Wipe the slate clean; it’s a whole new season; everybody’s equal. These are just several cliches used to describe the start of the postseason in any sport.
While these hold true for the UW women’s basketball team, the overriding feeling may be one of simple relief. After a tumultuous regular season that resembled something you would see at an amusement park rather than the hardwood, the Badgers hope they have found some stability by simply starting off Big Ten tournament play this weekend in Indianapolis.
Although the goal of a Big Ten regular season title was dashed by UW’s unprecedented free-fall in the second half of the season — a 16-1 start and a 1-9 finish –the team feels the season-ending tournament will be a breath of fresh air.
“I just think right now we’re just trying to focus on what we can control, which is the first game of the Big Ten tournament, as well as trying to make a run for the championship,” senior guard and all-Big Ten selection Tamara Moore said.
“There’s always two champions during the season — the regular season champions and the tournament champions. All we can control is what happens from here until the end of the season, and we have to really work hard day-in and day-out to make sure that we salvage whatever is left in the season.”
Senior guard Kyle Black agreed with Moore’s feelings of optimism and focus.
“I think everybody on our team feels pretty good,” Black said. “We have a good bracket, teams that we know honestly in our heart that we can beat. I think it’s nice having the weight lifted off of losing nine of the last 10 games. Everybody goes into the tournament 0-0. Northwestern right now is our biggest opponent.”
The Badgers will enter this year’s Big Ten tournament as the sixth seed, barely missing a first-round bye. The good news is they will play Big Ten bottom-feeder Northwestern in the opening round Thursday night, whom Wisconsin knocked off twice in the regular season.
The bad news is the Badgers haven’t fared well in the Big Ten tournament in recent history.
In order to change this, Wisconsin will obviously have to get production from its big three — Moore, Black and all-Big Ten senior forward Jessie Stomski –as well as elevated play from role players such as junior forward Kristi Seeger and sophomore center Emily Ashbaugh.
Unfortunately for the Badgers, Ashbaugh has had recent back problems. Although she’ll play, it will be with reduced minutes and possibly at a reduced level, something that will weaken the UW defense. Even more harrowing is the status of Stomski, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, who suffered a concussion in Sunday’s regular season finale and will likely be a game-time decision.
All in all, the Badgers feel they have as good of a chance as any to recapture their early-season form and storm back to a Big Ten tournament title, especially in a Big Ten season that has seen everybody beat up on everybody else. In a season that has seen just about everything happen, why not?
“I think it’s anybody’s tournament,” head coach Jane Albright said. “I really do believe that. There’s nobody that we don’t respect, and there’s nobody that we fear. Buried somewhere in between that is reality.”
One reality is that after a long series of struggles, the only choice the Badgers have is to view the tournament as wide open.
“It’s the only mentality you can have,” Stomski said. “[The Big Ten tournament] is not a place where we’ve traditionally done well, but all we, [and] I, have is this year to change that, so we’re going to do everything that we can to change that pattern.”
Black echoed this sentiment of finality.
“As a team, we’re trying to play every game like it’s our last game, because, really, it could be our last game,” she said.
Whatever the outcome for the Badgers in the Big Ten tournament this weekend in Indianapolis and perhaps beyond, one thing is for certain: It has been a wild ride.
