There was a time Courtney Boylan didn’t believe she could crack the starting lineup at Michigan.

The perpetually happy point guard languished on the Michigan women’s basketball team’s bench and didn’t know what to think.

As a sophomore, she wasn’t starting and felt her minutes slipping away to then-Michigan freshman Dayeesha Hollins. So she reached out to her mother, Molly, who told her to keep working. Be patient. Her time would come.

“At the time, it was very hard to believe,” Boylan said. “I kept telling her, ‘Mom, I don’t believe you. I don’t see a time where it’s going to happen.’”

Boylan also sought advice from her boyfriend, Michigan men’s basketball player Stu Douglass, who was going through a similar situation. She looked for support and for answers.

She left Ann Arbor for break last summer and re-committed herself. She had averaged just 10.9 minutes as a sophomore, didn’t start a single game and saw her minutes fall from her freshman year, when the former Miss Minnesota basketball player averaged almost 16 minutes.

Her mother, who Boylan called a “major rock,” saw a different daughter than the one she raised around basketball. So she started imparting the message that her day would come.

“She was like, ‘I really love this game, no matter how much I play, regardless of all of this, I love to play basketball,’” Molly said. “It renewed the spirit.”

Hollins left the Michigan program, citing homesickness, but Boylan started her junior year in the same spot, coming off the bench. She worked harder in practice, treating each like a mini-tryout. She watched more film with Michigan coach Kevin Borseth and peppered him with questions about what she needed to do see more playing time.

“I told her the scoreboard is really what’s most important in my mind. Look at the scoreboard when you come into the game and when you come out, look at the scoreboard,” Borseth said. “Doesn’t make a difference if you score a point or what you do, as long as the score reflects favorably or the game moves favorably while you’re in there.

“If you’re in the game and the points go up, good stuff. If you go in the game and we lose momentum, we have a problem.”

The message to the player Borseth said “worked while she waited” sunk in. She played with less concern of how much she scored or how many assists she had and started to just go and lead and run the point. Then, starting guard Nya Jordan injured her leg against Ohio State two games after their scoreboard talk.

Boylan hurt for Jordan but at the same time recognized what this was: A chance. The one her mother told her would come. The generously listed 5-foot-7 point guard started the second game of her career against Iowa on Jan. 2.

Boylan barely left the floor, playing 37 minutes, scoring 18 points and held Iowa star guard Kachine Alexander to nine points.

“I felt I had something to prove. Iowa, that was the first time I started,” Boylan said. “I really felt, they put me on Kachine Alexander, one of the best payers in the country, and I took it as a challenge that I needed to play good defense, because I know that was one thing that I had been lacking since I had been here.

“I was able to do that, and we won such a huge game over there. It was such a great start.”

The win helped propel Michigan (16-10, 9-5 Big Ten) into the mix for an NCAA Tournament berth. It also provided a sense of confidence to the point guard who had lost her way watching from the bench.

“It was kind of a, ‘Where did she come from’ kind of thing,” Borseth said. “I don’t think Iowa was ready for her at that point.”

Boylan has started every game since then. In Big Ten games -- she started the second Big Ten game of the year and has been in the lineup since -- she is averaging 9.4 points , has a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio and is grabbing 2.6 rebounds a game even though she’s often the shortest woman on the floor.

Against Wisconsin on Saturday, she scored Michigan’s last six points, including the game-winning layup with eight seconds left to give the Wolverines a 68-66 win and keep them in position for the school’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in a decade. Michigan, in third place in the Big Ten, plays host to Minnesota (11-16, 3-11) at 7 p.m. Thursday.

“She makes really good plays in big games and crunch time situations and that’s how she got to be where she’s at and some of those layers are starting to peel away and you’re starting to see that kind of stuff,” Borseth said. “… It’s happening, and those layers are peeling away and it’s starting to get exposed, and it’s good.

“All good stuff. I’m happy for her and, again, she’s worked while she’s waited.”

Michael Rothstein covers Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.