Entering the final month of regular season play, the No. 6 Michigan women’s basketball team finds itself in an entirely unfamiliar situation.
The Wolverines’ current ranking is their highest ever, and Monday’s win over Indiana was Michigan’s first top-five home win in program history. But despite this novelty, the Wolverines need to stay focused in order to maintain their success.
An entire quarter of the regular season is yet to be played. And now that they are considered a top-tier program, they know they’ll face every team’s very best.
“I think each new game we have to remember people are coming for us,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “We are here now. We’re going to get everyone’s best shot.”
In February, the Wolverines will play seven games. During the final stretch of last season, they lost four of their last five games to put themselves out of position to win the Big Ten regular season championship. Now, with a greatly improved roster, Michigan will look for a stronger finish.
“We’re in a different position than we’ve ever been in before,” Barnes Arico said. “We always talk about being hunted and how we are handling that. We always talk about ‘don’t get too high or too low.’ We have a tough stretch coming up. Just stay the course, one game at a time.”
In February, the Wolverines have a home matchup against No. 21 Iowa (14-5 overall, 8-2 Big Ten). This is arguably Michigan’s toughest remaining game — the Hawkeyes boast the No. 3 scoring offense in the nation. Spearheading Iowa’s attack is second team All-American guard Caitlin Clark, whose 26.4 points per game and 44.5% shooting both lead the nation.
But Michigan has successfully dealt with high-scoring offenses in recent weeks with wins against Maryland and Ohio State, holding both opponents to under 50 points a game.
“Our identity is our defense right now,” senior guard Danielle Rauch said. “We set a standard for ourselves and we work hard, but I think the biggest thing right now is just clicking as a unit on defense.”
A week later, Michigan will make the short trip to East Lansing to face in-state rival Michigan State (12-8 overall, 6-3 Big Ten). The Spartans are currently riding an impressive three-game win streak, but are yet to secure a signature win. With the Breslin Center sure to be rocking, Michigan State will pull out all the stops to try and topple its biggest rival. And if the Wolverines have shown any weaknesses this season, they’ve been on the road: Michigan’s only two losses have been away from home.
“The Big Ten is different,” Barnes Arico said on January 24th. “Conference play is really different going on the road.”
The Wolverines will play their final two regular season games of the season in Ann Arbor, with rematches against Maryland (15-6 overall, 7-3 Big Ten) and Michigan State. Following a brutal home court blowout loss in College Park, and their first ever home loss to Michigan, the Terrapins will look for revenge.
Their final game of the month will be on the road against Iowa, who has recorded an 8-3 record on its home court. Still, that doesn’t tell the entire story — the Hawkeyes are 0-1 against ranked opponents at home and have zero top 25 wins this season.
Michigan is entering this month with a lot of confidence, riding a seven game win streak. It’s in a position it has never been before; now, the Wolverines will look to finish it off.
“We really challenge ourselves to make sure that our goals are (met) throughout the entirety of the year, whether that be non conference, conference, and postseason,” senior forward Naz Hillmon said. “We have met some of those goals, but we want to continue to strive for better.”