OSU #2

Defense - a block or swiss cheese?
http://www.michigandaily.com/content/being-solid-challenge

Here's to praying for a great effort all around.  Defense has been an achille's heel for this team all season.  They are not a slow team but too many don't know the concept of help-side, hedge and recovery, rotation...
I hope they are working this in practice and if they use the zone again, I do hope that it is more than just 5 girls standing on the court following the ball.  ACTIVITY is the key!

Agreed "Soonerorlater"

The defense has improved but like much with this team we get flashes of what could be.  We need those flashes to become a steady light.  Overall I'm still encouraged about this years team.  I see improvement in many area's.  Still too many "L's" but those loses are coming in much tighter, better contested, finishes.

At least we they will have their good luck charm tonight.  They have yet to lose a game this season that I have attended. 
If this continues I might have to start traveling with the team.......

lost by 2 with plenty of chances at the end. Girls played a whale of a game!

"Every time I come to Michigan all they want to do is Screw me, Screw me Screw me"! Wayne Hayes AKA the devil.

Blerg! I really thought they were going to do it tonight, up by four in the second half, but once again they found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

i disagree that defense has been the main problem this season. With the exception of the at Mich state game, Michigan has been doing a reasonable job of holding opponents to 70 or fewer points, and in fact held tOSU to fifty-something in BOTH the Ann Arbor and Columbus games.

No, i would say that the problem is the same one that has plagued this program for a while now, lack of consistent OFFENSIVE production, to be precise, lack of sufficient SCORING. Just two or three more scores in the two games against tOSU and we might be looking at a sweep of the best team in the conference. Two or three more scores against both Northwestern and Indiana and those two games are in the "W" column instead of the "L." This team needs to start making more shots in general, and specifically at the end of close games.

Well, now Michigan has fallen to 10-8 overall and 2-6 in conference. For this to not be another wasted season, they need to win as many remaining games as possible.

Indiana @ Ann Arbor-this is a MUST WIN. Indiana may be a good team, but they are not a great team and Michigan absolutely has to get this win at home to stop the slide and get some positive momentum.

@ Illinois-this is another team that i would say might be good but is not great. Maybe this is not quite as much of a must win for Michigan, but at some point they need to beat a conference team on the road that is not named Iowa and this would be a good opportunity.

Penn State @ Ann Arbor-they are doing better than i thought so far, but i am not sold on them being an elite team, and Michigan needs to TCB at home and win this one.

@ Northwestern-Michigan should have beat them at home, I want them to come back from Chicagoland with a "W"

Minnesota @ A2-see the comment re: Penn State at A2

Michigan St @ A2-wow, looking at the standings i see the Spartyladies are just barely ahead of us and Iowa. They had their fun in the game at EL, Michigan needs to bring down the hammer at A2 and beat MSU

@ Penn St-this could be tough, based on how PSU has done so far, but Michigan is perfectly capable and it would be nice to get a sweep.

Wiscy at A2-see the last sentence of my comment re: MSU at A2. Revenge, Michigan women, revenge!

@ Minny-see comment re: @ Penn State.

Purdue @ A2-they have been doing better lately, but are still not as good as usual. Michigan needs to bring it and beat the Boilers.

Even a 5-5 finish would put Michigan at 15-13 and 7-11 in conference heading into the conference tourney. Add another win (at least) in the tourney and they are at least two games over .500 and at least NIT bound.

If they can TCB at home and get at least two wins on the road, then we are looking at 18-10 overall and 10-8 (above .500!) in conference. At that point, i would think that the team's confidence and momentum would be such that AT LEAST a couple wins in the conf tourney will happen, and given how close they have played the best team in the conference, maybe (dare i imagine it!) a conference tourney title which of course would mean an automatic Big Dance invite. If nothing else, 20 wins would at least get them a high NIT seed and more than likely an NCAA bid.

So once again i ask the team...are you up to the challenge????? are you going to settle for another bleak losing season, or are you going to get your act together and AT LEAST break even the rest of the way, or maybe just maybe do EVEN BETTER than that??????

what'll it be, Michigan women? what'll it be?

