Michigan Is Playing Like a No. 1 Seed in the Women’s NCAA Tournament

The No. 2 Wolverines just played half of a great game and whipped No. 3 Louisville, 71–52 anyway. They have won their three tournament games by 35, 29 and now 19 points.

Syla Swords and the rest of the Wolverines will be underdogs against Texas in the Elite Eight. But they don’t see themselves that way. | Chris Jones-Imagn Images

FORT WORTH, Texas — We have reached the point of women’s NCAA tournament proceedings where the busywork is all done and the five No. 1 seeds are ready to settle this thing. Yeah, I said five. Michigan deserves a promotion.

 The Wolverines just played half of a great game and whipped third-seeded Louisville, 71–52 anyway. They have won their three tournament games by 35, 29 and now 19 points. They will be underdogs in Monday’s regional final, because they will play Texas in Texas, but they don’t see themselves that way, and why should they? They nearly beat UConn and UCLA earlier this year, and they are playing a whole lot better now.

Louisville took an early lead on Michigan in their Sweet 16 game here Saturday. But in hindsight—and hindsight kicked in before the game ended—the Wolverines’ main obstacle was themselves. Star Olivia Olson said she felt like she forced a couple of shots early. Coach Kim Barnes Arico said, “We were sped up. We panicked for about a second. Or maybe a couple of minutes.”

With 6:53 left in the second quarter, Louisville’s Elif Istanbullulgou scored to give the Cardinals an 11-point lead.

Over the next 17:20, Michigan outscored Louisville by 28 points.

That might seem like statistical cherry-picking. But the point here is not that the 41–13 run reflects the gap between these teams. Michigan is playing like a No. 1 seed, and doing what  No. 1 seeds do. UConn, UCLA, South Carolina and Texas do not need to play 40 minutes of great basketball to blow out good teams. They just need to play well for one stretch to effectively end the game.

Remember: Louisville is good. Not Texas good or UConn good. But the Cardinals split two contests with a Notre Dame team that is now in the Elite Eight. They took another Elite Eight team, Duke, to overtime in one game, and they came within a point of forcing overtime in the other. They only lost to South Carolina by two.

That was a nice body of work. Michigan just disposed of it. In a sport where the dominant programs are really, really dominant, fans are rightly skeptical of any newcomer to the big stage. Monday’s showdown will only be the second Elite Eight game in the history of the Michigan program. So if you think the Wolverines still need to prove they belong, that is understandable.

But there are no smoke and mirrors here. Michigan is not riding a streak of hot shooting or good fortune. Geno Auriemma always laughs when people say he has only won national championships with great players. Of course that is the case. That’s why he recruits them.

Olson and Syla Swords are UConn players who happen not to play for UConn. They were McDonald’s All-Americans and will have WNBA careers and they love all of the hard parts. They are only sophomores, but they are already two of the best players in the country.

Olson scores, rebounds and defends against everybody, regardless of talent level. Swords affects games in ways that are easy to spot (she hit a couple of quick-release threes, including one in the corner against a closing defender) and also in ways that are subtle. She is a steadying presence on both ends.

By the standards they have set, Olson and Swords weren’t even that good against Louisville. But they were plenty good enough. So was point guard Mila Holloway, who played only 29 minutes because of foul trouble and still had seven assists (and just one turnover). Did we miss anybody?

“You’ve got to give [Brooke Quarles] Daniels a ton of credit,” Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. “She impacts the game in so many ways without really scoring, but it’s her ability to continually go to the offensive glass. She had seven of them.”

Quarles Daniels also had two defensive rebounds. But we have not even mentioned the sophomore who was the best player on the floor at times.

Michigan’s 6'3" sophomore Te’Yala Delfosse scored an efficient 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds in 22 minutes. She blocked two shots and got called for a foul when she might have cleanly blocked a third. She smoothly brought the ball up court in fewer dribbles than a person should need, and she hit a three-pointer with such ease that it seemed like somebody painted the line too close.

Delfosse will come off the bench again Monday.

Teams are not supposed to play road games in the Elite Eight, but Michigan basically will. Then again, No. 1 seeds are not supposed to face other No. 1 seeds in the Elite Eight, but Texas basically will.

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