The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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women's basketball 20 minutes to finish with 15 points. "We just didn't care about the score," Goree said. "We had to come out and play our game. This game showed our toughness and that we can fight. We fought until the very end. We weren't every looking at the scoreboard, just playing four minutes at a time. This is a team that is similar to what we're going to face in our league, so they prepared us for what we can expect in the Big Ten." Jenny Ryan Joins U-M Broadcast Team Michigan fans tuning into the IMG Michigan women's basketball radio broadcasts this season will hear from someone who knows the team very well. Former Wolverine guard Jenny Ryan (2009-13) is the new color commentator on the calls, joining playby-play man Matt Park, now in his sixth season with the team. Ryan's involvement with the radio broadcast began almost by accident. The Wolverines were looking for a color commentator this summer, and Ryan had off-handedly mentioned to team sports information director Sarah VanMetre that she might be interested. But when it came time to hire someone, VanMetre took Ryan seriously. After VanMetre gave her a call, Ryan jumped at the chance to give it a shot. "I love it," Ryan said. "It's a great way to stay in basketball. And I love this program, and I have a lot of passion for it. For them to let me stay around and be a part of it in any way has been great. "And being in the broadcast booth, we have a great play-by-play man in Matt Park. He has been so helpful, showing me all the ropes. I'm so close to the girls, it's very easy to talk about them and all the great things they're doing this year." Ryan said the most difficult aspect of her new job was knowing when to cut in and add analysis. "I didn't want to interrupt our play-by-play guy at all," she said. "I didn't know when I should talk or the ins and outs of what I should stay. But Matt was so great in setting me up and making it an easy transition. I know about the girls so much, from practicing and playing with them for four years. And they're giving me plenty to talk about so far, because they're having a great year." For now, Ryan is just having fun with it — and making the word "phenomenal" something of a catchphrase. She says it's mostly a hobby, but if an opportunity arose to go into broadcasting full time, she would most likely go for it. Currently, she is not actively pursuing anything. Ryan stayed in Ann Arbor after graduating last season to accept a job at the University of Michigan office of undergraduate admissions. "This is a very heavy time of year for us, because everyone loves this place, so we're deep in applications right now," Ryan said. "But I am learning a lot and it has been great. I love this university, so for them to let me stick around is awesome." ❏