The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/888498
62 THE WOLVERINE NOVEMBER 2017 2017-18 BASKETBALL PREVIEW "[Flaherty] has helped take our program to levels that it's never been and I'm thankful that she chose to come here," Barnes Arico said. Flaherty said she's thought about the accomplishment, but gives most of the credit to the people around her. "It's a great accomplishment if you think about it," Flaherty said. "I would not be here without my coaches or my teammates. My coaches give me the green light and have a lot of confidence in me whether I'm having a good game or a bad game. "My teammates get me the ball in good position, so it's definitely a lot of credit to them as well." Thompson left Michigan with a number of records of her own. She is the program's all-time leader in games played (141), wins (89), min- utes played (4,776), assists (553) and free throw percentage (89.7). In addition to Flaherty, Michigan will count on incoming freshman guard Deja Church (ranked as the No. 67 overall player in the country by Prospect Nation) to handle a fair amount of time at the point. "She's going to come in and have an opportunity to impact our pro- gram right away from the point guard position and the wing spot," Barnes Arico said. Forward Hailey Brown (a five-star recruit and the No. 47 overall player nationally according to ESPN Hoop- Gurlz) and guard Priscilla Smeenge (tabbed as a three-star talent by ESPN HoopGurlz) round out a tal- ented freshman class. Senior forward Jillian Dunston joins Thome and Flaherty as Michi- gan's third returning starter. Dunston averaged 5.8 points and a team-high 7.7 rebounds per game last season. "Hallie is a great player and I love playing with her, she's grown so much over the years," Flaherty said. "Jillian comes back, and we have some guards that are going to play a lot more this year that are working really hard. "You can already see team chem- istry and I think we're really close this year." Thome noted that the Wolverines learned a valuable lesson with last year's NCAA snub and will be aim- ing to make sure they don't have to go through the same situation this season. "I think for sure we have a great opportunity to be Big Ten champs," Thome said. "Jillian already spoke it into existence — that's her thing — at the barbeque we have with our sea- son ticket holders, so we're definitely going to have our season ticket hold- ers holding us to that." The standout post player said she hopes to improve her rebounding and is looking to develop more of an outside game so defenders have to respect her both on the perimeter and in the paint. "It's great, she's become a great passer and I think so much attention is drawn to her underneath that it re- ally opens the lane for me and opens shooting for me when she passes it out," Flaherty said of Thome. "I know when I miss a shot that Hallie is right there to get it." Both Barnes Arico and Thome noted that they want to play an up- tempo style this season and see that as the type of play the team is best at. "I think our transition game this year is going to be very good," Thome said. "Having a freshman come in who loves to run and can push the ball well, and then just pick- ing up where we were last year, I think we definitely realized that our strength is definitely in transition." Michigan also lost Danielle Wil- 2017-18 MICHIGAN WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Times (ET) Nov. 2 Grand Valley State# 7 p.m. Nov. 10 George Mason^ 7 p.m. Nov. 12 TBD^ 2 p.m. Nov. 16 at TBD^ TBD Nov. 19 at TBD^ TBD Nov. 22 Oakland 7 p.m. Nov. 25 at Ohio 2 p.m. Nov. 29 Notre Dame! (BTN) 6 p.m. Dec. 2 at LIU Brooklyn TBD Dec. 4 at Detroit Mercy 7 p.m. Dec. 7 Marquette 7 p.m. Dec. 10 Kent State 2 p.m. Dec. 12 North Florida (BTN) 7 p.m. Dec. 16 Fort Wayne 2 p.m. Dec. 21 Delaware State 3:30 p.m. Dec. 28 Penn State* (BTN) 6 p.m. Dec. 31 at Iowa* (BTN) 3 p.m. Jan. 4 at Wisconsin* (BTN) 7 p.m. Jan. 7 Ohio State* (ESPN2) 12 p.m. Jan. 10 Indiana* 7 p.m. Jan. 13 at Nebraska* 8 p.m. Jan. 16 at Ohio State* 7 p.m. Jan. 20 Illinois* (BTN) 6 p.m. Jan. 23 Michigan State* (BTN) 7 p.m. Jan. 28 at Northwestern* 3 p.m. Feb. 1 Purdue* (BTN) 8 p.m. Feb. 4 at Rutgers* 2 p.m. Feb. 8 Northwestern* 7 p.m. Feb. 11 at Michigan State* (ESPN2) 12 p.m. Feb. 14 at Minnesota* 8 p.m. Feb. 22 Maryland* (BTN) 6 p.m. Feb. 28-March 4 Big Ten Tournament$ TBD # Exhibition; ^ Preseason WNIT; ! Big Ten-ACC Chal- lenge; * Big Ten Conference game; $ at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis Senior guard Katelynn Flaherty has been named team MVP, consensus first-team All-Big Ten and WBCA All-America honorable mention each of the last two seasons. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN