Feb. 9, 2010

Game Notes - Eastern Michigan

YPSILANTI, Mich. - The RedHawks begin a difficult stretch as they play four of their next five Mid-American Conference games on the road. It begins Wednesday with a trip to Ypsilanti, Mich., for a 7 p.m. contest with Eastern Michigan.

BLOCK PARTY: Freshman forward Kirsten Olowinski (Erie, Pa.) recorded another three blocks on Saturday against Western Michigan. She already has the single-season freshman record for rejections with 34 on the season. She has now moved into the overall Miami single-season top-ten list, as her total currently ranks as the eighth best total in school history. The record for blocks in a season is 51, shared by AuBree Hamilton (1999-00) and Stephanie Ford (2007-08).

MAC TOURNAMENT UPDATE: With only six conference games remaining, the MAC teams are playing for seeding in the upcoming conference tournament. They tourney has a new format this season. It will use a seeding system for the first time. The two division winners will be seeded one and two and the rest of the teams will be seeded three through 12 regardless of division. The top four teams will receive byes straight to Cleveland, while seeds five through 12 will play first round games at the site of the higher seed.

If the MAC Tournament began today this is how it would look:

Receiving Byes: 1. Bowling Green (9-1), 2. Toledo (8-2), 3. Akron (8-2), 4. Eastern Michigan (7-3)

First Round Games:

12. Ohio (2-8) at 5. Kent State (7-3)

11. Western Michigan (2-8) at 6. Central Michigan (5-5)

10. Northern Illinois (2-8) at 7. Miami (4-6)

9. Buffalo (3-7) at 8. Ball State (3-7)

ABOUT EASTERN MICHIGAN: The Eagles are in the midst of one of the greatest one-year turnarounds in MAC history. Last season, Eastern Michigan was 8-21 overall with a 4-12 record in the MAC. It had one of the youngest teams in the league made up of mostly freshmen and sophomores. This year, the Eagles have grown up and are currently 17-5 overall and 7-3 in the MAC. They are coming off a 78-72 victory over Kent State on Saturday. Their leading scorer is sophomore guard Tavelyn James, who also leads the entire league with 21.8 points per game. Another key player is junior guard Cassie Schrock, who averages 12.3 points per game and leads the conference with an average of 6.0 assists per contest. Eastern Michigan also leads the conference with 269 steals on the season.

SERIES HISTORY: Miami leads the all-time series with Eastern Michigan, 35-12. Last season on Feb. 14, 2009, the Eagles came away with a 56-45 win over the RedHawks in Oxford. Jenna Schone led Miami with 12 points in that game. The two teams met again in Cleveland in the first round of the MAC Tournament on Mar. 11, 2009. The RedHawks fell behind by as many as 16 points in the contest, but a late 16-0 second half run helped lead Miami to a 75-69 victory. Schone recorded a career-high 30 points in that contest.

UP NEXT FOR THE REDHAWKS: The road trip continues for Miami when it travels to Kent State on Saturday at 2 p.m. The RedHawks return home for a game against Buffalo on Saturday, Feb. 20 at noon. That is part of a tripleheader that will see the men take on Southeast Missouri State at 2:30 p.m. and the hockey team take on Nebraska-Omaha at 7 p.m. over at Steve Cady Arena.

A FRESHMAN LEADS THE WAY: Freshman guard Courtney Osborn (Fishers, Ind.) has had an impressive start to her collegiate career. The team’s leading scorer in 15 of the team’s 23 contests so far, she is averaging an impressive 17.8 points per game. She is also adapting to her role as the starting point guard, averaging 4.3 assists per game. That included a career-high eight assists in the Jan. 30 game at Central Michigan. In her most impressive game so far, she recorded the 19th 30-point effort in school history when she went for 30 against Buffalo (Jan. 6). That performance featured 11-for-17 shooting, including 5-for-8 from the three-point line. Osborn has been no stranger to big-time performances. After scoring 16 in her career debut against Bucknell (Nov. 14), she followed it up with 22 points against Arizona (Nov. 15) the next night. Osborn continued with two more big games at the Pitt Thanksgiving Tournament Nov. 27-28. Against Marshall, she put in 20 points and had a career-high seven assists. The next night in the overtime loss to Appalachian State, she set a new career-high with 25 points. With those performances, she was named MAC East Division Player of the Week on Nov. 30. Osborn followed that up with 22 more points in games against both Kentucky (Dec. 1) and Butler (Dec. 5), a then career-high of 26 against Wright State (Dec. 9) and 20 points against Cal State Bakersfield (Dec. 22). Before doing it in the next game, she nearly reached 30 when she went for 29 points against Miami (Jan. 3). In two recent games, she has scored 21 points each against Toledo (Jan. 23) and Northern Illinois (Jan. 27). That gives her 11 20-plus point performances in her first 23 career games. She already ranks in the top 10 in Miami history for 20-plus point games. In both the Iona Tip-Off Classic and the Pitt Thanksgiving Tournament, she has been named a member of the All-Tournament Team. Osborn also leads the team with 62 steals.

