I can't find highlights on Diane Dietz playing basketball on YouTube. The first hit when I search for her name is a video from the Big Ten Conference praising her work in her latter career in the Big Ten front office. There are a couple of interviews from Michigan, an unrelated profile of a different Diane Dietz, and then the algorithm just gives up and starts suggesting Diana Taurasi highlights.

The Michigan Daily didn't have a contemporaneous report of Dietz's greatest game, a 45-point performance against Illinois on February 27, 1982, because the game occurred during the break week. The Daily Illini did have a short report about the Illini's loss to the "Wolves," which included this despondent quote from Illinois coach Jane Schroder:

We knew she [Dietz] was a good shooter, but we didn't do a very good job of covering her. But then, we didn't do a very good job of covering anyone.

I should be fair to the Daily. They did have writeups of most games and, from browsing the archives, you can get a feeling of what the prehistory of women's basketball at Michigan was like. The NCAA didn't sponsor women's basketball until Dietz's senior season, and Big Ten conference play didn't start until 1982-83, the year after she graduated. Dietz's only "official" Big Ten game came in a tournament the conference hosted in East Lansing in February 1982, a 77-63 loss to Indiana in the first round. Dietz's 2,076 career points predate the three-point line (finally required in 1987-88) and her senior stats were just above an ad letting you know where you can find a computer:

You should notice that both Michigan and their opponents had a lower free-throw percentage back then than Michigan does today.

The 1981-82 season, Dietz's senior season, was the Michigan women's only winning season in the first 15 years of the program. Their 17-9 record might have made them what we'd now call a "fringe bubble" team, but the weak pre-Big Ten schedule meant they weren't selected for the inaugural 32-team NCAA Women's tournament. (U-M went 8-0 against MAC teams but only 3-6 against teams now in power conferences. If they were near the bubble, the one-point loss to Saginaw Valley State would have popped it.)

The Daily had reports of continual unrest among the players under coach Gloria Soluk, including allegations of favoritism and a high rate of player attrition. Doing Kremlinology on the Michigan Athletic Department today is hard enough, and doing it based on 45-year-old newspaper clippings is near impossible for me. However, it is safe to say Soluk was not the coach to bring Michigan WBB into the Big Ten, as the team collapsed to a 4-24 the year after Dietz graduated. After that season, sophomore Peg Harte (who is still the program's career leader in points per game) quit the program and transferred to Aquinas College.¹ Michigan wouldn't have another winning season until 1989-90, the first year the team made the tournament, and wouldn't have back-to-back winning seasons until 1997-98.

Fortunately, the state of women's basketball at Michigan has improved a lot over the last four decades, but some of the same issues remain. This headline from February 5, 1982 could have been written just two years ago:

But the most insightful quote I could find came from someone who, in later years, many Michigan fans would consider a very unexpected source. In his final column, on Valentine's Day 1982, a young writer named Drew Sharp sent final greetings to Michigan athletes, including:

To Diane Dietz — Hopefully, you'll get the recognition you deserve as probably Michigan's finest woman athlete in history.

At Sunday's game against Wisconsin, Dietz will get that long-awaited and well-deserved recognition.

Can I Predict Ball?

If I'm going to make predictions each week, I should at least look back and see if they were any good.

Michigan 70, Minnesota 60

Vibes-based prediction: The game will hinge on how well Michigan plays when Hart is off the court. We'll see a lot of runs in both directions depending on who is matching up against who.

Unlike other Big Ten programs, Michigan posts the detailed official NCAA PDF boxscores in addition to the Sidearm Stats boxscores that every other team posts. TBH I think it's because they're lazy, but it's nice to get the breakdown of each lineup combo in the game.

It also gives me the data to show this was a big whiff. The Gophers went down 8 points Sophie Hart's 15 minutes, but were only -2 the rest of the way. Finau Tonga provided the post presence and elbows to faces that I had expected from Hart.

Very specific prediction: Mila Holloway finishes the game with three fouls. The last foul occurs in the final 5:00, so she is never in foul trouble.

Holloway only had one foul with 6:12 go in the fourth. Minnesota was even more unable to get to the line than I expected!

Michigan 105, Penn State 65

Vibes-based prediction: PSU is too turnover-prone to keep it that close, but Merkle powers them to cover the Torvik spread.