Jb, we are going to have to disagree, then, because all of their losses have been because of some defensive lapse - even as stated by the team.  Kansas.....MSU.....Wisconsin......Xavier(even though we won)...take a look back.
 
They have played good defense against OSU but, at Indiana, that was not good defense until the second part of the second half. Prior to that, they were hitting wide open 3s against our 2-3 zone and we couldn't afford that because we were not doing anything on offense.
You say lack of scoring...I say that is a problem but not the main problem that has plagued us.  Play better defense...increase your offense.  We were doing that for awhile against OSU last night and it was working.  
Then, for one  reason or another, we decided to be conservative on offense and it lead to long shot clock  possessions and a junk shot at the end of it.  OSU turns around and scores on the other end.

We definitely should have won this game and they do need to make shots more consistently but shot consistency comes with shots that are in the flow of the game - not last second throws at the basket because we have to beat the clock.

I was not happy that we did not win this game BUT, I saw the team of the future starting to take shape tonight and it was very promising. 

We are very young and there are going to be mistakes by the youngsters but I feel like they are definitely on the right track for big things sooner rather than later so I will give this team room to grow.

GO  BLUE!

After watching opposing guards blow up for 20+ point games for Wisconsin and IU, I'd have to agree that defense has been an issue. 

OSU lately has been looking like a two player team. As KB said in our pre-game event last night, Lavender is one of the best posts in the country and she's going to get 18-20 points no matter what. The key was slowing the Prahalis to Lavender transition game down, and OSU got ZERO transition points. I'd say the defense was a success last night. 

A couple of fewer passes at the feet or stepping out of bounds and other another made bucket and I would have been storming the court last night!

Things should get a bit easier from here on out. Although it was a loss, these kids have got to know how close they are to getting it done. With more home games than away, several Sunday games with better chances for good crowds and a little confidence-building last night, I think we'll start seeing some more wins.

After looking at the box score and the video hightlights, the box is suspect. No fast break points for either team? I just saw two U-M fbs with made buckets on the highlights . Maybe OSU did get points in transition....can't trust the stats. Hrmph.

Why is it when a girl starts playing well in a game she comes out? Jenny started out on fire against OSU. Buried  two 3's Rebounding, assist. I think she had 8 of the first 12 points.Coaches take her out for a blow at 12 minute mark...no prob..then she doesn't see the floor until 2nd half. She is the stabliity  to keep the team in control. To many players just pound the ball in the ground..Jenny keeps it moving. Carmy finally warms up ....out she goes...come on  lets keep a flow when we get one.  Certain players need to take a quick break ...then back in...This team can win..let them do it 

Shotclock.....

I really don't see things the way you do.  I don't know that Jenny is the stability to keep the team in control or not.  She is a great player just as Nya proved she is a great player and addition to the team.  The lack of Jenny in the game didn't affect the flow of the game to me.  Carmen getting a rest never seems to affect the flow of the game. 

The coaching staff is still working with this line up and seeing what other players can do.  I don't think anybody on the team is pounding the ball in the ground right now. 
I definitely don't want to see them go back to the pass, pass, pass, .....pass..... mess that they were doing in the previous 2 games before this.

The coaching staff didn't take the win away from the team last night.  The team did that to themselves with turnovers and bad shot selections late.

Another tough, close loss.  Dang!  And I have to admit it, I'm responsible.  A small family issue kept me from the game.  Our winning ways should return Sunday

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2010/01/22/osu_wbk_1-22.ART_ART_01-22-10_C1_JOGCG9S.html?sid=101

http://www.michigandaily.com/content/womens-basketball-loses-thriller-ohio-state

http://www.annarbor.com/sports/close-again-but-u-m-womens-basketball-cant-top-ohio-state/

Nice quote from Foster, "That's just a good, solid basketball team and they are a tough matchup for us," said Ohio State coach Jim Foster, whose team trailed by as many as seven in the second half. "They battle for everything, and we haven't been able to shake them."

Good to know JJ.  I was hoping we didn't break the lucky charm!