Michigan Beat Maryland Into Oblivion
What? What????
The Big Ten remains as unhinged as ever, with plenty of results adding to my Battle Royale tier from last week.
That tier was initially five teams: Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Northwestern and Ohio State. I think this week proved its at least six teams, and maybe even eight, that are good enough to look like a power, and flawed enough to stink it up against any other team in this tier.
Michigan State and Purdue are again the two questionable ones. The Boilermakers lost twice this week, but the last one was in overtime to a very good Indiana team. The Spartans went 1-1, losing close to Ohio State before dicing up Northwestern.
I think the undoubted addition, though, comes from a demotion. I am here to ask the question: What the hell happened to Maryland?
We will get to that, but I would rather look at what happened last week from a pro-Michigan perspective instead of anti-Maryland, so here it goes:
Michigan went on the road and beat Maryland by 20, holding the No. 1 rated offense on Her Hoops Stats to 49 points and 31.4 percent shooting. It is the single most impressive performance I have witnessed by a team since I covered Ohio State three years ago.
This was not the beat up Maryland team of the early season, either. The team’s top seven scorers on the year were available, they were just outplayed from start to finish. And it was truly that, with Michigan going up 26-16 after one and led by double digits the rest of the way.
That was helped by a second quarter defensive masterclass, where Michigan scored just 8 points and was still the offensive juggernaut. That was because Maryland scored 3 points in the quarter, making just one shot on nine attempts.
Wow, reigning Big Ten Player of the Year Naz Hillmon must have been the key for this showing right? WRONG. Hillmon had 9 points on 4-of-6 shooting. It wasn’t even that she was inefficient, she just didn’t have to take over. Maddie Nolan caught fire and finished with 21 points and 7 made threes. Leigha Brown and Laila Phelia added 15 and 11 points, respectively. It was an incredibly even performance, which shows just how good this Wolverines team can be.
And more on that defense? Angel Reese was averaging 18.2 PPG to start last week. She finished with 9 points and shot 2 of 13. Not a single Terrapin hit double digits. They were completely smothered, which is something I thought was impossible at full strength.
Because of this, Maryland is firmly on a lower tier than the Hoosiers, who are still beating good teams without their best player, Mackenzie Holmes, who missed the Nebraska and Purdue games to injury. It’s hard to pinpoint what is wrong here, but the Terps were completely shut down, at home, at full strength, with almost the exact same roster they had last year when they averaged over 90 PPG.
Teams can have bad games, sure, but to get thumped that bad takes something special with this much talent. Credit to Michigan again for a masterclass showing, but Maryland needs to get it fixed, and fast, if it wants to make a deep NCAA Tournament run that it seemed capable of doing.
Wisconsin Did It!
The Badgers looked well on their way to a winless conference record after losing to fellow bottom-feeder Illinois by 21 on Jan. 9. But, just a week later, Marisa Moseley got her first in-conference win as head coach, and she couldn’t have gotten it in a more perfect, Wisconsin way.
Patrick Mayhorn, noted bad guy and writer of The Outside Zone newsletter, notified me of this tweet from Wisconsin after a quarter against Maryland:
In Game 15 of the season, Wisconsin’s record for first quarter points is 21, which is nearly what Ohio State averages per quarter on the season (20.9). The Badgers followed this 21-point first with a 5-point second, because of course they did.
This is all to say that Wisconsin was never going to beat a team by doing that stupid strategy called “scoring a lot.” Luckily, the Badgers had a game on the schedule against a Rutgers team that scores even less (55.9 PPG) than Wisconsin does (58.9 PPG).
I didn’t watch this game, but I can get a good sense from the box score that I may have not lived to tell the tale if I tried to watch it. Wisconsin shot 37.5 percent from the field, got outrebounded by 14 and had 18 points at halftime.
And won.
Rutgers made just under half of its shots (47.5%) and had that major rebounding advantage, plus a 10-point lead with 1:35 to go in the third against a team that was, at that time, averaging less than 10 points per quarter for the game. It would have been difficult to lose this game, and yet the Scarlet Knights did it.
The Badgers outscored Rutgers 23-9 in the final 11:35 to win 49-45. The Scarlet Knights committed 25 turnovers. Twenty-five. Wisconsin converted them into nearly half (21) of its points.
Congrats to Moseley and to Wisconsin, who should legitimately be able to build off a win like this. Now, it is just the team that they beat, Rutgers, searching for its first victory in the conference slate.
What To Watch
There are only two days of games after Indiana-Michigan State was canceled. But even with slimmer pickings, there’s still plenty of great action to choose from.
Ohio State vs. No. 12 Maryland, 11/20, 6 p.m. — BTN
This will be a great tell on if Maryland is truly down bad or if the Michigan demolition was more of a fluke. Ohio State has the best offense in the conference thanks to Jacy Sheldon and Taylor Mikesell, who are both flourishing this season.
Maryland should have the advantage here thanks to the Buckeyes’ porous defense, but one thing should be certain here: points, like a whole lot of them.
Northwestern vs. Penn State, 11/20, 8 p.m. — B1G+
Northwestern struggled this past week and Penn State is good enough to give anyone fits. Veronica Burton needs to keep playing at an All-American pace, which certainly seems possible, while the Nittany Lions need Makenna Marisa to keep up her blistering pace.
This is a winnable matchup for Penn State, but the Wildcats could also get a big win here for some much-needed momentum.
Illinois vs. Purdue, 11/20, 8 p.m. — B1G+
Purdue should win here, but Illinois fascinates me. The Illini are still not very good, but their inability to play a close game is very funny. They are on an eight-game streak of double-digit results, with non game being closer than 12. Three of those eight games are wins.
This is not quite a game that Illinois could win, but crazier upsets have happened. I also want to see Purdue handle business here, as the Boilermakers have been able to do for much of this season.
Michigan State vs. Minnesota, 11/23, 2 p.m. — B1G+
The Spartans are picking up some momentum after a rocky start to the season, but Minnesota comes in with two straight wins, albeit against Rutgers and Wisconsin.
Michigan State has found its scoring touch and Minnesota isn’t a good defensive team as is, but I am just holding out hope that the Gophers can find a spark in the back half. Also, Nia Clouden is getting some major help recently from freshman Mathilda Ekh, who scored 45 combined points against Ohio State and Northwestern. Clouden just needs a little help and the Spartans all of a sudden become real dangerous.
No. 25 Iowa vs. No. 6 Indiana, 11/23, 6 p.m. — BTN
Iowa is looking a little more like itself, even without the help of Caitlin Clark’s three-pointer, which is still lost at sea with the abysmal 22.7% success rate.
The crazy thing is that despite Clark chucking up bricks, she still is second in the nation with 25.6 PPG, third in assists with 7.4 APG and remains a tremendous rebounder (8.2 RPG) as a guard, so it doesn’t even matter that much.
Clark will need her shot to be working against Indiana, who have proven capable of winning despite Holmes thanks to added contributions from Grace Berger, Aleksa Gulbe and Ali Patberg. While Berger and Patberg often get their fair credit, Gulbe is having a tremendous season (11.5 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 38.9 3PT%) in her own right.
Iowa is at home here, and no Holmes could give Hawkeyes’ forward Monika Czinano (19.9 PPG, 65.7 FG%) plenty of room to work with. I can’t wait for this one.
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