The Guru Report - National Edition: Michigan Gets Road Upset at Maryland While South Florida and Georgia Tech Join the Ranked Teams Victims Pile

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

It’s been quite the past several days with one more ahead in terms of candidates putting themselves at the front of the line for team of the week accolades. 

Rapping real hard is No. 11 Michigan, which followed up Thursday’s lopsided win at Penn State by crushing No. 8 Maryland 69-49 in a Big Ten showdown at the Terrapins’ XFINITY center Sunday afternoon.

It’s the first time the Wolverines (15-2, 6-1 Big Ten) have won in College Park since the Terrapins (12-4, 4-2) joined the conference, and overall only the second time in the now-12-game series.

Maryland’s loss was tempered earlier in the day ahead of the opening tip when coach Brenda Frese learned her dad Bill had passed away from prostate cancer. She had recently visited him in his Iowa home when the team played in Minnesota.

The public address announcer gave word of the passing at the opening tipoff, asking the arena for a moment of silence.

How much the news put the home team out of sorts is unknown but certainly this has been Michigan’s year of firsts, only last month getting a first Top 5 win upsetting Baylor at the Hall of Fame Women’s Basketball Showcase at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.

The Wolverines’ Maddie Nolan equaled a career-high scoring 21 points, and field the air connecting deep seven times on 11 attempts from beyond the arc.

Leigha Brown scored 15 points on 7-of-12 attempts while Naz Hillmon, the team’s all-American, added to the cause with nine points and eight rebounds.

Freshman Laila Phelia off the bench added 11 points.

The visitors’ defense held the home team 34 points below it’s explosive scoring average in a game suffering its worse loss in College Park since 2011 and first time it failed to score at least 50 since 2012.

“They were lights out,” Frese praised the offensive side of Michigan’s shooting prowess.”Eight of their first nine shots, five early threes kind of set us spiraling, but credit them.

“I mean, our game plan early obviously was to limit Naz, which we did a tremendous job on her,” Frese observed. “But, you know, they’re a great team —- recently went to a Sweet 16 — and have a lot of talented players.”

Said Maryland transfer star Katie Benzan, formerly with Harvard, “Michigan did a great job on defense. They really prevented us from getting into our rhythm and into our flow. And that’s a credit to them, but it’s also us we have to go back to the drawing board and find out how to counter that.”

No one on Maryland scored in double digits and the squad was outrebounded 38-23.

The Terps had won 31 straight at home.

Maryland next is at Ohio State on Thursday.while Michigan will be hosting Wisconsin the same night at 7, both conference contests.

In another Big Ten game, No. 6 Indiana narrowly avoided an upset, beating host Purdue 73-68 in overtime.

Iowa, which has fallen out of the rankings, completed a sweep of Nebraska 93-83.

Miami Upsets Georgia Tech: The No. 15 Yellowjackets ran in a hurricane Sunday, actually the Miami Hurricanes in a 46-45 loss in the Atlantic Coast Conference on the road at the Watsco Center in Corral Gables.

It was the home team’s first win over a ranked program in nearly three season.

Ja’Leah Williams had the game-winning layup for Miami (9-5, 2-2 ACC) as part of her nine points, six rebounds, four steals.

“I don’t know that there is a better defensive team in the country than Georgia Tech. They make it so difficult,” Miami coach Katie Meier said. “But I told the team pregame, ‘At the end of this game, we are going to be dancing around the locker room because you will have played the hardest you’ve played all year.”

The home team stopped the Yellowjackets (13-4, 4-2) in the fourth quarter, limiting them to four points and forcing seven turnovers.

“I love my team and they deserved that win,” Meier said.

Kelsey Marshall had 12 points for Miami.

The Hurricanes host No. 16 Duke, Tuesday, at 2 p.m., though the Blue Devils are likely to come to town with a lower ranking, having lost to No. 4 North Carolina State 84-60 in Raleigh in the Research Triangle and earlier lost to unranked Virginia Tech.

