Nov 24, 2005.  After two games it is clear that the sophomore class has the potential to be truly special.  Last season, and last summer, Jolene Anderson proved that she will be very good.  She is in much better physical shape and her overall game has improved.  Watching her play, it continues to amaze me just how good an athlete she is.  More importantly, she does not seem to have any problem deferring to others when they are hot.  Janese Banks may end up being better than Anderson.  She is playing with much more intensity than she did last year.  I cringe at the way she throws herself around though.  She needs to play a bit more under control and hopefully stay healthy.  Danielle Ward has made huge improvements in her game.  She is improving almost possession by possession.  Danielle has excellent hands and runs the court better than any post player around.  She also has learned much about playing defense since last year and has not had the foul problems she did as a freshman.  Look for her in the starting lineup soon.  These three sophs are now the best players on the team and will be the core of the team for three years.

Akiya Alexander also has improved significantly.  Overall, she has learned to play more under control and to handle the ball much better.  She also has learned much about running the offense.  At times early this year, the offense has run much better with her on the floor.  Akiya is also a much better defender than Ashley Josephson.  I expect her to take Ashley's starting job at some point this season.

The fifth soph, Shari' Welton is also looking more and more like a contributor off the bench.  She isn't just looking to shoot and has showed excellent passing ability.  She'll stay in the rotation all year.

In some ways the five represent the hard part about improving a program.  There are four seniors on the team.  All are just super young women.  It would be wonderful if they were good enough to be the best players on a good team.  But they're not.  They are all limited as basketball players.  The only way for a program to improve is for the young players to be better than the veterans.  That's the case here.  It's also the case that the four seniors are very classy people who are very supportive of their younger teammates.  That's how it should be, but believe me it's not like that everywhere.

Nov 5, 2005.  I've only been able to get to three practices so far.  For the most part, this year's sophomores have all made significant improvement.  Jolene Anderson is in excellent physical condition.  In addition to moving much better, she looks so much more confident and comfortable on the court.  Janese Banks looks more focused and her ballhandling has improved significantly.  Danielle Ward has improved her skills although she still has some fundamental defensive flaws that will likely lead to fouls.  Shari' Welton looks to be more consistent and solid.  The most improved player on the teams appears to be Akiya Alexander.  She is working with new coach Tasha McDowell and has both improved her fundamentals and learned to play more under control.  Right now, she is competing for a starting job.  She is the most athletic player on the team and the Badgers will benefit greatly if she can earn significant minutes.

The four seniors are all playing about as well as they can.  They're all fine kids and play as hard as they can, but they all have limited games.  Annie Nelson has improved her game.  Ashley Josephson has lost weight and is in the best shape of her career.  Kjersten Bakke appears to have improved the most of the group.  She seems to have managed to keep her intensity but tone down her aggressiveness.  Stone says she is learning to play softer.  That would help both her and the team.  Jordan Wilson looks to be essentially the player she has been for the last three seasons.  She is likely to struggle for minutes this year, especially if Bakke earns significant time.

I'd love to be able to say that the freshman have looked great but that would be a lie.  Caitlin Gibson has good hands and instincts.  She also has some nice offensive moves.  But she is very slow and plays soft.  She looks like she's going to be a player, but she has a way to go.  Chris Spencer is still pretty wide-eyed.  Her fundamentals look good, but I haven't seen enough from her to lead me to believe that she'll earn significant minutes.

Walk-on Brittany Cannon is in way over her head and may not see the floor all year.

Stone says she wants a rotation of nine players.  Right now, Nelson, Josephson, Bakke, Ward, Alexander, Banks and Anderson have earned a place in the rotation.  I expect those seven to get the most minutes.  Gibson and Spencer may get the eighth and ninth spots based on potential.  That would leave Wilson and Welton playing a minor role on the team. 

Mar 1, 2005.  Sometimes you can only shake your head in wonderment.  Freshman Lesha Jones appears to have thrown away an opportunity to make a significant change in her life.  She will not return to Wisconsin. 

Oct 1, 2004.  Erin Monfre's decision to attend Marquette instead of Wisconsin is disappointing.  She can't be criticized because she has a right to make such a personal decision without second-guessing.  But it hurts the Badgers in a couple of ways.  First, she's a solid player who would have contributed.  Perhaps more importantly, it marks the first time in many years that Marquette has won a recruiting battle with Wisconsin.  Traditionally, the two schools have not gone head to head for players because kids either went to Wisconsin or went out of state.  Marquette is moving to the Big East next year.  They're going to have to recruit better players if they don't want to sit at the bottom of that league.  This is a recruiting battle that will heat up over the next few years.

