{"id":3896,"date":"2025-12-02T02:49:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T02:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/12\/02\/my-gameplan-to-beat-michigan\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T02:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T02:49:09","slug":"my-gameplan-to-beat-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/12\/02\/my-gameplan-to-beat-michigan\/","title":{"rendered":"My gameplan to beat Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>With a balanced attack and a clear-cut identity, the No. 6 Michigan women\u2019s basketball team looks tough to stop. Aside from their lone <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/womens-basketball\/no-6-michigan-weak-start-detrimental-in-72-69-loss-against-no-1-uconn\/\">loss<\/a> against No. 1 Connecticut, the Wolverines have posted dominant victories over every opponent they\u2019ve faced.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So in an effort to understand the plight of opposing coaches, I am trading my seat in the press box for a spot on the sideline as I outline how I would plan to topple Michigan.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For the parameters of this experiment, let\u2019s assume I\u2019m leading a high mid-major or lower-tier Big Ten team in a neutral-site game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s start with the lineups; I would put my two best ball handlers on the floor, alongside two secondary guards and one forward down low. The two point guards will have to carry a heavy load as we will need to keep turnovers to a minimum \u2014 a challenging task as the Wolverines have forced the ninth-most turnovers per game \u2014 and have a dependable backcourt for all 40 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>After the ball is tipped and Michigan\u2019s first made basket, it will immediately go into a stifling full-court press. Aside from the game against the Huskies, the Wolverines have thrown their press at teams for almost the entire game. My keys here are twofold: Don\u2019t dribble near the sideline by half court and keep the ball away from senior guard Brooke Quarles Daniels.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>All season, Michigan has remained efficient in sideline traps. Sophomore guards Te\u2019Yala Delfosse, Olivia Olson, Mila Holloway and Syla Swords have double-teamed deep in the half court and wreaked havoc before half-court offenses can even be set up. Additionally, Quarles Daniels is a bulldog on defense so her active hands and defensive IQ are things I want to avoid if I want to pull off the upset.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey move really well laterally,\u201d Syracuse coach Felisha Leggette-Jack <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/womens-basketball\/michigan-finds-bench-points-early-cruises-past-syracuse-81-55\/\">said<\/a> Nov. 23. \u201cTheir weight room coach must be really good because they\u2019re really strong and they play really smart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Much of the Wolverines\u2019 defensive strength comes from limiting the number of opponents\u2019 possessions and scoring easy transition points. But let\u2019s say we\u2019re able to break the press and get into our half-court offense. Now it\u2019s time to shoot the three.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Teams haven\u2019t shot from beyond the arc exceptionally well against Michigan this year, but they have often had open looks. So settling into our half-court offense, slowing the pace, setting off-ball screens and trying to find open looks from three-point range would be the most effective strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI thought we became tentative,\u201d Huskies coach Geno Auriemma said Nov. 21 after his team\u2019s third-quarter woes. \u201c \u2026 With shots that we were willing to take in the first half, some guys became tentative.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If Auriemma says you can\u2019t get hesitant, I\u2019ll echo that to my team to bolster our volume 3-point shooting. While simply breaking the press and shooting lights-out are much easier said than done, when the Wolverines\u2019 opponents haven\u2019t done these two things, they\u2019ve been run out of the gym.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Things remain tricky on the defensive side of the ball as Michigan\u2019s scoring attack is balanced and it can burn you from all three levels. To try and stop a deep roster that can pick its poison, I am opting for a 2-1-2 zone. In this scheme, our four guards will form a sort of shell while the forward sits in the middle protecting the paint.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully, the pressure in the high post can stop Olson from catalyzing the offense and our wings will be able to kick out to defend the three. This scheme is prone to lapses in the middle of the floor, but that\u2019s just something we\u2019ll gamble on as forwards sophomore Kendall Dudley and junior Ashley Sofilkanich haven\u2019t been major producers on the offensive side of the ball.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The kicker, though, is the Wolverines\u2019 depth. They are comfortable going 10-deep into the rotation, and those fresh legs keep the press tight. With the fear of turnovers keeping my two best ball handlers from resting on the bench, they will likely tire as the game wears on.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Clearly, Michigan can beat opponents in many different ways. This entire gameplan hinges on my hypothetical guards breaking a well-functioning press and then shooting lights out from deep. Even if the offense goes according to plan, the Wolverines will still likely be able to get in transition for easy buckets as they\u2019ve been doing all season. And who\u2019s to say Swords doesn\u2019t put on another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/womens-basketball\/azzi-fudd-and-syla-swords-face-off-in-guard-duel-in-michigans-narrow-fall-to-uconn\/\">miraculous<\/a> shooting clinic just like she did against the Huskies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Even in my own hypothetical, Michigan is a headache to compete with. With a deep roster that runs its system well, the Wolverines have blown out almost every opponent they\u2019ve seen so far. So maybe it\u2019s telling that \u2014 just like six other teams that have come before me have done \u2014 I might expect to leave the imaginary court with a front-row seat to a loss.<\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With a balanced attack and a clear-cut identity, the No. 6 Michigan women\u2019s basketball team looks tough to stop. Aside from their lone loss against No. 1 Connecticut, the Wolverines have posted dominant victories over every opponent they\u2019ve faced.\u00a0 So in an effort to understand the plight of opposing coaches, I am trading my seat [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1550,3828,222],"class_list":{"0":"post-3896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-beat","9":"tag-gameplan","10":"tag-michigan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3898,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896\/revisions\/3898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}