University of Minnesota Athletics
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CONTINUES HOMESTAND, PLAYING MICHIGAN ON FRIDAY
2/1/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
BROADCAST INFORMATION - Friday's game against Michigan will be broadcast live on KKMS Radio (980 AM) in the Twin Cities by Paul Barnes and Carol Ann Shudlick, Minnesota's all-time leading scorer. The remainder of Minnesota's games will be broadcast live by AM 980 KKMS. The Gophers' next telecast in the Twin Cities will be Sunday, Feb. 21 at 2 p.m. against Wisconsin on Midwest Sports Channel.
STARTING LINEUP - Minnesota has started the same five players for the past seven games. Kim Bell (Minneapolis, Minn./Washburn) has been the starting center for the past seven games. Brandi Harris (Long Beach, Calif./Cowley County CC) and Swantreca Taylor (Donaldsville, La./Como Park HS) have started the last 10 games for Minnesota. The other two Minnesota starters are Sonja Robinson (Scottsdale, Ariz./ Chapparal), who has started all 21 games for Minnesota, and Erin Olson (Mitchell, S.D./Mitchell), who has started the last 19 games.
HEAD COACH CHERYL LITTLEJOHN - Minnesota head coach Cheryl Littlejohn is in her second season as the Gopher leader and has a 11-37 (.229) record in her two-year collegiate career. Littlejohn served as an assistant coach at Alabama the previous three seasons. She also was an assistant coach at North Carolina State. Littlejohn played at Tennessee under Pat Summitt and won a national championship in three Final Four appearances.
ABOUT MICHIGAN - The Wolverines (13-7 overall, 5-5 Big Ten) are currently in fifth place in the Big Ten, leading Michigan State and Wisconsin by a half-game for a first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament. Michigan was on a four-game winning streak before running into a Badger buzzsaw Sunday at home, 70-46.
Michigan is averaging nearly 74 points per game and has a differential of +10.1 points per game. Junior forward Stacey Thomas is the Wolverines' top scorer and rebounder, averaging 15.1 points per game and 8.3 rebounds per game. Sophomore guard Anne Thorius averages 10.9 points per game and leads Michigan with 4.3 assists per game.
Head coach Sue Guevara is in her third season at the helm in Ann Arbor and has a record of 47-28 (.627).
THE SERIES - Minnesota leads the series, 17-16. The Gophers won their first Big Ten game of the season Jan. 10 in Ann Arbor, defeating the Wolverines 54-47. Cassie VanderHeyden (East Bethel, Minn./St. Francis) led the Gophers with 17 points and Theresa LeCuyer (Anoka, Minn./Anoka) added 15 points and a career-high 12 rebounds. Stacey Thomas led Michigan with 18 points. Minnesota will try to defeat Michigan twice in a season for the first time since the 1993-94 season.
GOPHER REWIND: NORTHWESTERN - Moneeke Bowden (Bakersfield, Calif./Cowley County CC) scored a career- high 16 points and "Tweet" Blevins (Marion Junction, Ala./Wallace State CC) added 13 points and five assists, but the Wildcats defeated Minnesota, 66-53, Sunday at the Sports Pavilion. Megan Chawansky scored 17 points to lead three Wildcats in double figures. Northwestern earned a split of the season series after losing to Minnesota, 70-68, Jan. 15 in Evanston, Ill.
GOPHER REWIND: ILLINOIS - Minnesota dropped a 88-69 decision to Illinois on Friday at the Sports Pavilion. Susan Blauser (32) and Melissa Parker (24) combined for 56 of the 88 Illinois points. Minnesota trailed 45-38 early in the second half with possession of the ball, but Illinois scored the next seven points and led by double figures for the rest of the game. Sonja Robinson led the Gophers with 12 points and eight rebounds.
BIG TEN STANDINGS Conf. Home Road Overall Purdue 11-0 6-0 5-0 19-1 Penn State 8-3 5-1 3-2 16-5 Ohio State 7-3 4-1 3-2 14-6 Illinois 7-3 4-1 3-2 13-7 Michigan 5-5 2-3 3-2 13-7 Michigan State 5-6 3-3 2-3 11-10 Wisconsin 5-6 4-0 1-6 10-11 Northwestern 3-7 1-4 2-3 9-11 Iowa 3-7 2-4 1-3 8-12 Indiana 2-9 1-4 1-5 13-12 MINNESOTA 2-9 0-5 2-4 7-14 BIG TEN UPDATE - Purdue will win the Big Ten championship and the No. 1 seed in the tournament. No other team is assured of a first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament. Six teams still have a realistic chance of finishing fifth or better in the standings. Wisconsin put themselves back into the hunt for an upper-division finish with a road win at Michigan and has a chance to solidify that position with home games against Penn State and Michigan State this week. If the season ended today, Minnesota would be the No. 11 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and would play No. 6 seed Michigan State in the first round, with the winner playing No. 3 seed Ohio State.
