vs. MSU

An early annarbor.com preview of Sunday's showdown notes a change in MSU's lineup following their four-game losing streak:

But Spartans coach Suzy Merchant may have found the spark her team has been looking for with a simple lineup switch.
 
Merchant moved senior guard Porsche Poole and sophomore guard Klarissa Bell into the starting lineup against No. 18 Penn State on Sunday and the Spartans pulled off an 83-77 upset.
 
Poole, who had been playing starters’ minutes as the team’s sixth player, poured in 32 points and was named the Big Ten Player of the Week. The little-used Bell replaced 6-foot-1 senior forward Courtney Schiffauer, giving the Spartans a smaller and quicker lineup.
 
Bell scored seven points and pulled down four rebounds in 30 minutes against the Nittany Lions, a team that beat Michigan 77-56 at the Crisler Center just three days earlier.

The article says Merchant plans to use the same lineup on Sunday, and she expresses confidence that the lineup will work on both ends of the floor against Michigan.
 
MSU using a "smaller and quicker lineup" might suggest some added playing time for Brenae Harris.

It's interesting coach-spin. Earlier in the year, Merchant talked about how Poole preferred to come off of the bench after getting the feel of the game, and Schiffauer may have lost her starting spot due to losing her cool in their loss to the Illini.
 
http://www.statenews.com/...ly_drops_overtime_7162
 
With the game tied at 52, senior forward Lykendra Johnson drew a shooting foul and as she headed to the free throw line, Schiffauer turned and yelled at Illinois guard Adrienne Goldbold, drawing a technical foul and the ire of head coach Suzy Merchant.
 
“I mean that was just a killer, just unnecessary (and) unprovoked,” Merchant said. “I was sprinting out there to grab her to get her to not do that, but I was too late and obviously it cost us, I think, the opportunity to win the game in regulation.”

Detroit News: Michigan women out to snap 10-game losing streak to Michigan State
 
Goricki mentions Michigan with an RPI of 36, which appears to be from the Sagarin ratings. That's at or nearing bubble territory.

SMASH THE SPARTANS!!!!!!!!
 
Liquidate Michigan State!!!!!
 
Send them back to East Lansing with tears in their eyes!!!!

http://www.wbbstate.com/games/80905

McCabe in Free Press: Key for Michigan women: Keep Rachel Sheffer in game vs. Michigan State

Heartbreaking loss, 65-63, as the opponent scores the last 6 and wins on a two-pointer with 3.9 seconds left.
 
Boylan with a career-high 22, plus 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Elmblad played nearly the entire game and played quite well.

yes..heartbreaking, frustrating, infuriating. i can't believe they let MSU off the hook...AGAIN. they had the four point lead and could not hold it. i am SO SO SO sick of losing to that school from EL. so sick of it. Make your shots down the stretch. or play defense. or do something. anything. like the Wisconsin game, this was a winnable game that Michigan managed to lose.
well, now Michigan has to win three of their last five to get to 20 wins in the regular season. i am thinking the two Iowa games and at Indiana are probably the most likely wins. but who knows at this point. maybe they are going to fade at the end like last season and end up one and done in both the B1G and WNIT.
so...we will see what we will see. i hope it is worth seeing. at least softball season starts soon.

I'm confident the team won't fade this year. I think the Purdue game may be critical, because they might need another victory over a top-50 team to have any chance at an NCAA bid.

Ladies - you played your hearts out.  This loss lays solely on the shoulders of the coaches.  The girls on the court were visibly gassed at the end leaving fresh legs and a bunch of talent to waste on the bench.
 
This was a poorly managed second half and an UN-necessary loss.  I'm sure their are many opinions on this loss.  This one is mine.
 
 
 
 
   

UMMMM


Ladies - you played your hearts out.  This loss lays solely on the shoulders of the coaches.  The girls on the court were visibly gassed at the end leaving fresh legs and a bunch of talent to waste on the bench.

This was a poorly managed second half and an UN-necessary loss.  I'm sure their are many opinions on this loss.  This one is mine.
 

 
I wasn't at the game, but listened to the radio call, so I'd be curious if anyone else who was there agrees that the players were "visibly gassed at the end."
 
I find it hard to conclude that the game was "poorly managed" when the team had a clear chance to win the game at the end. One team made some shots down the stretch, the other team didn't. End of story.

The girls played a great game tonight, unfortunately they just came up a little short but this one of the best games they played all year long.  They were offensively consistent for the entire game.

