The UW women’s basketball team will begin regular-season play this weekend as it travel to the Northern Illinois University Friday, before returning home to the Kohl Center Sunday to take on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
For head coach Jane Albright who began her career coaching the NIU Huskies it will be the first time she has had the opportunity to play her old team. In her 10 seasons at NIU, she became the all-time winningest coach in school history with 188 wins and 110 losses. Since coming to Wisconsin, Albright has eclipsed that win total by becoming the Badgers all-time winningest coach with 154 wins and 86 losses.
The Badgers will hope to overcome some of the mistakes they made in their 1-1 exhibition season and continue the trend of fast starts they have been known for.
In their first exhibition game, the Badgers managed to shoot 41 percent from the floor but committed 24 turnovers against a very experienced AAU team. The Badgers did put on a much better show against the Laisve-Kaunas club team; however, there are many questions that still need to be answered as regular-season play begins.
“Something we’ve talked about are the weaknesses of our scrimmage and of [our first exhibition game],” coach Albright said. “We’re a team that has to shoot the ball better than 41 percent.”
The Badgers will need to shoot the ball well as they play a Northern Illinois team that will be vastly more experienced. The Huskies return three star seniors and two experienced juniors from last season’s line up which made it to the semifinals of the MAC tournament.
Led by the forward guard combination of senior Kristan Knacke, who averaged 12 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.23 assists, and junior Jennifer Youngblood, who led the team with 13.2 points and nine rebounds, the Huskies will be looking to better their 17-13 record of a year ago.
Last season Youngblood was named to the All-MAC second team after recording 9 double-doubles, while Knacke enters this season just 26 points short of 1,000 for her career.
The Badgers will open their home season Sunday against the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. The Phoenix return three starters from last season and are expected to start four seniors against a Badger team that only has four seniors on its entire roster.
The Phoenix are led by three senior starters who together averaged 28.6 points and 13.5 rebounds per game last season. Guard Sara Boyer led the team in scoring with a 13.4 points per game average, while Krist Loiselle chipped in 8.3 points and Elizabeth Dudley added 6.9 points per game.
The Badgers are led into the regular season behind the play of captains Kristi Seeger, Emily Ashbaugh, and Leah Hefte, who lead the team with experience as well as their play on the court.
Seeger led the team throughout the exhibition season averaging 12 points per game, while Asbaugh led the team with 17 points against the AAU team, and Hefte scored 5 points in the Badger victory over Laisve-Kaunas.
“I think all the upperclassman have taken over the leadership roles really well,” Hefte said. “We’ve tried to just provide a good example to the younger girls on the team, and show what it takes to play Big Ten basketball.”
The two other Badger starters, sophomore guard Stephanie Rich and sophomore forward Ebba Gebisa will have to contribute on offense for the Badgers this season. Gebisa scored a game high 20 points in the Badgers exhibition victory, and Rich scored 16 points in both games, which tied her for the team lead in scoring.
The surprise of the year so far for the Badgers has been the play of junior transfer Lello Gebisa. Gebisa scored 16 points in both of the Badger games and averaged 12 rebounds as well. Even with her stellar play over the exhibition season Gebisa still felt as though she needed to work on not committing any turnovers in her role off the bench.
“I think I can fix that,” coach Albright said. “Because I’m pretty sure Lello will be starting in our first game if she has a good week of practice. She’s had two very good games and it wouldn’t be fair if we’re trying to put our five best players on the court if she [is not] one of them”
The play of freshman guard Ashley Josephson is another bright spot on the Badger roster. After receiving extended playing time in the Badgers two exhibition games, Josephson is starting to become more comfortable with running the Badger offense.
“We’re not telling her she has to carry our offense,” Albright said. “But we do want her to score.”
