It’s time to go dancing

J

illian Dunston leaves no 
doubt.

It’s Media Day at Crisler 

Center and the senior forward 
is taking questions. The one at 
hand: Tournament or bust?

“Exactly.”
Dunston has yet to play in 

the NCAA Tournament. Ditto 
for guard 
Katelynn 
Flaherty, the 
most talented 
scorer ever 
to put on a 
Wolverine 
uniform. And 
if neither of 
Michigan’s 
two seniors 
have gotten 
there, it’s not 
hard to figure out that none of 
the other nine members of the 
women’s basketball team have 
either.

The Wolverines haven’t 

danced since the 2012-13 season, 
Kim Barnes Arico’s first as head 
coach. But this is their best 
chance to do so since then.

Of course, so was last season. 

Michigan went 22-9 in the 
regular season with an 11-5 
mark in the Big Ten. It spent 
time in the AP Top 25, staying 
in the polls until late in the 
year. Even after losing three of 
their last four regular season 
games and getting bounced 
in the first round of the Big 
Ten Tournament by Michigan 
State, the Wolverines thought 
they had earned a bid to March 
Madness.

They didn’t.
Heartbreak came on March 

13, when ESPN’s selection 
show came and went without 
Michigan’s name getting 
called. Instead of the NCAA 
Tournament, the Wolverines 
went to the Women’s National 
Invitation Tournament for the 
third consecutive year.

Michigan went on to win the 

WNIT. They’ll raise the banner 
before Friday’s opener against 
George Mason, the first banner 
any women’s basketball team 
will put up at Crisler Center. But 
let’s be clear; that isn’t enough.

The bar for success this year 

is simple: get to the tournament.

There’s no doubt this team 

has enough talent to do it. 
Flaherty is back and set to 
become the program’s all-time 

leading scorer. She averaged 
18.9 points per game last year 
on 38.1 percent shooting from 
beyond the arc, then went home 
this summer and learned how 
to run point. That’s where she’ll 
start this year, and even with 
the potential for growing pains, 
it’s hard to believe Flaherty 
won’t earn a nod to the All-Big 
Ten first team for the third 
straight year.

“The game has slowed down 

for her,” Barnes Arico said on 
Oct 27. “And a lot of times as 
freshmen, you know, it’s so fast. 
And sophomores it becomes a 
little bit slower, juniors it starts 
to click. She’s a senior for us 
now and everything is clicking 
for her.”

Along with Flaherty, junior 

center Hallie Thome – named to 
the preseason All-Big Ten team 
in both the coaches and media 
polls – will provide the bulk of 
the scoring. Junior shooting 
guard Nicole Munger is a threat 
from outside as well, shooting 
42 percent from three last 
season.

But the Wolverines are more 

than three players. If Dunston 
was a football player, she’d win 
the Gruden Grinder award every 
week and sophomore Kayla 
Robbins looks like her natural 
successor. (Ironically enough, 
Robbins’ father, Kevin, played in 
the NFL for three seasons).

Freshmen Hailey Brown 

and Deja Church look ready to 
contribute in big ways as well. 
Brown went for 10 points and 
seven boards in the Wolverines’ 
exhibition game against Grand 
Valley State. As for Church, we 
saw what Barnes Arico meant 
when she said the freshman 
could be one of the best 
defenders in the league: a flying 
transition block, two steals, and 
strong defense throughout.

The only issue from the 

exhibition was depth. Michigan 
went with a seven-woman 
rotation and that strain could 
eventually take a toll, even if 
the Wolverines manage to stay 
healthy.

There’s also the potential 

struggle of replacing point 
guard Siera Thompson. 
Flaherty looked good against 

Grand Valley State, but that 
was a Division II school in an 
exhibition game – not the best 
parallel to Big Ten competition. 
Chances are she will struggle 
eventually. Flaherty herself 
more or less acknowledged this 
on Media Day.

“(At point guard), you don’t 

have to be good skill-wise, you 
have to know the game well,” 
she said. “You have to know 
where to put your players and 
know what plays to run. I think 
that’s something that’s harder 
for me: trying to think on the 
fly.”

Church and Brown won’t 

instantly be All-Americans 
either. They’re freshmen, after 
all, and it takes time to learn 
the college game, let alone build 
chemistry with a new team. 
The team’s trip to Italy over 
the summer was useful in that 
area, particularly for Church, 
who pointed to it as a moment 
where her confidence grew. But 
continuity doesn’t just happen 
– it takes time to build and not 
an insignificant amount of time 
at that.

This team isn’t perfect. It 

likely won’t win the Big Ten 
and expecting any team in the 
country other than UConn to 
win a national title is a fool’s 
errand. But the Wolverines 
don’t have to do either of those 
things. They just have to make 
the tournament – and that they 
can do.

The talent is there. So is the 

motivation.

When the WNIT banner is 

raised on Monday, Michigan 
will remember its triple-
overtime triumph over Georgia 
Tech in the tournament’s 
final. It should also remember 
selection night: the broken 
hearts and the cold reality 
that – at least in the eyes of 
the committee – it wasn’t good 
enough.

This year is about one thing 

for the Wolverines: making sure 
that scene doesn’t repeat itself. 
It’s tournament or bust. Simple 
as that.

Sears can be reached at 

searseth@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @ethan_sears.

ETHAN 
SEARS

Tuesday, November 7, 2017 // TIP OFF 2017
3B 

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Senior guard Katelynn Flaherty has yet to play in the NCAA Tournament, but could very well help lead Michigan to its first NCAA Tournament since 2012-13.