Sept 20, 2004.  2004 is not starting out on a great note.  The loss of Lesha Jones for the season will hurt.  Jones had the potential to be Big 10 Freshman of the Year.  Losing her makes the post even thinner than before.  Look for Jordan Wilson to move to center with Ebba Gebisa starting at power forward.  With that, the Badgers will go from having the biggest front line in the league to having one of the smallest.  It also means that either Danielle Ward or Annie Nelson will have to be in the rotation.    That thought likely does not install fear into opponents.  Ward will be a solid contributor, but she needs work.  Nelson works hard, but is limited.  

Mar 15, 2004.  The close of the 2003 left me with strong impressions.  I gave some of them in my 2003 Review Page.  In a nutshell, Ebba Gebisa was a major disappointment.  Steph Rich continued to shoot poorly but adapted well to the point guard position and proved to be a true leader with an excellent floor game.  Injuries hurt.  Jordan Wilson was the player who made the most progress.  She developed into a solid Big 10 power forward.  If just positives and negatives are listed, the list of negatives is longer than that of positives.  But the important marks are in the positive column.  

This is a team that never quit and never had any heads hanging.  It was a team that got better as the season went on.  It was a team that made real progress.  Ultimately, it was a team that was more than the sum of its parts.

That is a tribute to the coaches.   

And it should leave fans optimistic for the future.  It isn't going to be a quick turnaround.  The Big 10 is too good for that.  Barring injuries, next year's top five, should be the same as this season's group.  But the Badgers could well move into the second group--the group of good teams.  That would be a major accomplishment.  Right now, it appears doable.

Nov 16, 2003.  Six players have now signed letters of intent to play next year.  There likely no one who will show up in Parade magazine or the post-season all star games.  But that doesn't mean that this isn't an excellent class.  Lesha Jones and Danielle Ward should start immediately.  Janese Banks will push for a starting job if Ebba Gebisa or Ashley Josephson doesn't improve.  The others will contribute and provide depth.  This was an excellent recruiting job and the staff deserves all the props it will get.

Nov 13, 2003.  Well, the team's played two games and some things seem clear.  Some good, some bad.  First the good.  Stephanie Rich and Emily Ashbaugh look super.  Both are in great physical shape and playing with poise and confidence like they never have before.  It's only been two exhibition games, but the way they've played in the games is the way I've seen them play in practice.  The team is passing the ball very well.  They are especially doing an excellent job of getting the ball in to the post players.  The posts are getting the ball in position to shoot.  Jordan Wilson has improved without losing any of the heart and hustle that made her a fan favorite as a freshman.  The team is playing hard and seems to have bought into Stone's philosophy.

But there is bad.  Defensively, they still consistently refuse to close on perimeter players.  As a result, they're giving up way too many relatively open three point attempts when one more step would make the shot more difficult.  On offense, the spacing is off.  The players are still too close to each other too often.  More disappointing is the play of returning starters Ebba Gebisa and Ashley Josephson.  Neither has shown any real improvement from last season.  It's more disappointing in Ebba's case, because she clearly has more potential than Josephson.  Ebba is not playing aggressive basketball and at times seems almost disinterested.  That's not correct.  She is still a hard worker, but she needs to be more focused and aggressive.  Ashley needs to look for her shot and work harder on offense.  There isn't a lot of talent on this team.  If they are going to avoid a long, long year, everyone needs to play up to their potential.

Oct 25, 2003.  I've seen three practices and recruiting is well underway.  I've developed some first impressions.  First, those, including me, who thought that a staff of four white women would have problems recruiting African American players are being proved wrong.  Three of the four verbals are from AA players.  Lisa and her staff are hoping that three more players commit.  Two of those three may well be AA.  This could be a much better recruiting class than I had hoped for three months ago.  Lesha Jones is for real.  She is dominating the Detroit public school league.  She will step in for one of the departing post players without any real drop-off.  If they sign Danielle Ward and Janese Banks, the staff will have upgraded the talent on the squad with one class.

Stone is establishing her style in her practices.  There's a lot of teaching going on.  The players are called on virtually every mistake, but the coaches are not "in the players' faces."  All of the assistants are very involved in every drill.  All four are involved and can stop any drill at any time to make corrections.  They're good practices and the kind that a coach, especially a new one, has to run.  I have said all along that my wish for this year's team is continued improvement.  I'm feeling more optimistic that this will happen.

