College basketball can usually be divided up into three seasons. You have your non-conference, your conference and - if you are good enough - your postseason.
For the Detroit women's basketball team, they went through the non-conference schedule with a 6-5 mark, a record achieved by playing seven road games and not just seven road games spread throughout the months of November and December. Seven straight road games from a meeting with No. 22/25 Michigan State on Nov. 21 to a 68-47 win at the University of Michigan on Dec. 18.
When the Titans play No. 21 Green Bay on New Year's Eve, Detroit should benefit from playing a tough non-conference schedule, one where the 11 teams UDM played have combined for an 84-54 record so far. UDM traveled to Michigan State, played a good mid-major program in Bowling Green and back-to-back games in New Orleans against two tough squads in Saint Joseph's and Tulane.
Has that helped the Titans at all, time will only tell, but something has to be said about a program playing a tough non-conference schedule. How else can a team come back down by 12 points with just six minutes left like Detroit did at Eastern Michigan to pull out a 62-60 victory. Or go into Ann Arbor and completely run a Big Ten team out of its own building, dominating the boards to a tune of a 47-30 advantage, while leading from start to finish in a 67-48 triumph.
Now Detroit will look to start off on the right foot against No. 21 Green Bay on the road on New Year's Eve. It does not get any tougher in the Horizon League then starting with the Phoenix at the Kress Center, but at the same time, I don't think coach Rademacher or the Titans know anything about "an easy task".
Conference play is upon us. Enjoy the season.
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