Big 12 Basketball

Kansas vs. Michigan: NCAA Women’s Tournament Preview and Prediction

By Matthew Postins

Posted on March 21, 2024

Here is everything you need to know about Kansas and Michigan in our Jayhawks vs. Wolverines NCAA Women’s Tournament first-round preview.

No. 8 Kansas (19-12) vs. No. 9 Michigan (20-13)

Time, TV: 1 p.m., Saturday, ESPNews

Location: Galen Center, Los Angeles, Calif.

All-time series: (tied 1-1). Last meeting was in Ann Arbor, Mich., as Michigan won, 75-67 on Dec. 9, 2010.

Winner: Advances to the second round on Monday against the winner of the game between No. 1 USC and No. 16 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

Projected starting lineups

Kansas: G Wyvette Mayberry, C Taiyanna Jackson, G S’mya Nichols, G Holly Kersgieter, G Zakiyah Franklin.

Michigan: F Chyra Evans, G Jordan Hobbs, G Elissa Brett, G Laila Phelia, G Lauren Hansen.

Players to watch

Kansas

G Holly Kersgieter

Kersgieter broke the school record for career record for 3-pointers earlier this season and has 269 entering the NCAA Tournament. One of the three super-seniors on the roster, along with guard Zakiyah Franklin and center Taiyanna Jackson, Kersgieter will leave Kansas among the school’s Top 5 scorers with 1,911 points. With a big game — or perhaps a second NCAA Tournament game — she could catch Danielle McCray (1,934) for No. 4.

Michigan

G Laila Phelia

Named to the Big 12 All-Tournament team, she enters the NCAA Tournament averaging 16.8 ppg (fifth in Big Ten), 3.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.3 steals in nearly 35 minutes per game. She has scored in double figures in all but four games this season, with 20 points or more in 12 games. Her biggest game was recently, a 30-point effort in Michigan’s Big Ten Tournament win over Indiana.

Key storylines

Kansas

The goal was to get back to the NCAA Tournament after barely missing last year’s Big Dance and winning the Postseason WNIT. That’s why the super-seniors returned and why coach Brandon Schneider bought into starting a freshman — Nichols — so early in her career. Still, in late January, Kansas was 10-10 and looked like it was sinking. Instead, Kansas surged to end the season, won nine of 10 games, and had its NCAA Tournament berth locked up before their Big 12 Tournament quarterfinal loss to Texas, which went on to win the Big 12 Tournament. Kansas has now been to the postseason three straight years under Schneider.

Michigan

Coach Kim Barnes Arico has built something special in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines are making their sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance and 12th overall, but seven of those appearances have come under her. Michigan got to the Elite Eight two years ago and has advanced to the second round seven other times all-time. If the Wolverines were on the NCAA Tournament bubble, they took care of that with a run to the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament.