It's a team with all the pieces for the future.

Well, at least it's pretty close.

Understandably, the long-term future a hot topic of discussion for the Michigan women's basketball team, considering their biggest game of the year is against Michigan State on Thursday. The Wolverines are attempting to break out of the middle of the Big Ten pack in hopes of obtaining an NCAA Tournament berth.

But rest assured, discussion of the future is entirely relevant for this team.

Michigan senior center Krista Phillips and Spartan senior center Allyssa DeHaan, both graduating after this year, will face off for the last time.

At 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-9, respectively, that’s a whole lot of size in the middle for both teams.

And for the Wolverines especially, that brings up questions regarding the future outlook for the team down low.

With two starting freshman guards, Dayeesha Hollins and Jenny Ryan, Michigan is certainly set on the perimeter. But there’s an entirely different story being written in the post.

Outside of redshirt senior forward Ashley Jones, who is also graduating after this year, the Wolverines have only a pair of freshmen to back up Phillips in the post.

But Sam Arnold and Rachel Sheffer average just 10 minutes per game combined on the season and even fewer in Big Ten games, leaving the team with few seasoned post players for next year.

The two freshmen will be joined by 2010 signee Val Driscoll. The 6-foot-4 center’s adjustment to the college game, along with Arnold and Sheffer’s continued growth, will be crucial on the interior.

“Solidifying your game around the rim is obviously very important,” Borseth said tuesday. “In this league, you got to be able to stop somebody around the hole. That’s what you got to be able to do, and if you can’t do that then life becomes more difficult.”

And filling Phillips's shoes in the post is crucial to Michigan's success beyond this season.

But the Wolverine post players may have a luxury not afforded to players in the past. The up-tempo style that Michigan has adopted emphasizes outside shooting and perimeter play. But this adjustment may simply be a result of the personnel.

Despite Phillips’s obvious size, she and sophomore forward Carmen Reynolds are both more comfortable on the perimeter than in the paint. In the team’s 74-40 win against Minnesota on Sunday, Phillips scored all 13 of her points on jumpshots. Reynolds is Michigan’s leading 3-point shooter, hitting 44 percent on her team-leading 52 triples.

But for Phillips, the biggest adjustment to playing the post in a physical Big Ten has been defense.

“It’s a mentality that you don’t ever, ever want to get beat,” Phillips said. “That’s my biggest thing. I don’t ever want to have some post player come in and just score a post move on me.”

But that mentality isn’t easily achieved, and only after the team’s young post players fully understand that can the Wolverines turn a bright-looking future into a potentially dominant reality.

"If you can stop people and you can rebound, then you can run,” Borseth said. “Your best teams are your teams that can just stuff people, and then just break out and create something fast on the other end of the court. We’re not in a position to impose our will on anybody.”

The Wolverines have at least one half of that equation – those guards sure can get out and run. The other half?

That’s the question that will define Michigan’s future.