BROWN’S SENIOR LEADERSHIP: Senior forward Ashleigh Brown (Delaware, Ohio) was voted a co-captain (along with sophomore forward Erin Wisner) by her teammates and has been a leader both on and off the court. She is having her best season since coming to Miami four years ago. She is fourth on the team in scoring at 7.3 points per game and leads the team in rebounds at 5.7 caroms per game. Against Ohio (Jan. 13), she led the team with a season-high 17 points. Brown recorded her first career double-double in the season opener against Bucknell (Nov. 14) when she scored 10 points and brought in a career-high 15 rebounds. She earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team at the Iona Tip-Off Tournament for that performance. Her second double-double of the year came against Eastern Illinois (Dec. 30), when she recorded 14 points and 10 rebounds. She followed it up with another 10 rebounds against Miami (Jan. 3). Other strong games included scoring 14 against Wake Forest (Nov. 21), 17 against Marshall (Nov. 27) and 12 with four steals against Cal State Bakersfield (Dec. 22). Brown ranks second on the team with 37 steals.

BOYER COMING ON: Sophomore Maggie Boyer (Lebanon, Ind.) has had a big breakthrough over the past few weeks. Against Central Michigan (Jan. 30) she went for a career-high 29 points, and hit seven three-pointers. She then followed that up with 23 points and five more three-pointers in the RedHawks 69-54 win over Ball State (Feb. 3). Boyer has been a big factor in the RedHawks’ improved play as of late. She set a then career-high with 20 points against Eastern Illinois (Dec. 30). When facing Bowling Green (Jan. 19), she led Miami with 18 points after coming off the bench for the first time this season. Another strong game came against Dayton (Dec. 12), when she went for 15 points on 6-for-14 shooting. Currently Boyer is the RedHawks’ second leading scorer, averaging 10.4 points per game. In the record setting game against Northern Illinois (Jan. 27), Boyer became a distributor, recording a career-high nine assists. She is second on the team with 3.2 assists per game, and third on the team with 35 steals.

HENCKE’S TRANSITION: Sophomore Rachael Hencke (Grafton, Wisc.) spent most of last season playing the four position, commonly known as power forward. Late in the season, head coach Maria Fantanarosa realized she might be more effective playing in the three position, which is a guard position in her offense. The change was startling as Hencke played as strong as anyone on the team to finish the 2008-09 season. She has made the permanent switch to guard in 2009-10, and currently ranks third on the team with an average of 9.4 points per game. Her season-high came against Northern Illinois (Jan. 27), when she scored 24 points (also a career-high) and literally was perfect. She was 10-for-10 from the field including 2-for-2 from three-point range. She was also 2-for-2 from the free throw line. Her previous season-high came against Eastern Illinois (Dec. 30), when she recorded 20 points. Hencke also scored 16 points against Bucknell (Nov. 14) and against Bowling Green (Jan. 19), while she had 15 points against Appalachian State (Nov. 28) and Dayton (Dec. 12). Hencke has become a significant factor in the rebounding game. Against Ohio (Jan. 13), she pulled down a season-high nine boards. She followed that up with eight rebounds against Akron (Jan. 16) and six in the game against Bowling Green. She ranks third on the team with 4.3 caroms per game.

