Penn State

A recent USA Today article about PSU's return to the top 25:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/womensbasketball/2010-01-27-2695626900_x.htm
 

The hard work is paying off in Happy Valley.
 
 
Once a staple among the Top 25 in women's basketball, No. 23 Penn State is ranked again after a five-year absence and defense is leading the way.
 
 
"Coach would come in and say, 'We're not going to work on offense today,' Trogele said Wednesday. "We can score, but we need to learn how to defend."
 
 
Lesson learned: The Lady Lions have held opponents to 34-percent shooting, the seventh-stingiest mark in the NCAA heading into Thursday night's game against Purdue.

(This Purdue game ended in an overtime loss at home)
 
IMHO U-M's got to shut down or at least slow down all-B10 guard Tyra Grant http://www.gopsusports.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/grant_tyra00.html. I think this will be Ronni's primary assignment. Grant's been the Lions' leading scorer in 15 games and averages 19.5 ppg (21.3 in conference). Their freshman point guard, Alex Bentley, is the only other PSU player averaging double-figures, 11.8 ppg (14.3 in conference). Bentley had a break-out game against Purdue, scoring 27, and Grant had 26.
 
Although PSU is 7-3 and sits in second place in the B10, only two of those wins have come against the top half of the conference, Wisconsin and MSU. They had to go into OT to beat Iowa and Indiana at home. The Nittany Lions have some road confidence, winning at Northwestern, Iowa and Wisconsin.  

Great environment, great finish, great win! Thanks to everyone who showed up and contributed to setting the attendance record today!

http://www.michigandaily.com/content/late-surge-sparks-wolverine-upset
 
 
It's upset day in the B10 so far - IU over OSU, Iowa over PU and Michigan's win over PSU. NU is at UW (BTN TV) and ILL is at MINN now.

And another one bites the dust!!!!!!! GREAT work once again by the Michigan women...a win over a ranked team from the B10. Yet more evidence that this year's team is one that learns from its mistakes, makes needed improvements, and gets better as the season goes on.

more wins leads to more confidence, more confidence leads to even more wins, and soon the best young players in the country will have MICHIGAN high on their lists of places to be.

next up...Revenge against Northwestern!!!!

Yaaaaayyyyyyy!!!!!!!

http://www.michigandaily.com/content/late-surge-sparks-wolverine-upset

“I knew when they were pressuring me I was not going to get this shot out,” sophomore forward Carmen Reynolds said. “I saw KP in the corner of my eyes, so I passed it to her and when she made it, I was so happy. Coach likes us to be versatile, and it was good that KP could do that. It really helped us out.”

After Reynolds dished the ball to Phillips at the top of the arc at Crisler Arena, a record-breaking crowd of 5,926 attendees closed their eyes, crossed their fingers and prayed.
And then, it went in. And on a night where the "Biggest Losers" were the halftime entertainment, the biggest showing for a women's basketball team in program history went absolutely wild when the Wolverines biggest player sank the teams biggest shot of the game.

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2010/02/01/team_drops_second_straight.aspx

Then Michigan's Veronica Hicks took over and single-handedly forced the Lions to fight back from behind for the last 16 minutes of the game.

Hicks scored 16 points in the second half for the Wolverines, giving Penn State's players fits on the court while trying to contain her.

NU and ILL continued upset day in the B10, so all of the lower half of the conference beat the upper yesterday.

http://www.annarbor.com/sports/um-basketball/second-half-surge-leads-michigan-womens-basketball-team-to-66-62-win-over-no-23-penn-state/

Shooters score, but they are also expected to carry out the intangible details. So when Carmen Reynolds transitioned from point-producer to the one helping spring Michigan's perimeter shooters free with purposeful picks, it wasn't long before the rest of the Wolverines' offense fell into place.
By the end, all of the little things added up to one of Michigan's biggest victories of the season - a 66-62 character builder over No. 23 Penn State on Sunday afternoon at Crisler Arena.
Michigan started 1-for-11 shooting and fell behind by 15 points before Reynolds started to hit shots. The sophomore forward propelled a 15-2 Wolverines surge that slowly began to turn the momentum.
And when the Wolverines (13-8, 5-6 Big Ten) started the second half by hitting their first eight shots and scoring 13 of the first 15 points after the half, the rest was left to executing the details. Krista Phillips' 3-point field goal with 12.9 seconds remaining and Courtney Boylan's two free throws with 2.3 seconds left finished off Michigan's third straight win.

                     |------CONFERENCE-------| |--------OVERALL--------|
STANDINGS              W-L     Pct    PF    PA   W-L     Pct    PF    PA
---------              ---     ---    --    --   ---     ---    --    --
Ohio State..........   9-2    .818  70.1  59.0  21-3    .875  78.9  60.2
Penn State..........   7-4    .636  68.0  64.9  15-6    .714  68.7  62.5
Wisconsin...........   6-5    .545  56.6  54.7  16-6    .727  59.6  52.8
Purdue..............   6-5    .545  60.4  62.5  11-11   .500  61.0  58.5
Michigan State......   5-5    .500  61.7  58.9  14-7    .667  68.7  61.2
Michigan............   5-6    .455  60.6  59.9  13-8    .619  67.3  61.1
Indiana.............   5-6    .455  59.6  63.6  12-10   .545  66.9  65.1
Iowa................   4-6    .400  64.3  65.0  11-10   .524  67.9  65.9
Minnesota...........   4-6    .400  60.3  61.3  11-10   .524  65.9  59.8
Northwestern........   4-7    .364  60.3  66.7  13-9    .591  64.1  60.8
Illinois............   4-7    .364  57.5  62.8  12-9    .571  62.2  59.4

That was a disciplined well coached team that we beat.  A "quality win" as they say.  Early cold outside shooting put us in a hole.  The big noisy crowd may have surprised our team (?!?).  I'm not used to seeing Reynolds miss open 3's but she adjusted and came on strong. 

Love the way that Hicks and Hollins can take it to a team.  If Hollins could have added a hot shooting hand to those athletic moves it wouldn't even have been a game.

Hats off to our coach, he knew he needed Krista's size against this team and he knew how best to use it.  The K.P. of two years ago would have been in quick foul trouble, but Sunday she only got two (and one of those was a bit of a "message foul").  Great job both of you.  Great job team!

I give up, who is Holland?  Hollins perhaps?

Hi Frank99, if you are expecting mistake free stuff from me.... well..... hummm......  hate to disappoint ya'.