Ignatius L Hoops
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Slings and arrows: a Valentine Day showdown.
Michigan (9-5), losers of the three of their last four arrive at Williams Arena after losing to Purdue, Rutgers and Michigan State with only a recent victory over Northwestern on the positive side of the ledger. Yes, I'm concerned Michigan will just come down court, toss the ball to Hallie Thome for two over and over again (something they seemed reluctant to do against MSU). And yes, Michigan State is a team with one guard and a truck load of posts; but it’s worth a look at how they knocked off the Wolverines with quotes from the two coaches:
Quotes from Suzy Merchant:
On Taryn McCutcheon’s defense…
I told her after the game, we’ve played four years against Flaherty and she’s really, really good, and I thought Tori (Jankoska) the last few years has done a pretty good job on her. But, that’s probably the best I’ve ever seen anybody. She can evade screens, she can get up underneath it, she can guard the ball. I think what we were trying to do tendency-wise with her was effective and then when she got her fourth foul we were using Coco (Gaines) who’s 6’2”, 6’3” with length just to try to mix it up and buy some time for Taryn, but I thought that was the best I’ve seen for sure defensively.
On forcing turnovers…
I thought we did a good job of getting their gaps. There are certain kids on their team who aren’t aggressive getting the ball, so we tried to play off of them a little bit and double and do some things. Especially when they were driving a little bit to have permanent help guys versus having them off their shooters so I think that was part of their turnovers. They couldn’t get into a flow, and then Taryn just denying her the ball, usually she’s just a quick pin down or a quick flare screen and she’s got the ball in her hands. I thought Taryn did a good job of disrupting their offense by not letting her get the ball initially. I thought that helped a little bit with the turnover situation.
Kim Barnes Arico:
On the turnovers…
That’s been really the problem and we work on it. I mean, I know everybody probably says, ‘why aren’t you working on that or that late game situation?’ but we work on it every day. I think coming into the year we really knew that that might be something that could be a problem for us because we weren’t returning a point guard. But we have kind of, at times, handled it. Deja Church and Katelynn Flaherty and Nicole Munger and Jillian Dunston have done a good job and then at different times when we get frazzled a little bit, when we get bumped, when it gets physical a little bit, we have turned it over.
So it’s definitely a work in progress. I think part of it is not really having that true point guard. You know Katelynn has done a tremendous job for us filling that role, but now we’re looking to Katelynn to distribute, to score, to do a little bit of everything, so now we’re pointing at somebody else to relieve some of that pressure for her which I think Deja is doing and is going to improve on.
On not having Brown at the end of the game…
Well Hailey is a great 3-point shooter and she obviously made a 3 and you know she’s tough with the pick-and-pop and the flair screen to Kate and so she had made one pretty soon, pretty recently before she got hurt, so that definitely, not having her in at the end of the game took away one of our best 3-point shooters. Next to Kate she’s probably shooting it the best of anyone on our team right now. So not having her in at that point definitely hurt us.
http://www.msuspartans.com/sports/w-baskbl/recaps/021118aaa.html
Michigan relies on seven players. The extent of Hailey Brown’s injury is not known; but she was helped off the court after Hallie Thome fell into her left leg in an under basket scramble. On the bench Brown’s left ankle was being iced. If Brown can’t go on Wednesday night against the Gophers it’s expected that former Gopher commit Deja Church will take her place.
B1G Wins: Penn State 89-69, @ Wisconsin 80-57, Indiana 84-79, @ Nebraska 69-64 (OT), @ Ohio State 84-75, Illinois 86-42, Michigan State 74-48, @ Northwestern 80-59, and Northwestern 84-63
B1G Losses: @ Iowa 72-82, Ohio State 71-78 (OT), Purdue 79-81 (OT), @ Rutgers 56-63 and Michigan State 61-66..
Last Season: In Ann Arbor the Wolverines made short work of the Gophers 84-69. It was 25-16 Michigan at the end of the first quarter. Then Minnesota’s offense went dormant producing a 6 point second quarter allowing Michigan to lead 47-22 at the half. Minnesota could not contain Thome who scored 20 points and grabbed 17 rebounds. Flaherty chipped in 22 points. For the Gophers, Wagner had a big day with 38 points (7-9) from behind the arc. Hedstrom was the only other Gopher in double figures with 13. It was an otherwise forgettable game featuring 22 Minnesota turnovers.
