The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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WOMEN'S BASKETBALL the NCAA Tournament seemed like a reasonable goal, and Michigan was still in the hunt for a Big Ten title. A month later, the Wolverines were 16-10 overall and 7-6 in conference. Michigan had dropped five of its last eight games, including losses in each of its last four home games. But the Wolverines, who replaced five starters from last year's NCAA Tournament team, knew this would be a year of ups and downs. They're still focused on improving and fin- ishing this season on a high note. "The great thing about this group is we play one game at a time," head coach Kim Barnes Arico said. "We are always talking about how our next game is our championship game. "We don't look too far ahead. We can't worry about how many losses came before this game or if we won the last game. It is really important for us to focus on the task at hand. "We knew, when the Big Ten schedule got here, it was going to be extremely difficult. We knew we were going to be challenged We have shown to be competitive night in and night out. I'm really proud of the effort, but obviously, we need to get better. We need to improve, but their effort and resiliency has been terrific." The Wolverines are in a learning situation , because even their veteran players are not very experienced. Junior forward Nicole Elmblad was a consistent player in each of the last two seasons, but junior forward Cyesha Goree and senior center Val Driscoll had barely seen the floor be- fore this season. Of the four other players who see significant minutes on a game-by- game basis, junior Shannon Smith is a first-year transfer player, sopho- more Madison Ristovski played spar- ingly as a freshman, and point guard Siera Thompson and guard Paige Rakers are rookies. "As much as they are older, they're inexperienced, too," Barnes Arico said of Goree and Driscoll after a 65-56 loss to Purdue Feb. 9. "I had to talk to them tonight, because both of them got a little down when they got into foul trouble. I thought it af- fected them. "Sometimes, we look to them, be- cause they're older, but they are as inexperienced as our freshmen and new kids. It's a work in progress. Our coaches do a great job of coaching them up on every play, in practice and in games, because they're young. "Even our older kids are young in terms of experience. The incredible thing about these kids is they're pas- sionate and they want to be success- ful. They're in the gym busting their butts to get better." WOLVERINES FIGHT IN CLOSE LOSS TO NEBRASKA If there is one team that could push Penn State down the stretch for the Big Ten regular-season champion- ship, it is Nebraska — which was sec- ond in the conference standings with a 19-5 record, including a 9-3 mark in conference play, as of Feb. 17. When the Wolverines traveled to Lincoln Jan. 29, they were run out of