Third-year Michigan women's basketball coach Kevin Borseth will have to be creative if the Wolverines' early-season success is to continue in the Big Ten. (AnnArbor.com file photo)

Kevin Borseth fancies himself a decent cards player, relying on a suitable poker face to bluff with the best of them. But when it comes to his Michigan women's basketball team, Borseth is limited in what he is willing to wager, understanding what he's got in his hand.

"Our kids have a lot of fight in 'em - that's the good news," Borseth said. "But if there's a dark side to it, it's that we don't have hidden agendas here. We've pretty much laid all our cards on the table.

"Maybe every school does that, but we lay it all on the table every game and we're showing (opponents) everything we have trying to win games."

Michigan opens another Big Ten campaign Monday with a 7 p.m. home game against Northwestern. The Wolverines are 9-2, including a victory over No. 8 Xavier.

Borseth, who is coming off his worst season as a Division I head coach, has been here before.

Last year, Michigan began the season with 7 wins, knocking off Vanderbilt and Notre Dame off in the process. When the Wolverines got to the Big Ten, they lost 15 of 18 games, often being overpowered by opponents' size.

Borseth's team faces the same challenge this year. The Wolverines have 3 players over 6-foot-1, 2 of whom are freshman. That leaves Borseth to play mainly a finesse game.

"You've got to have a lot of different weapons and not just a lot of different weapons from a players perspective," he said. "You have to be able to do different things. You've got to change the tempo of the game and you've got to be able to mix it up and keep teams off balance a little bit.

"We're just not strong enough to show you what we have and then impose our will on you because we don't have that type of strength."

With just 6-foot-6 senior Krista Phillips providing any size, the Wolverines have been forced to use speed and athleticism to win.

"When we play in the Big Ten, they will see what we are all about," Phillips said after Michigan's 65-51 win over Detroit last weekend. "You'll see us up there, we have a lot of players who can help us out this year."

Three of Michigan's four leading scorers, Dayeesha Hollins, Veronica Hicks and Carmen Reynolds, have a guard component to their game.

"With finesse, we're always going to be able to stay in the game, but we're going to have to play our best," Borseth said. "Every time we come out on the court, we're going to have to literally play our best. We can't afford to make mistakes when we play."

Jeff Arnold covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at jeffarnold@annarbor.com or 734-623-2554.Follow him on Twitter @jeffreyparnold.