Michigan's women's basketball team is not playing around.
That should be abundantly clear to anyone who saw their big 77-66 win over the UConn Huskies Thursday, or to anyone who read about the game or happened to scroll by updates about it on social media. The Wolverines are bringing a lot to the court this season, and it looks like they're ready to finally blow the doors off the barn and become true contenders.
It's easy to argue that a non-conference game isn't that big of a deal, and that's usually because the team that you expect to win does, and they do so in a commanding fashion. So by that logic, the Huskies should have fairly easily outstripped the Wolverines and went back home feeling good about the game. Instead, they suffered a surprise loss — and Michigan got the chance to prove something to everyone.
Michigan's junior guard Te'Yala Delfosse had herself a bit of a night when she hit back-to-back three-pointers. That pushed the Wolverines up 63-57 in the fourth, and the team just steadfastly refused to hand the lead back to UConn for the rest of the night. Delfosse ultimately came away with a career-high 22 points in addition to 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block. Teammate Olivia Olson had 19 points, 8 boards, 4 assists, and 4 steals, and Courtney Ogden had 12 points of her own.
The Wolverines also managed to keep Sarah Strong in check by more or less keeping her perpetually in foul trouble, which limited her ability to create shots. The Huskies mounted a challenge in the third quarter and took off on an 8-1 run, but ultimately their best efforts of the night weren't enough to slow Michigan down.
The Wolverines are coming into this season ranked No. 5 by the Associated Press, and it won't be surprising to see the team in the Final Four next spring if they continue to play this well. In fact, it's likely they'll only continue to improve, because there's a lot of basketball to be played between now and then.
As for UConn, there's zero percent chance this is the last any of us have heard from the 12-time NCAA Champions. If any program knows how to immediately bounce back from a tough loss, it's the Huskies — and they'll get plenty of chances to show everyone exactly what they can do this season.
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