Yes, I agree that some of the players were visibly tired. We noticed at the 4:00 minute mark that they were running out of steam.
 
Nicole had a break-out game today. I hope to see more of her.
 
I don't think there's much to dissect. Considering rivalry games can be sloppy with the kids pressing too much, we couldn't ask for much better than just 9 turnovers, 85% shooting from the line and 50% shooting from beyond the arc. Even the rebounding was closer than usual.

I watched it via the live video feed over the net and it did not look to me like the girls were gassed to me. KB did seem to coach a little different tonight it seemed to me in the sense that some players did not get their usual amount of PT while Elmblad played most of the  game and did really well so she got more time than usual; I dont remember seeing Nya Jordan on the floor at all; Seto got no PT tonight; Kate Thompson did not seem to get her usual amount of time either.

fatman650


I watched it via the live video feed over the net and it did not look to me like the girls were gassed to me. KB did seem to coach a little different tonight it seemed to me in the sense that some players did not get their usual amount of PT while Elmblad played most of the  game and did really well so she got more time than usual; I dont remember seeing Nya Jordan on the floor at all; Seto got no PT tonight; Kate Thompson did not seem to get her usual amount of time either.

 
This was Borseth's explanation for why Jordan played so little and Elmblad played so much, from the postgame quotes:

On the play of Nicole Elmblad and what she brought to the game today ... "I put Nya (Jordan) in there and they just sat off of her, and we just didn't feel comfortable offensively because her man was kind of sitting on Rachel's (Sheffer) backside the entire while, and I didn't know that we had enough things for Nya to do offensively when somebody wasn't guarding her. We had kind of prepared for that a little bit, and it's something that we are going to have to look at down the road because we are going to see a little more of that, and I think Nya is important to have in there, but Nicole came in and they had to guard her because she had a couple threes. It was a big game for her, obviously. She understands the rivalry, so I thought she played really well."

One of the things I like about Borseth is his ability to make in-game adjustments. I think the coaches found a lineup they thought gave the team the best chance to win the game and decided to stick with those five. To me, the bottom line is no one would be questioning the coaching if just a couple more shots had fallen and Michigan had won the game.

http://www.michigandaily....ke-difference-michigan
 
http://www.michigandaily....edemption-cast-asunder
 
 

Someone please tell me the rule....A State players goes down after Michigan girls get a rebound...and are going down the floor...maybe a fastbreak chance late in the game. The game is stop.....Suzy "THE MOUSE" comes on the floor....the player gets alot of time to get game ready... shouldn't the player been removed at least until the next dead ball. If not...that would be a great ploy to stop a teams fast break....I think once a coach goes on the floor the player must be removed... but Suzy "THE MOUSE"...just bats her rodent eyes at the ref...and all is ok...someone please give me ruling on this  

Even the announcers on the BTN video feed mentioned that the player should have been removed from the game and nobody ever explained why she wasn't.

Did Merchant actually go out onto the court? The rule book says if she did, then the player should have been removed:

An immediate substitute shall be required when the coach or any other bench personnel is beckoned and/or comes onto the playing court to attend a player(s) who has been injured unless a timeout is requested by and granted to his or her team in that dead ball period.

There was an earlier instance when the radio announcer said she should have been T'd up (or at least given a warning) for leaving the coaching box to argue a call.

I didn't remember Merchant coming on the court for Johnson. I figured that the ref calling a stoppage in play for Johnson's injury was enough for a substitution, but I didn't know the rule.
 
I just went back and watched the 2nd half of the BTN "Student U" video, and Merchant wandered a couple of feet onto the court and then went back and stood  in front of her bench, feet firmly out of play. Johnson's teammates came back to check on her and huddle around while she took a really long time to re-tie both of her shoes, but in the bit that was shown on the video (a replay of the injury was being shown) there were no Spartan staffers on the floor.
 
The announcers didn't know why Borseth was so upset. "Borseth is animated about something....not particularly sure what he's worried about." and finally made the assumption that he was arguing about Johnson being allowed to stay in. One of the students said, "I guess...technically she must be required to come out...".
 
Merchant was warned about coming out of her box in the 2nd half when one ref called a jump ball and the other called a foul (on Bell?). The 3rd ref talked to her and pointed her back to the box, and that was the end of it.
 
Wow. Boylan was really wide open on that last attempt. I thought when watching the game, that she was starting to pass or dribble to her right and then realized that she had the shot and took it a bit off balance. On the video I only saw a slight hesitation.