Coach Kevin Borseth has continuously emphasized that the mentality of the Michigan women’s basketball team is to take the season one game at a time.
“One play at a time, that’s how you do it,” Borseth said after practice last week. “We don’t go to streaks and we don’t go to records, we go to the next play and the next game. Every team presents a different set of challenges, so we’ve got to be able to prepare, on both sides of those court, for those challenges.”
But after yet another defining win this past weekend against a Big Ten opponent, Wisconsin, it’s hard not to look at Thursday’s game against Northwestern as a pivotal moment for the Wolverines in conference play.
Michigan (3-2 Big Ten, 10-7 overall) started off its Big Ten season with consecutive wins over conference frontrunners No. 14 Iowa and No. 12 Ohio State contesting its reputation as a weak team in the competitive league. Coming into January, the Wolverines stepped up their defensive pressure early and were executing shots at over 40 percent in both games.
Michigan followed a hot start with two hard-fought losses to Purdue and Michigan State, leading up to Sunday’s 75-59 win against Wisconsin. With the win, the Wolverines have returned to above-.500 in conference play and have an opportunity to prove against Northwestern that their successful start in the Big Ten was no fluke.
“Right now, we’re on the fence,” senior guard Veronica Hicks said last week after practice. “We know that we started off on the top, and now we are neck-and-neck with a lot of teams, so this is kind of where … you start to realize if you’re going to be at the top or the bottom.”
But Northwestern will not be an easy stepping stone for Michigan, who is looking to launch its season into an upward swing. The Wildcats (3-3 Big Ten, 14-5 overall) have been positioned as the surprise team of the Big Ten since the pre-season.
“It is no surprise to us coaches, but Northwestern is going to be a great team this year,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said in October. “The perception is still that they are toward the bottom of the Big Ten, but they are a very good basketball team, and they are well coached. I think they are going to shock everybody else.”
And Northwestern has come close, notching two conference wins against Illinois and Ohio State and splitting two games against Purdue. But even the Wildcats’ losses have been notable — coming against Penn State, who is currently tied for the Big Ten lead, and Indiana who sealed its two-point win by finishing a layup with just three seconds left in the game.
Northwestern is led by 6-foot-5 senior center Amy Jaeschke, who averages 22.8 points and 9.2 rebounds per game. Jaeschke is a three-time All-Big Ten selection and is currently fifth in the nation in blocked shots, with four per game. Jaeschke is paired with junior forward Brittany Orban, who averages 12.4 shots and 6.9 rebounds a game and shoots just under 50 percent from behind the arc.
But on Thursday, the Wolverines will not focus all their efforts on defending Jaeschke. Rather, Michigan will emphasize offensive production of its own, having finished 0-6 this season when scoring less than 60 points in a game. So that’s the plan: Put the ball in the basket.
“(Scoring is) being able to finish on the block, penetrating and finishing around the basket,” junior guard Courtney Boylan said last week. “It seems like we can really get threes at any point, it’s just taking good shots and getting the ball around the rim to get easy shots.”
If Michigan can successfully execute on the offensive end of the court, then the matchup against Northwestern may prove to be more than another game — it could be another push in the right direction for the Wolverines’ conference play.