Sports awards are a wonderful source of the barroom argument.  Bird or Magic?  Trout or Cabrera?  Joe Jackson in the Hall of Fame?

They are also an endless font of the Hot Take.  Karl Malone once won an MVP in a league that included Michael Jordan.  Nobody on earth ever, for one moment, thought Karl Malone was better or more “valuable” than Jordan, and in the face of apparent mass hallucination the brain struggles to find reason.  And there is one:  the people who vote on these things (AKA “sportswriters”) are a) dumb and b) always looking for an Angle.  “You think MJ is great?  So what - everybody thinks that.  Let me show you Karl Malone. Or Charles Barkley.”

Sportswriters are not only dumb, they’re also easily bored.  Let’s face it, it’s boring to read and write yet another MJ hagiography, and it’s presumably boring to write his name at the top of your ballot for the ninth consecutive time.  Well, unless you’re Mike Wilbon - I think Wilbon is still voting for MJ as MVP.  At some point you want to try to find something else to write about, particularly when the obvious thing is staring you right in the face.

There’s also something of a Shiny Object syndrome in sportswriting.  Where’s the fun in writing about Duke, when Florida Gulf Coast or Loyola Chicago are so new and weird?  Far, FAR too much has been written about Mike Krzysewski (and screw you, I’m not spellchecking that bastard) already; this has been the case for decades.  Of course you’d want to write about that guy that quit being a stockbroker to let a bunch of guys run around willy-nilly and dunk all over the place.  Fun, huh?

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I’ve written at some length about a couple of the ladies on this year’s basketball team.  Ace has as well.  We both love Maddie Nolan, for example.  And I was all set to write a couple of florid paragraphs about this season’s Shiny Object, Nebraska transfer Leigha Brown…then I realized that what I should be writing about, today and every day, is Naz Hillmon.

The difficulty is similar to the “problem” of writing about Michael Jordan. I mean, really - what else is there to say?  Anyone who has watched more than about two minutes of this team already knows about Naz Hillmon.  She’s rarely the tallest player on the court, but she’s relentless.  She gets great post position, where she then uses her backside to make space for the entry pass and get clean shots off.  She’s a tremendous rebounder, particularly on the offensive end.  She absolutely never takes a possession off, never coasts, and is probably the most vocal player on the court.  She was an obvious preseason co-POY pick this year and that was before she showed up with a vastly improved stroke from the line (from 63% to 64% to 80% this year), a few more blocks, a few more steals, and (terrifyingly) better footwork once the ball was in her hands.  As her usage has increased (25% to 26% to 31%), so has her ORtg (now up to 137).  You used to be able to run hack-a-Naz on her, but no more.

She’s probably the best player in program history (it’s basically between her and Katelynn Flaherty) and has a chance to be its first all-American, and that’s if she doesn’t improve one bit between now and graduation.  If she comes back next year with more range on her jump shot?  Yikes.

tl/dr:  She’s really good.  You should watch her.  Seriously, she’s going to be here for another year and a half. If you’re not a fan of women’s hoops, she might just change your mind.

[Hit THE JUMP for the full Wisconsin and Northwestern recaps.]

All photos by JD Scott/MGoBlog.

I assumed that the ladies would need a perfect effort from Naz to beat an outstanding Northwestern team.  More about that in a moment.

First up was a mediocre Wisconsin outfit.  The ladies’ last two games had been postponed / canceled due to COVID issues within the program, so you had to wonder how sharp they’d be.  Wisconsin has a couple of good players - the offense mostly runs through Sidney Hilliard, an excellent, unconventional all-court scorer and distributor, Imani Lewis is a dependable inside scorer and rebounder, and Julie Pospisilova is a good shooter - but that’s about it.  Still, if one of them got hot…well, you never know.

Then, when the (surprisingly issue-free) BTN+ stream opened with a note that Michigan only had eight players available, a game that had looked like an easy win was suddenly…well, let’s just say some rust and weirdness wouldn’t have been completely surprising.

Then came the opening tip, and the game was over a few minutes later.

I exaggerate, but that’s how it felt.  At the end of the first quarter, all five starters had scored (Naz had 9), the team shot 64% on twos, had one turnover, and led by 14.  The lead extended to 21 at the half, 37 after three, and 43 by the end.  An utter domination from beginning to end.

Basketbullets:

• In retrospect, it’s hard to imagine a different result if only seven had been available, but the timing was perfect for Emily Kiser’s season debut after an ankle injury.  She played 20 quality minutes, with 8 points and 8 rebounds.  She has, in the past, sometimes looked hesitant in extended minutes, but that was not the case here.  She pushed the ball and appeared much more willing to look for her shot than she has previously.  This team was already deeper than any team in program history; Kiser’s return pushed that further.
• Amy Dilk played her best game of the season, with 15 points, 7 boards, 4 assists, and only 2 turnovers.  She’s been very good all season, even when she’s not scoring - she’s upped her ORtg to 115 (from 84 and 94) and significantly reduced her turnovers.  That said, it feels like she’s trying to figure out her role, with Leigha Brown being a part-time facilitator and - let’s be honest here - something of a gunner.  It will be interesting to see how these two continue to mesh.