OLOWINSKI BREAKS OUT: Another freshman that is beginning to show promise for Miami is forward Kirsten Olowinski (Erie, Pa.). So far this season she has played in every game, usually to give a few minutes relief to the starting post players. After bringing in eight rebounds against Ball State (Feb. 3), the coaching staff decided to move her into the starting lineup against Western Michigan (Feb. 6). She rewarded their decision by recording a double-double with 25 points and 10 rebounds. It was her second double-double of the season, as she had previously had a double-double on Dec. 12 against Dayton when she scored 13 points and brought in 10 boards. Olowinski ranks fifth on the team in scoring with 6.1 points per game and second on the team in rebounding with 5.0 caroms per game.

WISNER CLEANS UP: The boards that is. Sophomore forward Erin Wisner (Solon, Ohio) moved into the starting lineup for three games after recovering from an early season injury. Unfortunately, after a different injury she suffered in practice she missed two more games before returning against Akron (Jan. 16). She showed she had recovered against Bowling Green (Jan. 19). She nearly had a double-double when she scored nine points and pulled down eight rebounds. Before the injury, she had a great three-game stretch. Against Eastern Illinois (Dec. 30), she recorded a career high 10 rebounds to go along with 10 points for her first career double-double . That would be impressive enough, but she followed it up by tying that career-high with 10 more rebounds each in her next two games against Miami (Jan. 3) and Buffalo (Jan. 6). Overall this season, Wisner ranks fourth on the team, averaging 4.2 rebounds per game.

FANTANAROSA HITS 100: With the win over Ohio on Wednesday Jan. 13, head coach Maria Fantanarosa improved her Mid-American Conference record to 100-79 (.559). That made her the first women’s basketball coach in school history to reach 100 MAC victories. Coach Fantanarosa is already the school’s winningest basketball coach in both overall and MAC victories. Her overall record at Miami is 183-165.

NATIONAL RANKINGS: The NCAA released its latest national statistical release on Feb. 8. As a team, the RedHawks rank ninth in the nation in free throw percentage at 76.1 percent. They rank 29th with an average of 10.8 steals per game and 38th in blocked shots with average of 4.7 per game.

Individually Courtney Osborn is prominent in the national rankings. She ranks 39th in points per game with an average of 17.8, 38th in steals per game with an average of 2.7, 37th in three-point field goals per game with an average of 2.6 79th in three-point field goal percentage at .366 and 93rd in assists per game at 4.3. Kirsten Olowinski ranks 89th in blocks with an average of 1.5 per game.

PLUS-MINUS RATING: As statistics keeping has gotten more advanced over the years, one of the new ways of analyzing a player’s performance is their plus-minus rating. The plus-minus rating measures how many points are scored while they are on the court, as well as how many are given up. It is not a perfect way of analyzing performance, as it does not take into account any opponent factors (i.e., were the starters or the bench in for the opposition, it might be easier to for a player to score when the other team’s best player is sitting on the bench). It does give a very general look as to how effective a team is in both scoring and defense when that particular player is on the floor, as well as which lineup combinations are best at scoring and which hold the opposition down.

While playing such a difficult early season schedule hurt the team’s plus-minus, the numbers have improved in MAC play, as the RedHawks have pulled out four victories. The current leader in MAC-only plus-minus is Courtney Osborn. Miami has scored 551 points while she is on the floor, while it has given up 520 points, giving her a plus-minus rating of +31. The most effective lineup combination has been one that features Courtney Osborn, Maggie Boyer and Rachael Hencke as the guards, along with Erin Wisner and Ashleigh Brown as the forwards. That lineup has been on the floor for 56 minutes and 46 seconds during conference play. It has scored 92 points, while giving up only 79. That gives it a plus-minus rating of +13.

CHALLENGING SCHEDULE: Miami concluded a difficult early-season schedule to help it prepare for the rigors of MAC play. The RedHawks took on four BCS opponents, falling to Arizona out of the PAC-10, 91-67, on Nov. 15 and Wake Forest out of the ACC, 78-62, on Nov. 21. Miami could have potentially taken on #20 Pittsburgh out of the BIG EAST in the finale of the Pitt Thanksgiving Tournament Nov. 28, but missed out when it lost to Marshall in the opening round 83-76. The RedHawks then fell to Kentucky out of the SEC, 107-53, on Dec. 1. There was a brief break where Miami has taken on some mid-major programs, but even that was a challenge as 20th-ranked Dayton came to town on Dec. 12. The RedHawks fought valiantly in that game, but fell 84-75. Before beginning conference play, the RedHawks concluded the non-conference season with a 75-61 defeat to Miami (Fla.) on Jan. 3.