Merkle did drop in 18 points on 9-11 shooting, but 25 Penn State turnovers, including 8 from Kiyomi McMiller and 9 for Tèa Clèante, turned this game into a blowout. Michigan as a team only had 9 turnovers.

Very specific prediction: BQD has five steals.

Seven different players had a steal for the Wolverines, but BQD only had one (Kendall Dudley lead the way with three). BQD set Michigan career highs in both points (13) and rebounds (12) instead. She's just 6 points away from 1,000 for her career, including her time at Oakland.

All in all, I'd say that this past week went better than the previous one!

The Week Ahead

Olivia Olson gets a crown for being on the Wooden Award's midseason Top 25 watchlist. McKenzie Mathurin returns to the rotation spot after a 15-point performance at Penn State. And I'll be adding retired numbers through the season.

Wisconsin (1/11, 2:00 EST, BTN+, Mich -31.1 Torvik)

For in-depth Badger analysis, visit Badgers Ball Knower.

The bass clef for Ronnie Porter means she gets enough assists to be a maestro, but her turnover rate is also high.

Head Coach Robin Pingeton is in year one after Marisa Moseley resigned in March for, ahem, personal reasons. Wisconsin hasn't had a winning season since 2011, three head coaches ago. Despite an 11-5 start, a backloaded conference schedule means that streak is likely to continue this year as they're underdogs in all their remaining games, except for Northwestern. However, the Trohl Center did reveal itself to the women for the first time in a long time, as perhaps the most inexplicable result in the Big Ten so far this year is the Badgers' 78-64 upset of Michigan State back in December.

Players to Watch

• Transfer Destiny Howell (from Howard) leads the team in PPG over fellow transfer Kyrah Daniels (Missouri State) by the slimmest of margins (13.1333 PPG vs 13.125). Howell requires fewer shots per game, while Daniels generates more assists.
• Gift Uchenna (who played her first two years of college ball in Taiwan) is good at all the things centers are supposed to do except making shots. Freshman Dorja Zaja and fifth-year Shay Bollin come off the bench to provide some more shotmaking ability.
• Lily Krahn comes off the bench and shoots almost nothing but threes, which she hits at a 50% clip.

Vibes-based prediction: 31 points feels about right. Mathurin gets a lot of time on the court and puts up double digits in scoring for the second straight game.

Very specific prediction: Ally vanTimmeren scores 5 or more points in the final season for the #21 jersey.

Illinois (1/15, 7:00 EST, Peacock, -17.6 Torvik)

Yes, their associate head coach's name is Calamity. Yes, she is Reba McEntire's niece. She's a true women's CBB lifer who started her career at a student manager under Pat Summitt at Tennessee, and has stops across the country in Arizona, Texas, Hawai'i, Dayton, Boise State, and Fresno State. Illinois is currently a #8 seed in Charlie Creme's Bracketology; Creme thinks Michigan is a 4 seed though, so his opinions should be taken with a pillar of salt.

Players to Watch

Illinois played Ohio State on Wednesday, which means Thomas Costello had a thorough preview up at Land Grant Holy Land. The primary new piece of information we have learned since his article is that nobody on Illinois can stop Jaloni Cambridge.

• Berry Wallace leads the team with 18.1 PPG and ads 6.9 rebounds per game too. She also hits over 88% of her free throws.
• Cearah Parchment is another of Syla and Mila's Canadian national teammates. She puts up 11.7 PPG and 7.8 RPG. She hits 82% of her free throws.
• Destiny Jackson dishes out almost 5 assists per game. She hits 81.8% of her free throws.
• This team leads the nation in free throw percentage. Must be nice.

Vibes-based prediction: Illinois covers the Torvik spread thanks to free throw differential. Michigan's FT shooting will be (relatively) acceptable, but will still feel bad in comparison.

Very specific prediction: Michigan still wins by double digits, but Cearah Parchment has a double-double.

In The Rear View Mirror

• Oregon overcome a 16-point halftime deficit to beat USC in the Galen Center, 71-66. That made me feel better about Michigan blowing a 16-point halftime lead but still hanging on.
• Michigan State was able to shut down Washington's interior game and managed an 82-67 win in Seattle, despite five three pointers from Elle Ladine. That made me feel less good.

May the games be enjoyable this week!