Starters (B1G Stats):
5’7” G Sr. Katelynn Flaherty 39.1 min/game 25.2 points/game
6’5” C Jr. Hallie Thome 33.6 minutes, 17.7 points and 8.3 rebounds
5’11” G Jr. Nicolle Munger 35.2 minutes and 9.4 points
5’11” F Sr. Jillian Dunston 33.0 minutes, 3.1 points and 8.3 rebounds
6’1” F Fr. Hailey Brown 26.5 minutes and 10.1 points
Bench:
6’1” F So. Kayla Robbins 11.1 minutes and 3.2 points
5’10” G Fr. Deja Church 21.4 minutes and 6.4 points
Michigan (9-5), losers of the three of their last four arrive at Williams Arena after losing to Purdue, Rutgers and Michigan State with only a recent victory over Northwestern on the positive side of the ledger. Yes, I'm concerned Michigan will just come down court, toss the ball to Hallie Thome for two over and over again (something they seemed reluctant to do against MSU). And yes, Michigan State is a team with one guard and a truck load of posts; but it’s worth a look at how they knocked off the Wolverines with quotes from the two coaches:
Quotes from Suzy Merchant:
On Taryn McCutcheon’s defense…
I told her after the game, we’ve played four years against Flaherty and she’s really, really good, and I thought Tori (Jankoska) the last few years has done a pretty good job on her. But, that’s probably the best I’ve ever seen anybody. She can evade screens, she can get up underneath it, she can guard the ball. I think what we were trying to do tendency-wise with her was effective and then when she got her fourth foul we were using Coco (Gaines) who’s 6’2”, 6’3” with length just to try to mix it up and buy some time for Taryn, but I thought that was the best I’ve seen for sure defensively.
On forcing turnovers…
I thought we did a good job of getting their gaps. There are certain kids on their team who aren’t aggressive getting the ball, so we tried to play off of them a little bit and double and do some things. Especially when they were driving a little bit to have permanent help guys versus having them off their shooters so I think that was part of their turnovers. They couldn’t get into a flow, and then Taryn just denying her the ball, usually she’s just a quick pin down or a quick flare screen and she’s got the ball in her hands. I thought Taryn did a good job of disrupting their offense by not letting her get the ball initially. I thought that helped a little bit with the turnover situation.
Kim Barnes Arico:
On the turnovers…
That’s been really the problem and we work on it. I mean, I know everybody probably says, ‘why aren’t you working on that or that late game situation?’ but we work on it every day. I think coming into the year we really knew that that might be something that could be a problem for us because we weren’t returning a point guard. But we have kind of, at times, handled it. Deja Church and Katelynn Flaherty and Nicole Munger and Jillian Dunston have done a good job and then at different times when we get frazzled a little bit, when we get bumped, when it gets physical a little bit, we have turned it over.
So it’s definitely a work in progress. I think part of it is not really having that true point guard. You know Katelynn has done a tremendous job for us filling that role, but now we’re looking to Katelynn to distribute, to score, to do a little bit of everything, so now we’re pointing at somebody else to relieve some of that pressure for her which I think Deja is doing and is going to improve on.
On not having Brown at the end of the game…
Well Hailey is a great 3-point shooter and she obviously made a 3 and you know she’s tough with the pick-and-pop and the flair screen to Kate and so she had made one pretty soon, pretty recently before she got hurt, so that definitely, not having her in at the end of the game took away one of our best 3-point shooters. Next to Kate she’s probably shooting it the best of anyone on our team right now. So not having her in at that point definitely hurt us.
http://www.msuspartans.com/sports/w-baskbl/recaps/021118aaa.html
Michigan relies on seven players. The extent of Hailey Brown’s injury is not known; but she was helped off the court after Hallie Thome fell into her left leg in an under basket scramble. On the bench Brown’s left ankle was being iced. If Brown can’t go on Wednesday night against the Gophers it’s expected that former Gopher commit Deja Church will take her place.
B1G Wins: Penn State 89-69, @ Wisconsin 80-57, Indiana 84-79, @ Nebraska 69-64 (OT), @ Ohio State 84-75, Illinois 86-42, Michigan State 74-48, @ Northwestern 80-59, and Northwestern 84-63
B1G Losses: @ Iowa 72-82, Ohio State 71-78 (OT), Purdue 79-81 (OT), @ Rutgers 56-63 and Michigan State 61-66..
Last Season: In Ann Arbor the Wolverines made short work of the Gophers 84-69. It was 25-16 Michigan at the end of the first quarter. Then Minnesota’s offense went dormant producing a 6 point second quarter allowing Michigan to lead 47-22 at the half. Minnesota could not contain Thome who scored 20 points and grabbed 17 rebounds. Flaherty chipped in 22 points. For the Gophers, Wagner had a big day with 38 points (7-9) from behind the arc. Hedstrom was the only other Gopher in double figures with 13. It was an otherwise forgettable game featuring 22 Minnesota turnovers.
Starters (B1G Stats):
5’7” G Sr. Katelynn Flaherty 39.1 min/game 25.2 points/game
6’5” C Jr. Hallie Thome 33.6 minutes, 17.7 points and 8.3 rebounds
5’11” G Jr. Nicolle Munger 35.2 minutes and 9.4 points
5’11” F Sr. Jillian Dunston 33.0 minutes, 3.1 points and 8.3 rebounds
6’1” F Fr. Hailey Brown 26.5 minutes and 10.1 points
Bench:
6’1” F So. Kayla Robbins 11.1 minutes and 3.2 points
5’10” G Fr. Deja Church 21.4 minutes and 6.4 points