Blue will rely on mix of experience, youth

So far, the Michigan women's basketball team is off to a good start. The Wolverines are 4-1 and looking to improve on last year's eighth-place finish in the Big Ten and 7-9 conference record. They finished the season 15-11, which was Michigan's highest win total since the 1989-90 season.

This season will mark coach Sue Guevara's first year without an interim title before her name.

Last season, senior Pollyanna Johns was named an All-Big Ten second-team member for the second consecutive year, and sophomore Stacey Thomas was last season's Big Ten Freshman of the Year.

After a string of unsuccessful seasons, no one really expected the Wolverines to be competitive last year. But after last year's performance, Michigan will take the floor as a more confident team that still has a lot to prove.

"Last year was pretty much everything I had hoped it would be," Guevara said. "It was a foundation year. I thought at the beginning that we were going to surprise a lot of people, but we were the only ones that thought that way.

"I think this year, the expectations are higher from the players themselves, maybe as opposed to me. This team gained a lot of confidence. I think this year's team has a better attitude than last year's team, and last year's team had a pretty good attitude."

The Wolverines have four new players in freshmen Katie Dykehouse, Mandy Stowe and Anne Thorius and sophomore transfer Alison Miller, although Miller must sit out the season to regain her eligibility.

Already, against Michigan State in the dec. 22 Michigan State University/Felpausch Holiday Classic, Thoris played 40 minutes in the championship game against the host Spartans. She scored 22 points and grabbed five defensive rebounds on her way to a spot on the All-tournament team.

Aside from the newcomers, the Wolverines have the core of last year's team returning to the lineup.

"We return our top seven kids," Guevara said. "We return the bulk of our scoring, and the bulk of our rebounding.

"Of the top three teams, Illinois, Purdue and Iowa, we beat Illinois and we beat Iowa. We lost to Purdue twice, but we were in the game with them both times. We only play Illinois once for the second straight year, and we only play Iowa once."

The Wolverines are more experienced, so they are more familiar with each other and with Guevara's coaching style. Experienced players know what is expected of them. Guevara says since the players know the offense and defense, they can now concentrate on improvement.

"This team has been through it already," Guevara said. "This team knows what our coaching staff expects. We're not running a whole lot of new things yet. We're just trying to refine some of the things we did last year."

One of the biggest problems for the Wolverines last year was free-throw shooting. Michigan finished the conference season with a .602 percentage from the line. The Wolverines are looking to improve that aspect of their game, along with tightening up the defense.

"Our defense will be better this year than what it was last year," Guevara said. "This team is not going to be last in the Big Ten in free-throw percentage. Right there, if our defense gets better, and we make some free throws, I think we can win some of those tough ballgames we were in last year."

12-01-97