In some other ACC matchups on Sunday, No. 3 Louisville won in Boston at Boston College 63-53, and in South Bend, Ind., No. 20 Notre Dame beat visiting No. 21 North Carolina.

UCF Upends No. 24 South Florida: The AP Poll likely has two vacancies following an earlier loss by No. 25 Kansas State that had ended a long absence last week with its ranking, and on Sunday in a game considered to be two top teams in the American Conference, UCF took down defending conference champion No. 24 South Florida 67-51 at home in Orlando.

The win by the Knights (12-2, 4-0 American) was its first over a ranked team this season while the Bulls (12-5, 2-1) suffered its first AAC setback.

Diamond Battles had 19 points, shooting 50 percent from the field, including three deep. Tay Sanders added 18 points, and Alisha Lewis scored 12.

UCF got 13 points off of 14 second-chance rebounds.

The Knights next head to a conference game in Dallas against SMU on Wednesday.

Dulcy Mendjiadeu Fankam had 14 points for the Bulls, while Bethy Mununga had a double double 12 points and 11 rebounds for the visitors. Elena Tsineke also scored 12 for USF.

On the Brink, Stanford Saved By Cameron Brink at Utah: The No. 2 team in the nation and defending NCAA champs got saved from an upset at Utah in the PAC-12 rallying for an 83-73 win in Salt Lake City.

Cameron Brink got 24 points and and Lexi Hull scored 21 to complete a successful Eastern trip to the Rockies, having taken down Colorado on the previous outing to beat the last undefeated Division I team.

“We settled things down, worked harder defensively,” said Hall of Fame Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, who moved 10 wins in front of UConn’s Geno Auriemma with her record number in Division I at 1,138. 

UConn is at Oregon late Monday afternoon, the host Ducks coming off a Saturday upset at home over No. 4 Arizona in the PAC-12.

“Got the ball inside to Cameron Brink, and had some people hitting shots from the outside,” VanDerveer continued. “I thought Anna Wilson played really well. Lexi Hull made big plays and the defense played really well, too.”

Stanford is now 13-3 overall but perfect in the PAC-12 at 4-0.

Freshman Jenna Johnson scored 15 for Utah (8-4, 0-1 PAC-12). 

“Tough loss. Stanford is really good and what they did in the fourth quarter is what they’ve done all year,” said Utah coach Lynne Roberts.

Stanford next hosts Cal in the first of two Bay battles on Friday while Utah visits No. 7 Arizona, still smarting over its meltdown and last second overtime loss at Oregon on Saturday.

In other PAc-12 games Sunday, UCLA beat visiting Washington State 71-58 and Southern Cal at home edged Washington 73-66.

In a makeup Monday, Colorado goes to Oregon State to regain the contest postponed on New Year’s Eve.

South Carolina Keeps Rolling: The Gamecocks ensured another week at the top of the AP Poll, beating host Arkansas 61-52 in a Southeastern Conference game.

Aliyah Boston and Destanni Henderson each scored 19 points for the visitors (17-1, 5-1 SEC). 

Makayla Daniels had 17 for the Razorbacks (11-6, 3-1).

Boston now has 11 straight double doubles, grabbing 13 rebounds.

No. 5 Tennessee has also been unstoppable, Sunday, beating 20th ranked Kentucky in an SEC matchup at home in Knoxville 84-58 at Thompson-Boling Arena.

The Lady Vols (17-1, 6-0 SEC) got  14 points each from Rae Burrell and Kenyen Green while Jordan Horsten scored 11 and Jordan Walker scored 10.

Kentucky (8-5, 1-2)  got 24 points Rhyne Howard while from Jazmine Massengill, the Wildcats got 13.

No. 12 LSU continued its winning ways in the SEC under new coach Kim Mulkey, scoring an 82-64 win over visiting Vanderbilt in the SEC. Texas A&M ended a mild losing streak, beating visiting Auburn 71-53.

In the Big East, DePaul finished a weekend sweep that began topping visiting Villanova and ended dominating Georgetown 102-69.

No. 14 Baylor came back from its recent loss in the Big 12 to edge host Kansas 82-79.

And that;s the national report.