Michigan women’s basketball falls several spots, remains in top-20 in final AP Poll of regular season

After losing two of their last three games to close out the regular season, the Michigan Wolverines have fallen five spots in the AP Poll to No. 17.

It was a rough week for the Wolverines. They lost to No. 14 Ohio State, despite Leigha Brown putting up a career-high 36 points. They did get a win on Senior Night against a bad Rutgers team, with Emily Kiser pouring in a career-high 34 points, but then lost to a bad Wisconsin team on the road Sunday.

The Wolverines really need to get healthy. Michigan’s two leading scorers — Leigha Brown (internal issue) and Laila Phelia (lower body injury) — were out for the Wisconsin game. If they want to win a few games in the NCAA Tournament, they need both those elite shot creators to be on the floor.

Michigan finished the year fifth in the Big Ten with a 11-7 conference record and a 21-8 record overall. It should be noted the Big Ten might be the deepest conference in women’s college basketball; all four of the teams ahead of Michigan in the standings are in the top-15 in the AP Poll.

As a 5 seed, Michigan has a bye for the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament and will face the winner of Penn State and Minnesota — two of the worst teams in the conference — in the second round. That game will tip-off Thursday afternoon, 25 minutes after the Michigan State-Nebraska game at 12:30 p.m. ends.