Well, at least Geno Auriemma showed us there are worse ways to crash out of the tournament.

It's been a while, but I wanted to wait for the season to be done-done before writing a final newsletter and so much has happened since then. Geno made an ass of himself. UCLA dominated Texas on the defensive end, then South Carolina on both ends. The Michigan men (a.k.a. the Q. Daniels Bros) won their lesser tournament – you know it was lesser because the final was on TBS, not ESPN. But some games happened a while ago, and the structures of my newsletter compel me to write about them.

Can I Predict Ball?

No more ball to predict.

Michigan 71, Louisville 52

Vibes-based prediction: It's like 2022, except, this time, Michigan is the slightly better team, particularly on D. Michigan pulls this out but I'll be a wreck and won't enjoy a single minute of it.

Looking back at this, I no longer remember the feeling of whatever I was so worried about. Even the first 15 minutes of the game, when Louisville built up an 11-point lead, retroactively feels like an aberration. Despite the Wolverines not scoring for the first six minutes of the game, it felt like they just needed some shots to roll in and for the defense to do a better job handling Elif Istanbulluoglu.

Once that happened, oh my this was fun. A 16-0 run resulted in a 25-14 deficit becoming a 32-27 halftime lead. After a slow start to the third quarter, Michigan decided to do it again, with an 18-0 run over 4:03 putting the game away. Te’Yala Delfosse got 8 defensive rebounds. BQD got seven offensive rebounds and even some well-deserved love from the broadcast.

Very specific prediction: Michigan is up by one possession with 5:40 left in regulation.

This is technically correct if there is technically a way to score 22 points on a single possession. According to Torvik's formulas, Michigan reached a safe lead with 5:42 left.

The fourth quarter was as low stress as it gets. The whole bench got in for the last minute for the second straight game. Everyone was in a good mood.

I now consider Louisville's karmic debt for 2022 repaid¹. But if you want them to suffer more, remember that Hailey Van Lith has to play for the 2026 Chicago Sky.

Texas 77, Michigan 41

I am not an expert ball-knower, but sometimes it is as simple as one team made its shots and the other team didn't. And sometimes the reason for that is because one team's players are taller than the others.

If you want to grumble (and who doesn't want to grumble?), the fairly permissive whistle exacerbated Texas's inherent advantages. The easiest way to stop Breya Cunningham and Kyla Oldacre is forcing them to sit, and when fouls are hard to come by, that give them more time to dominate the paint and make Sof, Kendall, and Delfosse look tiny and powerless.

Also, when they can't miss for most of the first quarter, the only hope is a UConn-style miraculous comeback. The ship got righted for almost 15 minutes until the bottom fell out halfway through the third.

All those good bounces for Texas in the Elite Eight vanished against UCLA, and they've had to deal with surprising portal entries from Justice Carlton and Aaliyah Crump. Tht might not make you feel better, but it worked for me.

How It Stands

99% of college basketball seasons end with a thud, so let’s focus on the big picture:

• 28 wins ties the all-time record set by the 2016-17 team but 1) this year’s team needed two fewer games to reach that number, and 2) they got there by winning games in the Big Dance, not the WNIT. An .800 winning percentage is the best in program history.
• 15 conference wins is a program record. 3 conference losses ties with the 1999-2000 team, which finished 13-3, and Diane Dietz’s 1981-82 team, which went 3-3 in unofficial Big Ten play.
• Michigan finished #7 in the final AP poll, the highest ranking ever, surpassing the 2021-22 team that finished #12. I'm not sure what exactly inspired the AP voters to put TCU at #6. I'm really not sure what inspired some voters to rank Notre Dame ahead of Michigan.
• On an individual note, Olivia Olson is a third-team all-American according to the AP, USBWA, and Sporting News, and second-team according to ESPN. Her T-Rank of 6.6 is Michigan’s third-highest since 2021, behind only two Naz seasons.

