Coaches wince when a star player is forced to sit and watch from the sidelines with any type of injury. Injuries can be even more frustrating for the athlete, especially when their rehabilitation timeframe remains unknown.

Fortunately for the 2004 UW women’s basketball team, freshman guard Janese Banks was able to overcome an early-season knee injury before the start of the Badgers’ regular season. The freshman guard missed both preseason games and several practices due to an injury to her left knee, but the resilient freshman was able to suit up for the opener.

Head coach Lisa Stone breathed a sigh of relief when her standout guard was cleared to play. After all, the injury bug had bitten the Badgers more than once last season and Stone’s freshman forward Lesha Jones was already out for the season with an ACL injury she sustained her senior year.

Banks, who was named the 2004 Gatorade Player of the Year in Indiana, was unknown to most throughout the state of Wisconsin when she took the floor in the season opener. She had averaged 25.3 points, 9.2 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.8 steals per game in her senior year, but she had not shown fans that she was worthy of a Badger uniform until she scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds against IUPUI while playing through the lingering effects of the knee injury.

“I’m feeling better every day. I just got to get back into my playing mode,” Banks said. “I’ve never used my knee as an excuse.”

With Banks unable to participate in practices for nearly a month, she focused even harder on listening to the coaches’ instructions while preparing for her return to the court.

“She’s always been very attentive, very intuitive of the game and somebody that while she was injured, was right on my right hip listening to everything we said and understanding the plays,” Stone said. “When she got back and was released to play, it was as if she didn’t miss a beat.”

Despite missing practices and both exhibitions, Banks earned the starting nod over last year’s leading scorer, Ashley Josephson, in her collegiate debut. The standout freshman has started all four games this season, supplanting Josephson as the everyday starter at shooting guard.

“It doesn’t matter who starts or who plays,” Banks said. “I just want to contribute and know my role. Whatever decision Coach Stone makes to start whoever she wants we’re going to go with. I trust her. I think [Josephson] supports me if I start and I’ll support her if she starts.”

Though she hopes to regain the starting spot, Josephson recognizes Banks’ ability to perform in big-game situations.

“She’s a great player, she’s a great defensive player, I’ll give her that,” Josephson said of Banks. “She’s real quick on her feet and she’s earned it on the defensive end.”

Wisconsin was lacking in depth at the guard position last season, as starters Stephanie Rich and Ashley Josephson were forced to play almost the entire game. Now, with Banks providing a lift offensively, Rich and Josephson can get some rest on the bench.

“She’s a different threat than Ashley (Josephson), and they’re just different players,” Rich said. “She’s a little bit stronger, she gets those offensive rebounds, and she can take the ball to the hole, and she can [provide] a little more defensive pressure in the full-court.”

Through four games as a starter, Banks is averaging 9.3 points and 4.5 rebounds and knocked down 40 percent from behind the arc and a team-best 75 percent from the charity stripe. With Jolene Anderson grabbing all the headlines as Wisconsin’s all-time leading prep scorer, the Indianapolis, Ind., native prefers the role of the quiet assassin as long as it allows her team to notch a ‘W’ in the win column.

“I’ve never been the one to get jealous,” Banks said. “Jolene’s a great player and she’s a Wisconsin native. Everybody around here loves her. I have no problem with that, she’s earned her right. She’s a hard worker; we’re a team here and that’s all we’re worried about.”

Anderson especially likes having Banks as part of Wisconsin’s starting guard trio.

“It’s been an excellent relationship with Janese (Banks),” Anderson said. “It definitely brought us closer. We didn’t know each other before we came here. It’s something a lot of people probably take for granted, coming out of a big state that she would be good, and she is good.”

Somewhat surprising from a player out of Indianapolis, Banks was not heavily recruited by either Indiana or Purdue, but she found Wisconsin as the perfect fit.

“I wanted to play in the Big Ten and get some good competition night in and night out, and Wisconsin seemed like the place where God put me,” Banks said.

Banks became the sixth and final recruit to sign with Wisconsin last fall after considering both Marquette and Ball State, along with several other Big Ten schools. Banks, who played in the Kentucky-Indiana Prep All-Star Game this past summer, was able to show that she had been recruited by a Division I program with good reason.

“Being a Badger is something special,” Banks said. “A lot of people didn’t think I was very good and I took that as challenge to me to get better. That’s one of the reasons I loved coming here: because I knew Coach Stone believed in me.”

Stone and the UW coaching staff were delighted by the fact that other major programs decided to pass on Banks, allowing the Badgers to lock up the talented guard.

“People said, ‘Wow, we didn’t know she was that talented,’ but we did,” Stone said. “My staff and I were very convinced that Janese Banks was a highly talented young player, and we’re very thankful she’s here as a Badger.”

Now that Banks is healthy, she has teamed with senior point guard Stephanie Rich and freshman sensation Anderson to form a formidable backcourt trio.

“I think she’s very solid with Jolene Anderson,” Stone said. “The two of them work very well together, as has been mentioned and demonstrated.”

Banks, a versatile guard who can play multiple positions including the point, has already shown her ability to score in the open court, drive to the basket and rebound. She has also become the team’s defensive specialist in the backcourt.

“She’s brought that, she brings tremendous athleticism to the floor, she’s very fundamental,” Stone said.

Banks has often drawn the top defensive assignment on the perimeter, a challenge that she has readily accepted in her debut season.

“I knew coming in here when I got recruited that they knew I was a defender,” Banks said. “I want to be Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. I want to make a defensive statement, so I have to come out on fire to get it done.”

Though she has already won the respect of her coaches and teammates, Banks still strives to get better with her collegiate career now off the ground.

“You think you know so much, but this is just a total different level,” Banks said. “Everybody at the next level is just better, you just got to keep working hard because it’s nothing like high school. It’s the look in people’s eyes, and the competition is so much better. I respect everyone in the Big Ten, but I fear no one.”