Badgerball looks to end skid in final home game for Moore, Stomski

After four up-and-down, mostly successful seasons that have spanned more than 1,000 days, the careers of Wisconsin’s senior co-captains Jessie Stomski, Tamara Moore and Kyle Black will probably come down to the next three weeks.

Three weeks is the amount of time between now and the Big Ten tournament’s championship game. Three-quarters of a winter break. But for Stomski, Moore, Black and Sarah Jirovec ? the fourth wheel of this senior class ? the next 21 days will make or break an entire season.

After the seniors began their conference schedule with wins nine through 15 of the longest winning streak in school history, Wisconsin looked like a lock to host first and second-round NCAA tournament games (the NCAA rewards each region’s top four seeds by scheduling the first two rounds on those teams’ home courts).

Now, five days after the sixth loss in what has become the longest losing streak under head coach Jane Albright, Stomski, Moore, Black and co. must drastically reverse the direction the team has been heading just to secure a seed in the tournament.

“Right now I’m just thinking about getting a win against Northwestern,” Albright said Monday in her weekly press conference.

That would be a good start for Wisconsin. A win over the 4-19 Wildcats, however, probably wouldn’t prove much to an NCAA tournament selection committee that awards bonus points only for wins against top-50 competition (Northwestern rates 184th in the Ratings Percentage Index, the committee’s formula for selecting teams).

Rather, in order to impact the committee’s decision positively, Wisconsin most likely will need to defeat either Texas Tech or Minnesota, each of whom rank in the top 15 in RPI. A win against Texas Tech would especially benefit UW’s tournament chances, because ESPN2 will televise the game to a national audience.

But no matter what happens in the future, Wisconsin’s March Madness aspirations have already sustained serious damage. Currently, the website www.CollegeRPI.com, which picked 58 of last year’s 64 tournament teams within one slot of their actual seed, lists Wisconsin as the No. 7 seed in the Mideast, three seeds lower than last week’s pick of No. 4 in the Mideast. And in the last three weeks Wisconsin has fallen from fifth to 19th in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll. Make no mistake about it: Wisconsin’s stock is falling fast.

However, one of the most memorable moments ? and biggest potential inspirations ? of Stomski’s, Black’s, Jirovec’s and Moore’s careers will come Thursday against Northwestern. The game will be the seniors’ last regular-season contest in the Kohl Center and probably the last game they’ll ever play at home. Combine that bittersweet ending with Northwestern’s pitiful 0-12 Big Ten record, and it would seem that Thursday represents the best chance yet for Wisconsin to end its losing streak.

“This group of seniors has given way beyond what you ask for,” Albright said. “You love your players, but you don’t always respect them. But this group has my love and respect.”