B1G Game 13: Gophers Host Michigan (2-10-20)

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Postgame Quotes - University of Minnesota Athletics

Postgame Quotes

gophersports.com

I'm surprised that Dilk was a surprise.

Post Game Quotes:

Minnesota Head Coach Lindsay Whalen

On Michigan’s size advantage: “They’re big at every position and they’ve had a couple guys go down with injuries. Obviously (Naz) Hillmon is really good. (Amy) Dilk was hitting shots tonight and (Akienreh) Johnson has been playing really well as of late. I think with their size that they were able to clog the paint on offense. We only finished with 18 points in the paint and that was the difference. We had 18 points in the paint, and they had 44. Give them credit, they looked to her [Hillmon] early and often. They were able to play off of that, so give them credit.”

On Michigan getting open shots because of the focus on Hillmon: “I should have changed some coverages on her [Dilk] before she got going. We were trying to pack it in because Hillmon is such a big deal, but Dilk has really improved. Not that she wasn’t a good player last year, but she has really come a long way with her jump shot and playmaking. We should’ve tried to get the ball out of her hands earlier, especially after she hit a couple. So, I’ll take that one for sure.”

On Michigan’s 24 points off 13 Minnesota turnovers: “That’s why we want to be turning people over, so we get easier stuff. They did a great job of converting, but our transition defense was one of the keys. For us, it felt like our turnovers came in bunches and at tough times. They’re a really good team, so if you make a mistake or have a turnover they are going to convert almost every time. They got 24 points off of only 13 turnovers, that’s really impressive.”

On Sara Scalia playing through her injury: “I don’t know where she is at (health‐wise), we have a lot of guys who are battling. The fact that she was able to play tonight says a lot about her. The amount of work she did, during the day and at night, to get treatment to be able to play tonight says a lot about her. She puts the work in shooting and on her game. She was dealing with some adversity with an ankle and three days later she is able to play. It just shows the kind of commitment and dedication she has to her teammates and her team.

Minnesota freshman guard Jasmine Powell

On scoring 17 in the first half, and Michigan responding defensively (to that) in the second half: “I think in the second half I tried to rely on my teammates more, to open up for them because they (Michigan) were so focused on me. So, really I don’t think it was a change that they did, I think it was just that I switched my mentality.”

On what the key to moving on from tonight’s game: “We just have to think to the next game; this is in the past so we can’t think about this anymore. We have to move on and try to get back to being us.”

On if any frustrations set in on the offensive end late in the game: “Yeah, just a little bit. I think that it kind of hurt our confidence a little bit on defense but we’re going to keep fighting...so these next couple games we’re going to get them.”

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

The BTN highlights are an excellent summation.

 

[CutDownTheNet]

So, Michigan looked like a well-oiled machine running some plays out of which they got some easy back-door points, and were able to get it with ease down low to their posts who got easy scores. Looked nice if you’re a Michigan fan.

For the Gophers, our defense wasn’t cuttin it. Although I did love that play in which 5’6” Powell stuffed somebody about six inches taller.

What I don’t understand is, why don’t we have any actual plays that we run. OK, I take it back - it seems like the following is our inventory of available plays:

(1) Let the guards pass/dribble among themselves until they get an open shot (hopefully a three-pointer).

(2) Guard fakes the shot then drive for the floater (or maybe layup or maybe midrange jumper).

(3) Give it to Jasmine Brunson and see what she can do with it.

(4) Give it to Jasmine Powell and see what she can do with it.

(5) Get it to Taiye in the paint and see what she can do against the double team.

(6) The occasional great solo play.

Well option (3) was off the menu today with Brunson injured. Main play that worked for us (at least in first half) was (4) - give it to the one-woman wrecking ball and let’s see what she can do one-on-five. That was good for 20 points.

(5) was good for 13 points and 5 rebounds.

Between (1) and (2), Scalia got us 8 points.

Masha got us 7 points including two great solo plays (6) and one-for-one from deep (1) and 3-4 shooting overall. Masha needs to start.

Sconiers got us 4 points mostly on good individual effort (6) but often on a good feed from Taiye.

Hubbard gave us 4 rebounds but shot 0-6.

Kehinde gave us 5 rebounds but shot 0-2.

That’s it. That’s all we were able to give tonight. And an overall .356 shooting.

Versus Michigan’s overall .542 shooting. Including .600 in the first quarter, and .615 in the 4th quarter.

The Gophers only had a 5-rebound deficit (32-37). 6’4” Isabel Varejao (niece of NBA player Anderson) pretty much created that deficit with 5 rebounds in 15 minutes off the bench.

In spite of a rebound deficit, and our 13-7 surplus of turnovers, both teams (interestingly) took the exact same 59 shots. We made 21, while Michigan made 32 - more than 50% more makes.

An important factor in the latter, pointed out by Michigan Coach Kim, was the Michigan 25 assists to Minnesota’s 9 assists.

Michigan was just too big at every position. And too good of a defense. Plus, they know some plays that actually get them easy shots.

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Wolverines cut apart Gophers, 77-52

Two weeks ago, against then-No. 23 Northwestern, Michigan learned a hard lesson: In the Big Ten, if you don’t start well, you don’t win. In their three games since then, the Wolverines have taken that lesson to the max — establishing dominant leads in the first quarter of every game. Monday’s...

www.michigandaily.com

The view from Michigan:

With freshman guard Maddie Nolan starting her second game in a row due to a hand injury to sophomore guard Danielle Rauch, Minnesota swiftly targeted her with its own freshman guard, Jasmine Powell. Making her fifth start of the season, Powell caught fire early, dicing up Nolan on the way to the rim.

...

“(Powell) had a great first half and she had 17 points, and we were a little upset about that, but considering we held their team to 26, we were really happy about that,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “I thought our post did a tremendous job on their post play, just a great job defensively.”

The Wolverines’ four most experienced players quickly found themselves in foul trouble, all getting to three apiece midway through the third quarter. On a roster with just nine healthy players, foul trouble threatened to bring down the game plan like a house of cards.

...

Starting with assists, the Wolverines achieved a season-high 25, with Dilk dishing out eight and sophomore forward Naz Hillmon and Nolan each contributing five. All that while tackling a focus area of cutting down on turnovers — having just seven.

“That’s outstanding, that’s obviously a season high for us for sure, and I thought we did a tremendous job of taking care of the ball,” Barnes Arico said. “That’s something we’ve been trying to get better at through the course of the year, and I thought it all started obviously with our point guard Dilk. She led the charge, she was tremendous tonight, she did a great job for us.”

Dilk and Hillmon, exhibiting their tag team at its most dangerous, also contributed 22 and 21 points, respectively, despite being given discounted minutes in the blowout victory.

“When you have a teammate like Hillmon who draws so much attention to her, and she’s able to score out of that or pass out of that,” Dilk said. “I don’t know how many assists she had, but she’s been averaging a lot because she can pass. And we have guards like us that can cut off that, so that’s what we did tonight, and we found it to be very successful.”