8A - Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Size matters in the post
for Michigan's future
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With Phillips leaving,
Borseth will be forced to
retool Blue's post attack
It's a team with all the pieces for the
future.
Well, at least it's pretty close.
Understandably, the long-term future
a hot topic of discussion for the Michigan
women's basketball
team, considering their
biggest game of the year ALEX
is against Michigan State HERMANN
on Thursday. The Wol- On Women's
verines are attempting to Basketball
break out of the middle B
of the Big Ten pack in
hopes of obtaining an NCAA Tournament
berth.
But rest assured, discussion of the future is
entirely relevant for this team.
Michigan senior center Krista Phillips and
Spartan senior center Allyssa DeHaan, both
graduating after this year, will face off for the
last time.
At 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-9, respectively,
that's a whole lot of size in the middle for
both teams.
And for the Wolverines especially, that
brings up questions regarding the future out-
look for the team down low.
With two starting freshman guards, Day-
eesha Hollins and Jenny Ryan, Michigan is
certainly set on the perimeter. But there's an
entirely different story being written in the
post.
Outside of redshirt senior forward Ashley
Jones, who is also graduating after this year,
the Wolverines have only a pair of freshmen
to back up Phillips in the post.
But Sam Arnold and Rachel Sheffer aver-
age just 10 minutes per game combined on
the season and even fewer in Big Ten games,
leavingthe team with few seasoned post play-
ers for next year.
The two freshmen will be joined by 2010
signee Val Driscoll. The 6-foot-4 center's
adjustment to the college game, along with
Arnold and Sheffer's continued growth, will
be crucial on the interior.
"Solidifying your game around the rim is
obviously very important," Borseth said tues-
day. "In this league, you got to be able to stop
somebody around the hole. That's what you
got to be able to do, and if you can't do that
then life becomes more difficult."
And filling Phillips's shoes in the post is cru-
cial to Michigan's success beyond this season.
But the Wolverine post players may have a
luxury not afforded to players in the past. The
up-tempo style that Michigan has adopted
emphasizes outside shooting and perimeter
play. But this adjustment may simply be a
result of the personnel.
Despite Phillips's obvious size, she and
sophomore forward Carmen.Reynolds are
both more comfortable on the perimeter
than in the paint. In the team's 74-40 win
against Minnesota on Sunday, Phillips
scored all 13 of her points on jumpshots.
Reynolds is Michigan's leading 3-point
shooter, hitting 44 percent on her team-
leading 52 triples.
But for Phillips, the biggest adjustment
to playing the post in a physical Big Ten has
been defense.
"It's a mentality that you don't ever, ever
want to get beat," Phillips said. "That's my
biggest thing. I don't ever want to have some
post player come in and just score a post move
on me."
But that mentality isn't easily achieved,
and only after the team's young post players
fully understand that can the Wolverines
turn a bright-looking future into a potentially
dominant reality.
"If you can stop people and you can
rebound, then you canrun," Borseth said.
"Your best teams are your teams that can
just stuff people, and then just break out and
create something fast on the other end of the
court. We're not in a position to impose our
will on anybody."
The Wolverines have at least one half of
that equation - those guards sure can get out
and run. The other half?
That's the question that will define Michi-
gan's future.
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AARON AUSBURERe/Daily
Senior Krista Phillips looks to pass in the post earlier this season. At 6-foot-6, Phillips is the tallest player on the team.
Lem Irish Dance presents
(9 srom 1refan6 wit6Love
Saturday, February 13
Michigan Teater, 8:00
Wolverines take
12th place in early
spring tourney
Bauer sisters tie for
first place on team,
Meagan tallies a 72
in first round
By KEVIN RAFTERY
Daily Sports Writer
There was abundant sunshine,
temperatures in the 80s and three
rounds of golf at one of Puerto
Rico's finest resorts. A paradise
for most.
But for the Michigan women's
golf team, it was just the start of a
new spring season.
The Wolverines traveled to
Rio Grande, Puerto Rico this
past Sunday through Tuesday
for the three-round Lady Puerto
Rico Classic at the par-72 Trump
International Golf Club.
Unfortunately for Michigan,
the results of the tournament
were not quite as pretty as the
weather.
Competing in a field loaded
with 10 of the nation's top-50 pro-
grams, the Wolverines finished in
12th place out of 16 teams, with a
final team score of 925.
"Overall, I am a little disap-
pointed in the way we finished
today," Michigan coach Cheryl
Stacy said yesterday.
It was Michigan's first com-
petitive outing since Nov. 2 and 3,
when it posted a team score of 877
at the Challenge at Onion Creek in
Austin, Texas.
Clearly, there is some rust that
needs to be shaken off for this
spring season.
"We were alittle rusty, not hav-
ing played outside," Stacy said,
"but it was a good experience for
us early in the spring."
But it wasn't all gloom for the
Wolverines.
Sophomore Meagan Bauer
posted rounds of 72-73-78 for a
tournament total of 223, the best
54-hole total of her young career.
Bauer's first round of 72 was
just her second career round. of
par or better - and most certainly
the second of many to come. She
has improved her score in each of
her last five tournaments.
Bauer tied her sister, senior
.captain Ashley Bauer, for first on
the team and 17th overall.
A first-place team finish is
nothing new for Ashley.
She has finished as the top
Wolverine in 25 of her 42 career
events, and she has the lowest
career scoring average in the his-
tory of Michigan women's golf
with an average of 75.98.
There's no doubt, she will be
expected to carry much of the
load for the Wolverines the rest of
the way this season.
Michigan also got an oppor-
tunity to see how it would fare
against fellow Big Ten teams.
Purdue, Northwestern, Wis-
consin, Indiana and Penn State all
competed in the Lady Puerto Rico
Classic. The Wolverines finished
fourth out of the six teams, edging
out Indiana and Penn State.
"It would have been nice to play
a little better in the final round
and catch some teams and get a
couple more wins over some Big
Ten teams," Stacy said.
Fourth-ranked Purdue finished
as the top Big Ten team, earning
second place with a final tally of
883. Alabama won the tourna-
ment with a score of 872.
As the spring season begins in
full force, Michigan will look to
continue to move up the ranks in
the Big Ten as it prepares for the
Big Ten Championships in April.
"We just have to work hard-
er and improve upon what we
learned this tournament," Stacy
said. "I know that we are looking
forward to getting back down to
Florida in a few weeks."
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