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Then, three days later in this compressed season, the ladies traveled to Evanston for their first game against a ranked opponent.  #15 Northwestern is excellent, led by another preseason All-B1G, Lindsay Pulliam.  Michigan was still down to eight available players, seven of whom had played extended minutes in the Wisconsin blowout.  On the road, against a preseason conference favorite, with a short bench?  And coming off a three-day layoff?  Well…

I have a part-time second job on the weekends that doesn’t allow me to watch ‘on the side’ while I’m working, so I knew I’d need to watch the game on-demand on Monday. I knew I’d be able to check in on the score periodically, and I would, but I was nervous about the scores I’d see, particularly without meaningful context.

My first look at the score was 28-13, Michigan.

I jump in here to point out that 28 points in a quarter is a Lot of points in a women’s game, and Michigan has been lighting up the first quarters this season:

• CMU 22-15
• Oakland 34-19
• Notre Dame 12-15
• Wright State 26-16
• Butler 22-5
• Wisconsin 29-15
• Northwestern 28-13

That’s six games where they jumped on their opponent early, which is a killer instinct that they really haven’t shown to this extent in the past.

By the time I got home, it was 73-46, early in the fourth - for the second straight game, a complete an utter domination of B1G opponent…but this time, it was against a team that still hopes to compete for the conference championship.

I looked at the box score before I watched the replay; when I saw 63% from the floor and 8/13 from three, I expected I’d see a team playing completely out of its mind.  You don’t get those kinds of unsustainable shooting numbers without everyone being extremely hot.  And…yes, I guess they were.  But this wasn’t a game where the basket was the size of a trash can.  Michigan shot 63% almost entirely because they got incredibly high-quality shots.  It’s an offense that ranks right up there with Beilein’s Burke and Stauskas teams.  Earlier today, Brian noted that Michigan’s top five men have usages ranging from 17% to 25%, which is terrifyingly difficult to defend.  The top five women:

• Hillmon 31%
• Leigha Brown 24%
• Johnson 21%
• Dilk 20%
• Hailey Brown 17%

How ya gonna defend that?  Answer:  you can’t, don’t be silly.

And yet.  And yet, it’s the defense that really gives this team a chance to make some noise.  I wrote earlier this year about Michigan’s run in last season’s B1G tournament, the centerpiece of which was an upset of, yes, a ranked Northwestern team that was rolling.  In that game, they harassed Lindsay Pulliam into a crappy, disinterested 9-point night and limited Northwestern to 3/14 from three and 41% overall.  Tonight?  3/19 and 31% overall.  This wasn't an anomaly - the defense has been uniformly excellent on the perimeter all season long.  There are going to be nights where shots don’t fall or, at the least, where we don’t shoot 64% from the floor, but defense, as they say, travels.

As does rebounding - we were outrebounded by 4 at Notre Dame, and had one of the worst defensive rebounding performances I’ve ever seen in that weird Wright State game, but other than that we are just killing teams on the boards.  In this game it was 42-31.

It’s difficult, in the aftermath of an utter curb-stomping of a ranked team, not to wax rhapsodic about Possibility.  And Expectations.  I hesitate to describe this team as a finished product.  All I know is what I see, and what I see right now is a team that has been doing everything well all season long.  The addition of Leigha Brown as a second, super-reliable late-clock scorer makes them extremely difficult to defend.  The all-court defense is excellent.  The bench is extremely deep, or will be, once they get everyone back.

A few weeks ago, I tapped the brakes, if slightly.  Consider them slightly un-tapped.

Basketbullets

• Naz was, once again, rampant, scoring the first six points and finishing with the easiest 26 you will find; I believe she went scoreless over the last 10 points as she was spelled by Cameron Williams.  Williams still looks raw, but man - there’s definitely something there.
• Despite what I wrote above, at some point attention will have to be paid to Leigha Brown.  My, what a scorer.
• There was a brief moment midway through the third where Northwestern brought out a full-court press, and Michigan turned over a couple of possessions.  Then Dilk found AK in transition for an easy basket and that was the end of that.  It's what you get when everyone on the court can run the floor and handle the ball - presses are going to be a fool's errand against this team.
• AK had something of an understated 9 points, but they each seemed pivotal - an early three, the transition layup to break Northwestern’s run in the third.  She just always seems to be in the middle of things.
• Same for Hailey Brown - sometimes it seems like every play she makes is a big one.  Tonight it was a three to force an early Northwestern’s first timeout followed a stolen entry pass leading to a transition bucket.
• Amy Dilk continues to play well and fill the scoresheet without really scoring.  9 points. 7 rebounds, 4 assists.  As I said earlier, I think she’s taken something of a lesser scoring role with the emergence of Leigha Brown.  Dilk is still excellent, and absolutely critical to the team’s success, even when she’s not scoring.  An Amy Dilk that aggressively looks to score more often would take the offense to a different level entirely.

It’s frankly unclear who will be available again, and when - while only eight players were available for both these games, it appeared that all of the “unavailables” were on the bench and suited up, so (shrug).  In any case, Nebraska - coming off wins over Northwestern and Rutgers (!) is next up, Thursday.  Don’t let me down, BTN+.