June 8, 2003.  Well the schedules been released.  Overall, it's a difficult one, but the non-conference portion seems manageable.  The games at Notre Dame and Boston College seem to be the only guaranteed losses, although Iowa state here will be tough.  

Jan 24, 2003.  The last week saw two very good outings.  The Badgers were a good team against Illinois and Indiana.  Some things are starting to sort themselves out.  The first, and ultimately most important, is that this is a team with true character.  They haven't quit, nor have they pouted or got frustrated with each other.  I've seen no signs of finger-pointing or anger with each other.  The team has stayed together and has continued to work.  This may be the area of Albright's greatest strength.  She deals extremely well with people.  Albright hasn't panicked and so her team hasn't.  She has recruited good people and has created an atmosphere that lets them be frustrated and upset without it turning into a negative situation.  There is not one head case among the players and it shows.   A season like this is harder on the players than on anyone.  One player lashing out at her teammates could have destroyed the team.  It hasn't happened.  That's a credit to the good people who are on this team.

On the court, some things are also becoming clear.  The backcourt desperately needs some quickness.  Ashley Josephson and Stephanie Rich are tough competitive kids who understand the game.  But neither is quick and both struggle to ballhandle against quicker players.  I've often thought that Wisconsin should set more screens for its guards in the backcourt and that seems even more true this season.  A screen would at least give the guards a bit of breathing room.  It seems that the more screens are being set.  I think that's a good thing.  Even with their lack of quickness, Ashley and Steph will make an effective and fun to watch guard combination for the next few seasons.  When Rich shoots on rhythm, her shot is a real thing of beauty.  She is learning to make better choices in shooting the ball and her shooting percentage is slowly climbing.  It would be very nice to think that the Indiana game will be her break-through game.  That will be seen.  But her all-around game has improved significantly.  Josephson is the true point guard the team has been looking for since Keisha Anderson graduated.  She understands the game and makes good choices.  She learns from her mistakes and hasn't let her emotions get in the way.  

Shawna Nicols is an excellent back-up point guard.  She's a smart gutsy player who will get the most out of her talent.  If she just wasn't so very slow....

It appears that the Gebisas were not well coached in high school.  They both have huge fundamental holes in their games that limit their effectiveness.  Lello doesn't catch the ball well and consistently brings it down to her waist.  There's no reason for someone her size to have the ball knocked out of her hands as often as she does.  But Lello, is still much better than expected when she transferred in.  She is improving and is a match-up nightmare for most Big 10 teams.  Ebba may end up being a player without a position.  She has the athleticism and body to be an exceptional small forward, but she cannot dribble.  Watching her try is a painful experience.  Albright wants her to be a slasher, but dribbling is an essential component in slashing.  Her jump shot is weak, but slowly improving.  It's hard to look at Ebba and see a player who will ever be able to ballhandle well enough to play on the perimeter.  Then there's her happy feet.  She just seems to never quite establish a pivot foot.  The result is way too many traveling calls.

Emily Ashbaugh reminds me of Kyle Black.  She's the type of person you want on a team and is very effective when allowed to play "her" game.  But her effectiveness falls off quickly when she has to go outside her comfort zone.  She is slowly expanding her comfort zone and becoming a more effective player.  

I love the energy and the heart that Jordan Wilson and Kjersten Bakke bring to the court.  The preseason characterization of Wilson as Barb  Franke-like was unfair and untrue.  While she plays a similar type of game, she's no Barb Franke and fans shouldn't expect her to be.  I expect that being Jordan Wilson will be just fine though.  Bakke is a kid you've got to love.  She just plays as hard as she can all the time.  KB is totally coachable and will do anything to help her team.  I'd love to see both Jordan and Kjersten on the court more.

Kristi Seeger was missed far more than her numbers would indicate.  She is a player who has developed nicely over her career and is absolutely the best she can be.  That really is all anyone can ask from a player.

The rest of the season should be interesting.  The schedule is easier and the team is playing better.  

One more thing.  Tom Oates is an asshole.  You can quote me.  As the UW administration begins to drop hints that Jane Albright's status is not nearly as precarious as some think, and those hints are being dropped, expect the brainless one to take shots at the program whenever he can work it in.  It's convenient for him that he doesn't feel obligated to be factually accurate.

Jan 11, 2003.  After two disappointing outings, Wisconsin played its best game of the year against Purdue.  This was the most poised 40 minute I've seen from a Badger team this season, and more poised than most efforts over the past few years.  Ultimately, Shereka Wright was too much for the Badgers.  Jane Albright has said numerous times that her team practices better than it plays.  I have seen enough practices to know that this is true.  The team I saw against Purdue is the team I have seen in practice since October.

