After suffering a loss to No. 3 Ohio State on Thursday, Wisconsin (7-10, 1-6) will try to right the ship before a two-game road trip as they welcome Michigan (5-13, 1-6) to the Kohl Center Sunday afternoon. The Wolverines became the last Big Ten team to notch its first conference win after holding off Indiana 63-61 at home last Sunday.

“It’s not going to be an easier transition on Sunday,” said junior forward Annie Nelson. “Anybody can play on a given day so we just need to work our tails off.”

Michigan head coach Cheryl Burnett, now in her second season strolling the sidelines, is trying to take the Wolverines back to the top of the conference and put them in position for an NCAA bid. Hoping to build on a 14-17 season and seventh place finish in the conference a year ago, Burnett’s team has fallen on hard times, losing a stretch of 10 straight games from December to January.

Contributing to the Wolverines struggles this season has been a lack of experience, as Michigan returned just three players from last year’s team. But the most difficult loss for the Wolverines was the graduation of center Jennifer Smith. With Smith gone, the Wolverines lost not only their tallest player at 6-foot-5, but also their leading scorer.

Last season Smith led the league in scoring with 21.3 points per game and was second on the team in rebounding, with 7.4 boards per game. However, what Michigan misses the most about Smith is her uncanny ability to single-handedly take over a game. When Smith played at Wisconsin last season she scorched the Badgers for 32 points, including going a perfect 12-for-12 from the free-throw line.

Like the Badgers, the Wolverines’ roster is filled with freshmen who are still getting their feet wet in collegiate basketball and learning how to compete in one of the nation’s toughest conferences. Burnett signed seven rookies to help fill the huge void left by Smith.

“It will be interesting to see how the matchups go,” Nelson said. “We just need to get a couple of quick stops at the beginning and discourage them right away and get on some runs.”

One Wolverine freshmen, like Badger freshman Jolene Anderson, has distinguished herself from the rest of the pack. Forward Ta’Shia Walker is the only other freshman, besides Anderson, to average double figures in scoring this season. Walker averages 13.5 points and adds 3.8 rebounds a game. She recorded a career-high 22 points in early season wins against Washington and UC-Santa Barbara.

But Walker is far from the only Wolverine freshman making an impact this season. Michigan freshmen lead the team in several statistical categories including freshmen guards Krista Clement leading the team in assists, with 3.7 dishes per game, and Jessica Starling shooting a team-high 35.3 percent from 3-point range. Fellow freshman guard Becky Flippin is not far behind, shooting 33.9 percent from 3-point range.

With such a young lineup Burnett hasn’t been shy about changing the starters around each game. In fact, senior forward Tabitha Pool is the only player to start every game this season, while eight other players have earned at least two starts.

Pool has been the calming force for the Wolverines all season, leading the team by averaging nearly a double-double, posting 16.7 points and nine rebounds per game. The senior forward is also active on the defensive end where she leads the team in steals and blocks.

On the defensive side of the ball, both teams will need to be on the lookout for the opposing teams’ shooters. Both squads have struggled defensively this season, with Wisconsin ranked tenth and Michigan eleventh in the Big Ten in field goal percentage allowed, allowing opponents to shoot over 43 percent from the field this season.

Both teams also like to shoot the long-ball often. The Wolverines rank second in the conference with 16.2 3-point attempts per game, behind only the Badgers who are averaging 17.8 attempts per game.

Until last season, the Badgers hadn’t been swept by the Wolverines since 1990. Wisconsin will be looking to return the favor in the teams’ only regular-season meeting this year.

“I maintain my optimism in the fact that we need to take care of some business here at home and get on a little bit of a run,” said UW head coach Lisa Stone. “There are games on that schedule that bode well for us.”