YPSILANTI, Mich. — This was the year the Michigan women’s basketball team was supposed to defy all odds.
Though the Wolverines finished the season just 17-13 overall, their season was marked by a number of outstanding feats and record-breaking statistics.
Michigan started off its Big Ten season 2-0 for the first time since the 1999-2000 season, after riding a hot-streak of three consecutive wins against ranked opponents — including then-No. 24 Boston College, No. 12 Ohio State and No. 14 Iowa. Michigan then went on to sweep the Buckeyes for the first time in 10 years with a last minute comeback win on the road.
But within the past four days, the Wolverines failed to grab an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and then lost 67-59 in the first round of the WNIT to Eastern Michigan. After coming into the postseason as one of 31 teams selected with an automatic bid, Michigan was sent home in round one.
Needless to say, Michigan was expected to win. In fact, the Wolverines were a potential contender for the WNIT final.
“I mean it was a roller coaster,” senior guard Veronica Hicks said after the game. “The seasons are full of ups and downs. Somebody said something about peaking too soon, and so I guess we maybe hit a hot streak a little early.”
After such a promising start to the season, Michigan can’t help but wonder what led to its gradual fallout near the end of conference play — a slump that was all-but exacerbated in post-season play.
In the final month of the season, the Wolverines went 4-6. That included two losses to Minnesota, a home-court stomping by Penn State and a 55-47 loss to Illinois, the 11th ranked team in the conference, in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament.
According to Michigan coach Kevin Borseth, his team simply didn’t have the defensive game that it needed to succeed down the stretch.
“Defensively we’re not really a team that can impose our will on other teams, and I think that really hurts us,” Borseth said. “We gotta get better defensively. That’s where our recruiting has to go — to get kids who can guard, so we can at least, on one end of the court, be a lot better.”
The Wolverines did have their high moments defensively, including against Ohio State when Michigan held four-time Big Ten Player of the Year Jantel Lavender to a career-low 10 points.
But the Wolverines ranked 10th in the conference in rebounding defense and allowed their opponents an average of 62 points per game. And Michigan’s season was plagued by a handful of embarrassing losses to inferior teams like Marquette, Detroit, Minnesota and Illinois.
“It was very frustrating before a game trying to figure out how we were going to match up — who was going to match up with who — and we just gave up too many points this year,” Borseth said. “We gave up too many easy baskets and the games like this right here, when your defense should be able to step up and dominate, it just wasn’t able to do it.”
With Hicks as the sole senior to graduate from the squad, Michigan has promise to come back next season with a strong, young team.
But, as a lesson learned from this season, the Wolverines will need to be careful with where their promising looks will take them.