She is honest enough to admit that her job has been much harder than she thought going in.  She has also been classy enough to no mention that she hasn’t caught a break yet.    In 2005, the Wolverines returned all but their best player, Tabitha Poole. 

The returning players were joined by a solid freshman class and the program had hopes of seeing improvement.  While there was some individual improvement, it did not show in the stats or win-loss record. 

Part of the problem was beyond Burnett’s control.  Her top returnee, Kelly Helvey, went down early with an acl.  Katie Dierdorf again suffered a stress fracture in her hip and missed a significant part of the year. 

But part of the problem was something that Burnett will have to fix if she wants to win more games.  The Wolverines simply could not score.  Burnett has always counted on her defense to create offense.  That will not work in the Big 10.  Her opponents are just too good.  Only Ta’Shia Walker, Helvey and Dierdorf finished the season with decent shooting percentages.  Of those, only Walker has the ability to get her own shots.  The player with the best offensive skills, Janelle Cooper, did not finish with any regularity and ended the season only shooting 35%.  Cooper led the teams in minutes played and took 50 more shots than anyone.  But too many were forced and out of rhythm.   

The lack of individual ability was coupled with an offense that did not work in the half-court.  For whatever reason, Michigan players do not have any idea how to run an offense that creates good shots.  The player receiving the fifth pass in a possession was frequently in no better position than the player throwing the first one.  Some of this was inexperience.  Freshman Jessica Minnfield ran the point for most of the year.  She has some potential, but was a freshman surrounded by inexperienced players.  It showed as she averaged less than three assists a game. 

Some of the problems fall back on Burnett.  She will not be able to use the offense that she used at Southwest Missouri State.  She did not show that she was able to implement an effective one yet. 

This is not meant to minimize the problems that the Wolverines had in other areas.  Despite Burnett’s stated desire to be aggressive defensively, Michigan allowed more points in Big 10 play than any other team.  If you can’t score, you better be able to defend and the Wolverines couldn’t.  As a result they were outscored by 20.5 points a game in league play.  That was five points worse than anyone else. 

If that’s wasn’t enough, the Wolverines also had the second worst rebounding margin in the conference.