ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Michigan celebrated its best women's basketball players for the first time this season, honoring Diane Dietz, Katelynn Flaherty Yates and Naz Hillmon by raising maize banners to the rafters at Crisler Center with their names and numbers in blue.
Olivia Olson and Syla Swords might be next.
The sophomore shooting guards are the stars on perhaps the top team in program history, helping the Wolverines set a school record with 24
regular-season victories and earn their highest seed in the NCAA Tournament.
“There’s no limit to what we can do,” Olson said on the eve of March Madness. “Our goal is championships, and, we want to make it to the Final Four. I think we have the capacity to do that this year.”
No. 2 seed Michigan will host No. 15 Holy Cross on Friday in the first round and barring an upset, it will play at home Sunday against the winner of the Tennessee-North Carolina State matchup.
“Even though we have a lot of basketball ahead, it feels like the time is now," Swords said. “This team has the potential to do something in this NCAA Tournament.”
Unlike the other first- and second-seeded teams in field, the Wolverines don't have a junior or senior among their top four scorers.
They're all sophomores.
“When you step back and realize that, it's crazy,” Olson said. “We all have experience, like we're seniors, and we have an expectation to be great.”
Olson leads the way as a third-team Associated Press All-America player and a first-team All-Big Ten honoree. She averages 19.2 points and 6.2 rebounds, leading the team in both categories, and nearly three assists.
Swords is the team's co-star, earning first-team All-Big Ten recognition less than two years after becoming the youngest Canadian basketball player to compete in the Olympics, doing so at age 18. The player from Ontario averages 14.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists.
Yaxel Lendeborg, an All-American for the men's team at Michigan, is a big fan of the dynamic duo.
“Syla can get it going and can't be stopped sometimes, like against UConn when she made tough shot after tough shot,” Lendeborg said. “Olivia is so aggressive and is always getting into the paint to score or get a foul.”
Mila Holloway earned a spot on the All-Big Ten defensive team, and the North Carolina native averages a team-high 4.7 assists along with 12.5 points.
Te’Yala Delfosse is fourth on the team in scoring with 8.9 points per game. UCLA transfer Kendall Dudley, the newcomer in the class, from Virginia, chips in six points a game. Aaiyanna Dunbar, a sophomore from Tennessee, provides depth and competition in practice.
“It's just crazy to think we're all from different states and I'm from a different country,” Swords said. "We all have different personalities and different aspects of how we help the team.
“Whether it be starting, whether it be coming off the bench or supporting from the bench, we all have our own way of impacting. We don’t see any of us any lesser because of roles.”
It is perhaps fitting that Olson, who is from Minnesota, has become the team's top player because she was the first to choose to play for coach Kim Barnes Arico in the fall of her junior year in high school.
“She went on visits to the UConns of the world when she committed to us, that helped get everyone else,” Arico said. “They're all different, which is unique, and they can all play together and that's special.”
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
