When head women’s basketball coach Jane Albright walked into a press conference following Wisconsin’s first Big Ten loss of the season, to Minnesota Jan. 20, and remarked that from then on out, “the focus is on the postseason,” she probably never thought she’d find her job status in limbo two months later.
Who could blame her? Before losing to the Gophers, Albright had just guided Wisconsin through a school-record 15-game winning streak. The Associated Press had the Badgers ranked as America’s fifth-best team. UW sat alone atop the Big Ten, ahead of powerhouse teams such as Purdue and Penn State.
Nearly every signal indicated Albright had transformed the program from a postseason vanishing act into an elite squad capable of national-championship contention — exactly what the UW Athletic Department was expecting when, last spring, it denied her a one-year contract extension.
Oh, how quickly times can change.
Today, two months to the day after that loss to Minnesota, Albright’s once-certain future at UW depends largely on the judgment of one woman: Associate Athletic Director Cheryl Marra. Marra will spend the next two months evaluating Albright’s performance this season and ultimately deciding whether to recommend adding an extra year to Albright’s contract.
Should Marra be satisfied by Albright’s and the Badgers’ showing, Albright would see her contract extended by one year, to expire in 2005. The university would be placing a vote of confidence in the coach who essentially put Wisconsin women’s basketball on the map and who just finished a season that included the school’s longest-ever winning streak.
On the other hand, Marra could deny Albright an extension for the second straight year. Although it wouldn’t mean the coach’s outright dismissal, a denial would leave Albright to choose between lame-duck status at Wisconsin and another, potentially more attractive, vacancy at a school like Appalachian State, for example (Albright’s alma mater).
The question here is, what’s more important: the 15-game winning streak or the fact that Wisconsin lost 11 of its last 14 games? That Wisconsin, for the first time ever, advanced to the Big Ten tournament semifinals, or that the Badgers lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament for the third time in five years? That UW started the season with wins over Washington, Florida, North Carolina State and Purdue — all ranked teams — or that Wisconsin lost five of its last seven games against unranked opponents?
Looking back to last year, when Marra cited Albright’s postseason woes in denying the extension, it appears that not much has changed. Despite the 15-game winning streak, the Badgers finished the season at 19-12, a half-game worse than their record last year. Yes, they reached the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament, but they allowed Penn State to win that game by shooting 64 percent in the second half. And just like in their loss to lower-seeded Missouri in the first round of last year’s NCAA tournament, they fell apart down the stretch against Arizona State, squandering a large lead with only minutes remaining.
This season, with a genuine superstar in Jessie Stomski, an erratic but excellent guard in Tamara Moore, the best third option in the conference in Kyle Black, and serviceable role players, the Badgers should have finished at or near the top of the Big Ten. They finished sixth.
With that talent, Wisconsin should have entered this year’s NCAA tournament seeded higher than eighth. They should have made more than a little noise in the brackets. But UW died in the first round. Quietly.
When Albright came to Wisconsin in 1994, the women’s basketball program needed a change. The Badgers had finished under .500 for two straight years. Attendance was sagging, and the program had seen one NCAA tournament berth in the last eight years. After eight seasons as head coach, Mary Murphy no longer fit as the head coach. And Murphy left.
Albright replaced Murphy that fall with remarkable results. A 20-9 regular season tied the school record for winning percentage. Home attendance nearly tripled. For the next two years, UW reached the second round of the NCAA tournament, still Albright’s and the university’s best postseason showings.
After eight years at UW, Albright’s program should exhibit several signs of marked improvement over those beginning years. But Albright’s squads have never duplicated the success of those first two teams, neither in winning percentages nor in postseason performance.
Since 1994, Albright has proven her ability to raise a program from disarray to prominence. With seniors as talented as Stomski, Moore and Black, Albright could have — and should have — raised UW women’s basketball to the level of America’s elite teams. But it never happened.
Wisconsin’s window for sustained success closed with Saturday’s loss to Arizona State. Next year the Badgers will lose their three best players. Their leading scorer will have averaged less than seven points a game this season.
Clearly, someone will need to rebuild this program. Albright already rebuilt it once, when she started at UW in 1994. Her biggest chance to prove herself came this past season, with Stomski, Moore and Black all in their primes.
Now somebody else should get the chance Albright once got. Albright and the university should part ways, amicably. They both should accept that things didn’t quite work out.
And then they both should start over. With somebody else.