But this is still a very young team.  Right now, it is essentially a team with a senior class.  The class was recruited to be Nina Smith, Candas Smith, Kristi Seeger and Leah Hefte.  Obviously the Smiths are gone.  Seeger is limited to 5 minutes a half for the rest of January.  She did not have much mobility against Purdue.  I don't know how much the leg is bothering her.  She was so tentative that she was unable to do much.  I'm not sure she ever got near the basket when she was in the game.  Hefte reinjured her shoulder.  From my seat on press row, it looked dislocated again, but I did not see the medical staff do any major manipulation of the shoulder.  Nothing has been released yet, so it's impossible to know how bad the injury is this time.  If she did dislocate it again, I assume her career is over.  Two dislocations in this short a period of time would seem to mandate surgery.

Without experience, it's silly to make assumptions about how the team will respond to the Purdue game.  If they can play with similar intensity the year, the team will get some wins and establish a foundation for future years.

It's not just inexperience that the team has to battle.  They are playing with a very short roster.  If Hefte is out, there are only three scholarship guards on the roster.  Steph Rich and Ashley Josephson will make one of the better backcourts in the league for the next two seasons.  The problem is the lack of reserves.  Shawna Nicols is a heady player but she is so slow that she is limited.  She also was the only player on the team to lose her poise against the Boilermakers.  In past years, the team was able to get ballhandling help from the frontcourt.  Seeger can handle the ball, but her playing time is limited and she tends to panic when pressed.  Ebba Gebisa dribbling the ball is a scary sight to Badger fans.  There really isn't anyone else, although Jordan Wilson might have some skills in that area.  

If this team is to succeed, they are going to have to figure out a way to handle the presses that will surely come.  For a turnover prone team, this will be quite interesting.

Dec 31, 2002.  The San Francisco game was the most difficult one of the year.  The players continue to make the same mistakes over and over.  What looked to be a bad season is showing signs of being a disaster.  This is a group of players without much confidence.  It doesn't appear that frustration has set in and the players and coaches continue to work as hard as possible.  But the good practices, and I have seen good practices, have yet to translate into improved game performances.  It's inevitable that the media drumbeat for Jane Albright's head will get louder.  That will increase the pressure on the players, who definitely want Albright to remain as their coach.  Right now this is painful to watch.  

Dec 20, 2002.  The loss at Drake was tough to swallow.  Not that the team lost to a solid Drake squad.  That wasn't a surprise.  But it was very disappointing that the team didn't continue to improve.  They had been making slow, steady progress but this game was step back.  The 2-6 start eliminates any chance the team had of sneaking into the WNIT.  With all the controversy surrounding the team and coach Albright's status, it's likely that pressure will mount on the players.  The players on this team are good people and not head cases.  But it will take all of their character, and perhaps then some, to avoid a downward spiral.

Dec 6, 2002.  The loss against Ball State was disappointing.  Two things can't be overlooked.  Ball State is an excellent team.  They're easy to overlook because they don't play in a "major" conference, but they are good.  The Badgers are obviously and quickly getting better.  For this team, in this year, that is all that can be hoped.  If they continue to improve, the Badgers will be a good team before the season is done.

Ashley Josephson is for real.  Watching her in the press conference after the Ball State game was difficult.  She made a mistake on the last play and she clearly felt that she had cost her team the game.  Anyone who saw the game knows that isn't true.  Without her, Wisconsin wouldn't have been in a position to win at the end.  This is a kid who will learn from her mistakes.  She will lead this team to many victories over her career.

Nov 24, 2002.  The Badgers are an extremely young team this season and they looked like it against Green Bay.  The Phoenix are a veteran team and they play like it.  That Green Bay won should be no surprise.  Green Bay outworked, outhustled, and outfought the Badgers.  That should not happen.  

Oct 15, 2002.  The loss of Candas Smith will give the press something to talk about.  As a practical matter, it has little effect beyond that.  She had three years to establish herself as a consistent Big 10 player and she failed to do that.  She really had little chance to beat out freshman Ashley Josephson for the starting job.  

July 31, 2002.  Cheryl Marra will no longer be the supervising athletic director for men's and women's basketball.  Pure and simple, this is good news for both programs.  Marra has established that she has her own agenda and her personal interests come before the best interests of the programs she supervises.  BTW, if anyone believes that she voluntarily gave up the two sports, please contact me immediately.  I can get you a great deal on a bridge in Arizona.

 

 

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