As of this writing, we’ve got four player departures (not counting Macy Brown, who is expected to be out for next season with her ACL injury):

• BQD is reportedly going to law school, where she will begin the process of terrifying opposing counsel for decades to come.
• Ally vanTimmeren is graduating with a master’s in supply chain management, if you know anyone who has supply chains that need managing.
• Alyssa Crockett didn’t seem completely sure what to do next when she interviewed with Nolan & Hobbs. She might go to physical therapy school, or she might try playing overseas. We’ll see.
• And we have one portal departure, as McKenzie Mathurin’s mom (and agent) announced she’s entering. Mathurin got less playing time than expected, particularly after her injury in November. With Brown expected to be out, she was definitely in line for a bigger role next year, but she’ll be more likely to start elsewhere. All the best.

And Natalie Achonwa is on her way to Seattle to become an assistant coach for the Storm.

Michigan is bringing in two freshmen:

• Fope Ayo is 6’4” or 6’5”, depending on who you believe, and played H.S. ball at Austin Preparatory School in Massachusetts. She was ranked #45 by ESPN and picked Michigan out of a final four that also included Miami, Stanford, and, most notably, South Carolina. The Texas game showed the need for a big post presence, and while Ayo will need time to develop, we hope she can start making an impact in the next two years.
• Devin Cosgriff is a 5’10” guard from Livermore, California, who might start off a drop-in Mathurin replacement. She started her H.S. career as Oakland’s Bishop O’Dowd, a Bay Area sporting power, and then transferred to San Jose’s Archbishop Mitty, which, as you’d expect from the name, is another level up. At Mitty, she played with Iowa five-star recruit (and #6 overall) McKenna Woliczko, and hopefully knows all her weaknesses.

Vibes-Based Portal Targets

Four out (five if you count Macy) and only two in means there’s room for portal acquisitions. Do I have any inside information? No. Do I know what the budget is for portal acquisitions? Also no. But I can go over the names I saw that made me go hmmm…, like I owned a music factory of something.

• A big prize (and a prize big) is N.C. State’s Tilda Trygger, whose entry after her sophomore season was a surprise. The reddit rumors are that she was happy to stay with the Wolfpack, but that she was given an offer she couldn’t refuse to go elsewhere. At 6’6” and with some ability from deep, she would be a good fit in the post while Ayo gains experience.
• Another option up front is Lara Somfai, who put up 10.8 PPG and 9.3 RPG as a freshman for a disappointing Stanford team. At 6’3”, she may be better suited at the 4 though. The Cardinal already have three major pieces transferring out; if I had NIL to spare, I would also try to throw a bunch at the 6’5” Alexandra Eschmeyer, who belongs in her ancestral conference.
• Oregon point guard Elisa Mevius only played two games this year before missing the rest of the season with a broken hand. She put up almost a 2-1 assist-to-turnover ratio in 2024-25 and was poised to take a big role with the Ducks before her injury. As a grad transfer, she could be a one-year Macy fill-in and, as an Olympic gold medalist for Germany in 3×3, she has Paris 2024 experiences to share with Syla.

I'm leaving out the most prominent names in the portal, in particular, Audi Crooks, who joined the Iowa State exodus. Nolan & Hobbs were skeptical of whether her offense-only game would fit in with KBA's system. That, together with the NIL she'd require, gives reasons to think she might not be what Michigan needs in 2026-27.

And really, I think that right there sums up how Michigan women's basketball is in a better state now that it's been, well, ever. The question is: "Would you like to have Audi Crooks on your team?" and the answer is not "Certainly!" That's rarefied air.

What's Next For This Newsletter?

While The Bear Necessities has focused on women's basketball to date, it was never my plan for that to be whole subject of this newsletter. The first-ever post here was about the WNBA, and I may send out something from time to time, or I may not. I'm mad at the Valkyries for letting Carla Leite go to Portland in the expansion draft and I need time to get over it. I once called Leite the French BQD, that's how much I admire her effort on the court (and tolerate her crappy outside shot).

In all likelihood, I'm going to take a couple of weeks off and come back with a non-sports writing project I've been mulling for a while to fill up the college offseason. Then I plan on coming back to WBB in November when the new season rolls around. So, if you like music, see you in a few weeks; if not, in a few months!