January 20 marked the start of a new season, so to speak, for both the Wisconsin and Minnesota women’s basketball teams.
In a sold-out Kohl Center that very day, the Golden Gophers knocked off the Badgers by a score of 92-85.
It was a fierce and fascinating battle to the end, keeping the crowd on the edge of its seats and plenty of emotion in the players’ eyes. But in the grander scheme of things, it was much more than that.
Coming into the game, the Badgers were ranked No. 5 in the nation, leading the Big Ten at 7-0 (16-1 overall) and riding the coattails of an unbelievable 15-game winning streak.
While the loss was stunning, it seemed like a minor setback. After all, UW was still on top of the Big Ten and still had a superb record. But nobody knew that the game would be the start of a devastating six-game losing streak that would see the Badgers free fall all the way to the middle ranks of the Big Ten.
On the other hand, Minnesota came into that game innocently enough, at 3-2 in the Big Ten, but their 14-3 overall record gave the team solid credentials. Behind sophomore guard Lindsay Whalen’s 32 points, UM pulled off the huge upset.
“For this team and our program–where we have been and where we are going–this was a big, big win,” said Minnesota head coach Brenda Oldfield.
And what a prophetic statement that turned out to be. Like a two-way street, the Gophers have gone in the exact opposite direction from the Badgers. Since that game, Minnesota has gone 6-2, including a big win over Big Ten frontrunner Purdue, rising to No. 19 in the national rankings and second place in the Big Ten.
The Badgers and the Gophers will clash again Thursday night, this time at Williams Arena in Minneapolis, in what will be the second-to-last game for Wisconsin before the Big Ten Tournament.
UW can only hope that this matchup will be as symbolic as the last one, except in the opposite direction.
For this to happen, though, the Badgers will have to contend with the Gophers’ explosive offense, which ranks No. 1 in the Big Ten in scoring offense, field-goal percentage and three-point field-goal percentage.
The attack is paced by Whalen’s 22.4 points per game, while freshman forward/center Janel McCarville has chipped in with 12.7 ppg.
Corrin Von Wald has added 12.1 ppg, and Kadidja Andersson has scored 11.0 ppg to give Minnesota four double-digit scorers.
“Obviously, Minnesota has turned out to be the surprise of the league in a lot of people’s eyes, and when you look at the top percentage scorers in the Big Ten, all of them are post players, with the exception of [Whalen],” UW head coach Jane Albright said. “She shoots 56 percent from the floor. We’ve got to figure out how to guard her. When we played them last time, she had 32 [points], and we’ve broken that down and think we know how she scored them. She’ll be a challenge.”
Wisconsin may be able to exploit Minnesota’s defense and rebounding, which both rank in the bottom half of the Big Ten, with their big frontline, led by Jessie Stomski and Emily Ashbaugh.
However, the most important thing for the Badgers may be trying to get back into things emotionally with a big win. Despite snapping the losing streak last week against a poor Northwestern team, the Badgers lost a big game Sunday to a good Texas Tech squad on national television.
With a win over the Gophers and a win over a good Ohio State team in the regular-season finale, the Badgers might just be able to gain some much-needed momentum for the postseason.
“I think right now we’re just going to focus on these last two games for a lot of reasons,” Albright said. “We need to try to come away with two wins.
“I’m just pretty much focused on us. Any win you can get this time of year makes you more comfortable, wherever you are. I think we have two real big challenges in these teams.”
