Season on the Brink?

This team seems to be getting better.  They tend to start cold.  They play everyone tight.  They get close finishes on the road, if not a lot of road wins.  They have two narrow losses against the top team in the B10 and a major road win against No. 7 Xavier.    They tend to have a hard time beating teams that are lower in the conference (admittedly it's a year were there are no bad teams).

It could be a great finish and a great Big Ten Tournament and maybe 'treats beyond' (NIT or even NCAA if they finish strong and go deep in the B10 Tournament).  It could be a young team about to hit a rocky patch cuz of (possible) depth issues and more established teams hitting full stride

Hot, medium or cold.  Which finish do you think it will be?

At this point i am hoping for "hot" but would be happy with "medium." Michigan does seem like a much better team this season than last, and they also appear (so far at least) to have avoided the conference meltdowns that used to be so common from the latter Guevara years through last season.

they have the advantage of four remaining regular season games at home and only two away, and have already played the top team twice (and darn near swept them).

i'd like to see them win the next two for sure, at home against Minnesota and Sparty. And i think they are perfectly capable of winning both. Minnesota has IIRC a worse record than Michigan at the moment, and MSU has not exactly been that dominant this season.

At Penn State may be the toughest remaining regular season game, but still a winnable one IMO if Michigan plays smart, error-free ball and does not let the PSU partisans get going.

At Minnesota is much more winnable than at PSU IMO and it would be great to see Michigan get another B10 sweep.

That leaves the home games against Wisco and Purdue. the Badgers seem hard to get a read on. they beat Michigan by 20, yet also lost to three teams that Michigan has beat (Iowa, Illinois, Penn State). Purdue is also kind of an enigma...they have had some nice wins (over the likes of Ohio State and Penn State) but also got beat badly at both Iowa and Minnesota. For that matter, MICHIGAN has been kind of a mystery too, with some impressive wins beside equally puzzling losses.

So, on any given day it just may end up coming down to which Michigan shows up, which Wisconsin shows up, which Purdue shows up, and etc. Again, i think Michigan benefits from having the majority of their remaining games at home, and they need to TCB (take care of business, as Elvis used to say) at Ann Arbor. At least one win in the two road games would be a nice bonus.

And as i have mentioned before, i am kinda liking Michigan's chances in the B10 tournament. They will have faced every team at least once, and most of them twice. The Wisconsin away game and (possibly) the MSU away game have been the only really ugly losses so far, and they played the frontrunning Buckeyes VERY tough both in Columbus and Ann Arbor. So, if Michigan brings their "A" game to the conference tournament, there is no reason why they can't win at least a couple of games there, and (i can't believe i am even thinking this!) maybe even win the doggone thing.

Nice to see you back JB! 
Well they say there hasn't been an "even out" in the B10 since 1989, all teams are battling with the same records.  It's anybody's game at this point in the season.  But in the interviews coach has said they need to close em out in the second half.  If Roni Hicks keeps playing the way she does, we are in business.  Our SOS and RPI is still looking fairly good..............
If we can get a repeat performance of PSU, vs. Minn and MSU we are good, lest for the moment.

Nice breakdown JBear.  Of course, anyone answering this item after Sunday's game doesn't get any "bonus points".   We are now officially "on a tear", 4 out of 5 and playing great and a cold finish seems very unlikely.  That being said, this team needs to get better at closing tight games.  Without that, it will be a good not great year.

I'm also joining in the "We just might make a noise in Indy" crowd.  Might have to travel down there if the team makes gets to the final four or perhaps the *********  (I will not jinx them!).

I guess everyone is too stunned to make an item about the MSU game.  Well.... it *was* a tough game to watch.  I'm not a hoops expert but it looked like two teams trying very hard to be bad.  That might have come from "tough D" but like I said I'm not an expert.  I did see a few wishful shot choices, a few ill-advised grabs for balls that were going to go out of bounds in our favor, foul shooting that lived up to the name "foul" and a basket with a steel lid on it!!!  We seemed as tight as a drum and nothing could get anyone but our double-H's deep in the scoring column. 

I'm filing this one under: young team/ tough rivalry game/ important experience gained. 

yeah, i had to wait at least a while to post here, or else i would have risked being banned for the nasty and hateful things i likely would have said about MSU and their players...i am just THAT sick and tired of losing to them.

yes, this probably was similar to the tOSU and the first MSU game...a young team in a tough rivalry game against a more experienced opponent. Hard to take, but what i still hope is that maybe the "third time will be the charm" in the B10 tournament against either tOSU, or MSU, or both if Michigan faces both.

Last night's loss was definitely on the offense, and i dare any of the "defense blamers" to try and pin it on the D. 45 points is just not gonna win many, if any games especially in a major conference. The crazy thing is, in the earlier MSU game, Michigan scored plenty but could not stop MSU. I would have rather had the offense lay an egg in that game and had Michigan lose 80something to 45, and then have the offense play like they played in East Lansing last night, and had Michigan win 70something to 50. Oh well, like I say, maybe the B10 tourney will be Michigan's time to take care of unfinished business against big rivals.

So, four games left in the regular season. All of them are winnable IMO, and based on what i have seen so far it looks like @Minny may be the most winnable. Both home games should be tough but winnable, @Penn st looks to be the toughest but even that one is not unthinkable for Michigan to win if they bring their A game and do not let the PSU partisans take over.

i'd like to see AT LEAST two wins out of the last four regular season games, three would be perfectly acceptable, all four would be absolutely wonderful.

Then on to the league tourney, where i want at least two more wins.

keep on keepin' on, Michigan women...keep on working, keep on improving, and let's finish strong.