU [twice], Iowa) have lost some of their value as those teams stumbled following good starts. "Bad" losses to Detroit and Minnesota won't help either. So Michigan needs to finish strong to secure a bid.
February 19th, 2011 at 12:40 PM ^
February 19th, 2011 at 3:15 PM ^
Game tied at 66 with 38.2 seconds remaining.
February 19th, 2011 at 3:16 PM ^
Wolverines up 2 with 7.6 remaining. Wisconsin ball.
February 19th, 2011 at 3:18 PM ^
68-66 Michigan win. Both teams are tied for 3rd with a 9-5 record but we swept the season series.
February 19th, 2011 at 3:19 PM ^
Caught the last few minutes. Boylan scored on UM's last three possessions to give them the 68-66 win. Nice strong finish.
February 19th, 2011 at 3:20 PM ^
Big, big win.
February 19th, 2011 at 3:26 PM ^
Great win for the women's team. It's great to see all these non-revenue sports stepping up and having great seasons. Women's b-ball gets extra props for sweeping OSU on the season!
February 19th, 2011 at 4:26 PM ^
Thought they had blown that one. Michigan was up by 12 early in the second half before the Badgers came back to take the lead with less than 5:00 to go. Then as mentioned above, Courtney Boylan with three clutch shots at the end for the win, including the winner with 7.6 seconds left.
Career-high 22 for Rachel Shaffer, and Kate Thompson with 17, including 4-6 from 3-point range.
Great win. Go Blue!
February 19th, 2011 at 3:29 PM ^
Nice, very important win today for the Women, hopefully the men can follow suit. In other women's bball action so far today, CMU continued there best season in about 20 years beating WMU 91-75. Toledo however looks to be running away with the MAC this year.
February 19th, 2011 at 7:55 PM ^
I don't pay much attention but I know we've had our fair share of upsets. Is third or fourth good enough for a tourny appearance?
February 20th, 2011 at 9:57 AM ^
I think if they win their final two regular-season games, which as I mentioned in the OP are against two of the bottom teams in the conference, they should be in solid shape. The victory over Wisconsin was big--CollegeRPI pushed Michigan up from 35 to 30 after the win. In its latest bracket (from last night), that site also has Michigan safely in the field as a #8 seed.