Lack of depth will no longer be an issue for the Wisconsin women’s basketball team next season. The Badgers, who enter this upcoming season with only one recruit, will have five players at their disposal to blend their youth with upperclassmen talent.
All five players signed by head coach Lisa Stone will carry a Midwestern upbringing to campus next fall as they begin sporting the cardinal and white. The new recruits could actively form a new starting lineup for the Badgers in their own right, as Stone was able to sign players versatile enough to play every position. Among the out-of-state players that will call the Kohl Center home next season will be: Lesha Jones, a 6-foot-3 post player from Detroit, Mich.; Shari Welton, a 5-foot-11 guard/wing from Calumet City, Ill.; and Akiya Alexander, a 5-foot-9 guard from Evanston, Ill. However, the state of Wisconsin was not to go unaccounted for. Stone used her Oregon, Wis., ties to keep two of the best high-school players from fleeing the state. Jolene Anderson, a 5-foot-9 guard, hails from Port Wing, Wis., while 6-foot-4 center Danielle Ward will continue the trend of players from Milwaukee joining UW.
“My staff and I are very pleased with our first recruiting class,” coach Stone said. “This class is very athletic, they’re great people that come from great families and fit in tremendously with our current team … we hope they will take this program to where we want to go.”
It is not surprising that Stone would look for recruits in the Midwest region, as she knows many high-school coaches throughout Wisconsin from her 12-year coaching tenure at UW-Eau Claire. Her rosters at Drake featured several players from the Midwest area as well. One of any coach’s main goals in recruiting is to keep the best players in your state from straying to other pastures. For coach Stone, she has secured the in-state talent and has recruited very well throughout the Midwest.
The next step for Stone is going outside the realm of the Midwest to areas such as California or New York while still being able to dominate the in-state and Midwest recruiting areas. While Stone doesn’t have any recruits from these regions this season, she says the future is open for possibilities.
“We will broaden our bases, but our job is to bring the very best recruits to the University of Wisconsin.”
“The Wisconsin program’s going to grow,” AAU coach Keith Noll said after his team played the Badgers Tuesday night. “They just got the two best kids in the state of Wisconsin committed to come here, bar none. Jolene Anderson and Danielle Ward are the two best players in the senior class in this state. There are a lot of big-time programs in the country that wanted both those players, so I think that’s a huge get to get those kids to stay at home.”
More recruits do not always bring an influx of more talent, but this group features players who were being looked at by several Division I top-notch programs before they committed to Wisconsin ranging from Louisiana Tech, Old Dominion, Miami (Fla.), and several of the Big Ten and in-state Wisconsin schools, to name a few. Each player ranks as one of the best high-school players in their respective category. Lesha Jones is nabbed as the top player in Detroit and is the leading candidate for Miss Basketball in the state of Michigan. She and Danielle Ward are both left-handed post players who were signed to maintain UW’s presence in the middle after Emily Ashbaugh and Lello Gebisa graduate after this season. Wisconsin’s backcourt will not be left in the dark next season. The three guards signed will bring more athleticism, scoring ability and speed to the court. Jolene Anderson in particular, who already verbally committed to UW as a junior, averaged over 30 points a game last season. She is expected to shatter the Wisconsin high-school scoring mark this season. Newly signed Welton and Alexander will also bring experience to Wisconsin as both have played on the Chicago Express AAU team.
Even with all the athleticism and talent this class brings, this is just the beginning of the signing period. Stone has the option of signing two more players to this group that would make it the largest Badger recruiting class in recent years. Stone may also choose to carry those two scholarships over to the 2005-06 basketball season. Junior guard Shawna Nichols, who has taken a medical redshirt this season due to multiple head injuries, will continue on scholarship at Wisconsin, but the scholarship will not be counted against the NCAA allotment of 15 players on aid.
“We addressed our needs from [an] athletic standpoint, so I’m very pleased,” Stone concluded.
