RebKell's Junkie Boards

[vanyogan]

42 - 29 at the half. Michigan had 16 TO's, several shot clocks.. Gophers started the usual suspects, subs came in and expanded a thin lead, bench, starters, whatever, Michigan has issues. AND yet, they trail only 13 and scored 29 against the inconsistent Gopher D.

Interesting stats, Gophers played 10 players, all scored,total 42, with the lead scorers(3) sitting on only six points two scored (5).

Michigan got off only 18 shots and hit 61%.

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http://www.rightnation.us

[gopherfan]

Gophers win 85-57

The bench had a pretty good night again. I liked the reserve lay-up and one that came from Kelly. Emily did pretty good but she defiantly needs to work on her defense there was a few time were the player just ran past her. Bolden seem to be coming out of that funk they have been these past few games. This was a nice win for the gophers hopefully we can keep this wining streak up.

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Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah!
Roma-Roma-ma-ah!
Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance

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[accommodatingly]

[Alepp03]

Michigan gets 12 points from Katie Dierdorf, a St. Louis native who has pushed into the starting lineup and strung together a group of games that have shown a great improvement.

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In a world full of people only some want to fly, isn't that crazy?

[PUmatty]

[womens_hoops]

Michigan looked to me like they were sorta mailing it in. No fans. No sense of coming out and trying to pull of an upset. Nothing.

Michigan is a great school that deserves to have a great WBB program. I was hopeful that Cheryl would turn things around. So far, not much sign that that's happening. Of course, they are a very young team...

...but you look at some programs (Maryland eg) where you see a new coach come and turn things around immediately with big recruits and lots of energy. Don't know whether that's happening in Ann Arbor, and if not, why not.

[dtsnms]

[PUmatty]

[gopher5]

[mzonefan]

Yes, Katie is Dan's daughter. Dan was an All-American for Michigan besides being a Hall of Famer for St. Louis.

Dierdorf is just starting to show the promise of her freshman season that ended after nine games with a freak injury, a stress fracture in her femur just below the ball of her hip socket. She had just recovered from a broken finger when the stress fracture was discovered. Katie had to wait 10 months before being able to run and jump, and she returned to competition at the 11 month mark.

I expected Michigan to have the most difficulty in the post this year, as the tallest players are two 6'2" freshmen, but the guard play is where they are hurting the most. Kelly Helvey, the emotional leader and most experienced member of the team (the ony junior on a team with no seniors), went down with an ACL in early December. She had surgery six days before the MN game. Becky Flippin, a point guard, left last season (freshman year) after struggling with homesickness. Jessica Starling, one of the least effective sophomore guards but better three-point shooters, left the team at the semester break. She showed little intensity and effort, but her departure leaves one true point guard, freshman Jessica Minnfield, one 1/2 guard, sophomore Krista Clement, and one 2/3 player, sophomore Janelle Cooper. These kids are feeling a lot of pressure and have tried to put so much on their shoulders. As a result, they're pushing things too much (high turnover rate) and are stuggling with their shots.

I expect Michigan to make some great strides next season, as no one will be graduating. Sireece Bass, a pg who played with USA Youth Development last summer, should be expected to contribute right away as is guard Kalyn McPherson who finished second in the Michigan Miss Basketball voting, averaging 25 ppg. A 6'6" center, Krista Phillips from Saskatchewan, played with the Candadian Jr. National team in the FIBA U/19 Worlds last summer. 6'1 forward LeQuisha Whitfiled, from perennial power Detroit Martin Luther King, is the sleeper of the class. Burnett's first recruiting class will be in their junior year.

If U-M doesn't hit .500 next year and doesn't get at least a WNIT berth, it's possible to say that Burnett's contract won't be extended (it will be year 4 of a 5 year contract). But until she gets an entire squad of her own recruits, it's hard to say how she'll be evaluated. No Michigan WBB HC has ever had an overall winning conference record, so the bar hasn't been set very high. It's hard to believe, but Michigan has only been to the NCAA Tournament four times in its history. Those four years were the only ones in which Michigan finished above .500 in B10 play, too. Michigan has never won the B10 regular season or tourney.

I still have confidence that Burnett's turning the Michigan program around and doing it in the right way. The question is whether or not she, the players, the fans and administration have the patience to see it come to fruition.

[bballjunkee212]

Michigan is a young team, coupled by the fact that the in-state rival has the recruiting advantage atm, and the fact that Cheryl Burnett is probably not as good a coach as McAullie. I have always thought that it was Jackie Stiles who took SMS to the FF, and not Burnett. I think that is being revealed in Ann Arbor.

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~Bill

[Alepp03]

My sister played against Katie Dierdorf's older sister Dana all through grade school and high school. Dan Dierdorf was always there. His daughters were good ball players. It's good to see Katie succeeding.

_________________
In a world full of people only some want to fly, isn't that crazy?

[mzonefan]

[MNfan22]