ROBINSON CONTINUES TO LEAD - The hardest-working frontcourt player in America continues to lead Minnesota in both scoring and rebounding. Sonja Robinson is 5-11 and normally starts against players that are considerably taller than she is. That has not stopped her from compiling some impressive numbers for the Gophers. Robinson leads Minnesota in scoring at 11.1 points per game and rebounding at 7.7 rebounds per game. She established a career high with 20 points at Michigan State on Jan. 22 and led the Gophers with eight rebounds. Already this season, she has established career highs in a season with 234 points and 161 rebounds, and has played more minutes (34.8 per game) than any other Gopher. Robinson has scored 10 or more points in 13 games and has led or shared the lead in Gopher scoring nine times. She has four of Minnesota's six double-figure rebounding efforts this season.
OLSON CONTINUES SOLID PLAY - Erin Olson continues to be a steady influence at the point guard position for the Gophers. Olson is leading the Gophers in several categories, including three-point percentage (.419), assists (84) and steals (28). Her eight assists against Indiana on Jan. 17 matched her career high and is Minnesota's top assist performance of the season. Olson has a Big Ten assist average of 4.5, which ranks among the leading Big Ten players. Minnesota's fourth-leading scorer (6.8 points per game) is second on the team with 74 defensive rebounds and 10 blocked shots.
HARRIS MAKING A DIFFERENCE - During the non-conference season, Brandi Harris played in each of the 10 games, but with limited success. She scored in only three games, including two points in an eight-game span. The conference season has been a completely different story. Harris is Minnesota's third-leading scorer in Big Ten games, averaging 8.6 points per conference game. She is the Gophers' top shooter from beyond the arc (40.4 percent), which ranks among the Big Ten leaders. A look at the numbers:
Min. Pts. Reb. Stl. Non-Conf. 8.2 1.6 1.4 0.3 Big Ten 19.2 8.6 3.3 1.1 VANDERHEYDEN MAKES THE LIST - Minnesota first-year player Cassie VanderHeyden (East Bethel, Minn./St. Francis) is nearing some select company when it comes to three-point shooting at Minnesota. VanderHeyden, who has already made more triples than any first-year player in the history of the program, entered Minnesota's all-time top five in three-pointers with two triples against Northwestern. The all-time Minnesota single-season list:
1.Shannon Loeblein 63 1994-95 2.Jodi Olson 48 1989-90 3.Lea Blackwell 45 1988-89 4.Stacy Carver 43 1992-93 Sarah Schieber 43 1997-98 Cassie VanderHeyden 43 1998-99 TRIPLE THREAT - Minnesota has shot the ball very well from three-point territory in conference play. The Gophers are third in the league in three-pointers made (5.1 per game) and are third in percentage (.352). Minnesota needs six three-pointers to match the school record for most three-pointers in a season (102, 1994- 95).
RING THE BELL - Minnesota first-year player Kim Bell is beginning to make an impact for the Gophers, especially on the defensive end of the floor. In the two games at Michigan State and Ohio State, Bell blocked 10 shots, establishing a career high with five blocked shots in East Lansing and matching that mark two days later in Columbus. In the Ohio State game, she set career highs with 25 minutes, six points and 10 rebounds. Friday against Illinois, she reset her career high with eight points. Bell has now blocked 31 shots in 187 minutes this season, which averages to a block every 6.0 minutes of playing time.
BENCH STRENGTH - Minnesota's bench has been a source of strength this season, outscoring its opponents in 17 of 21 games. Last week, the Gopher subs outscored the Illinois subs 28-19, and buried the Northwestern subs 47-8. For the season, Minnesota's bench has an advantage of 543-340, an 9.7 points-per-game surplus from the bench.
WHAT'S NEXT - Minnesota takes its final Big Ten regular-season road trip of the season, playing games at Iowa on Friday, Feb. 12, at 7 p.m. and Penn State on Sunday, Feb. 14, at 2 p.m. (EST). Both games will be broadcast on AM 980 KKMS in the Twin Cities.
