To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the UW women’s sports program’s inaugural season, the Herald compiled a list of the greatest female athletes in school history. When it came time to select Wisconsin’s best women’s basketball player, we tossed around names like Theresa Huff, Jessie Stomski and Robin Threatt before settling on Barb Franke, the Badgers’ all-time leading scorer.

That list was published midway through the 2004-05 basketball season. In the weeks that followed its publication, it has become increasingly clear that before the Wisconsin women’s sports tradition reaches its 35th year, a new player will lay claim to the title of UW women’s basketball’s greatest player.

Still a freshman, Jolene Anderson has already begun her assault on the history books. Anderson leads the Badgers in scoring with an average of 17.9 points per game, good for fourth in the Big Ten conference.

The last freshman to lead Wisconsin in scoring was Huff in 1980, with an average of 14.1 points per game. The UW all-time freshman scoring record is 15.70 points per game, set by Pam Moore in 1978. Barring a cataclysmic collapse over the final four games of the regular season, Anderson should shatter both marks.

And she doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Over the past six games, the Port Wing, Wis., native has averaged 19.6 points per game. The UW prodigy has scored in double figures in all but one game this season, a loss to Iowa State back in December.

To put Anderson’s debut season in perspective, Franke averaged 11.3 points per game in her freshman season and 17.5 for her career. Stomski averaged 14.3 as a freshman and 15.6 career, Huff averaged 14.1 in her debut season and 15.9 career and Threatt averaged 10.8 as a freshman and 16.7 career.

Anderson’s numbers stand head and shoulders above those of the program’s all-time greats. Her freshman stats are better than their career totals. Not only does Anderson average 2.2 points per game more than any freshman in school history, her current scoring average is higher than Franke’s program record for career scoring average (17.50).

Simply put, the UW women’s basketball team has never seen a player like Jolene Anderson before. Wisconsin’s all-time prep leading scorer, Anderson has taken the Big Ten by storm in her debut season. With her collegiate career still in its early stages, there is no telling what she will accomplish over the next three years.

“She’s still learning the game and that’s what’s fun,” head coach Lisa Stone said. “You know, to look at where she is now and where she can be, it’s pretty neat.”

Pretty neat indeed. In order to find a comparison that does her justice, one must compare Anderson to legendary Penn State guard Kelly Mazzante, the all-time Big Ten scoring leader for either gender. While her scoring average increased after her debut season, Mazzante averaged 18.2 points per game as a freshman. Anderson is currently .3 points per game off that pace.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Anderson’s historic run is the fact that she has accomplished it with relatively average physical abilities. The UW phenom does not possess any of the physical characteristics that commonly lead to basketball success.

Anderson does not have an explosive first step or above average hang-time. You won’t see the freshman breaking ankles with her crossover or pushing people around down low. She’s not even a particularly impressive pure shooter. In fact, Stone has coined the term ‘Port Wing shots’ to describe Anderson’s unconventional reliance on awkward-looking off-balance jumpers (the majority of which somehow find a way to go in).

“She learned that somewhere, I’m not sure where,” Stone said.

All told, Anderson is a fairly solid ball-handler with average size and speed and a pretty good jump shot. Not exactly the prototype for a player poised to become the all-time greatest scorer in school history.

But Anderson may have the best basketball instincts of any player to don the cardinal and white. The freshman simply knows how to score.

“She’s a scorer,” Stone said. “I love that. She’s a scorer, and I don’t care how she does it.”

Throughout her young career, Anderson has done it by always being in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. No one turns long rebounds, loose balls and deflections into points the way Anderson does. Whenever a bizarre carom eludes the big bodies inside, Jolene seems to be on the receiving end.

Equally remarkable is her ability to float into holes in the defense with and without the ball. As if magnetically drawn to every crease in the opposing defense, Anderson charts her path through zones and man-to-man sets alike with unparalleled precision. And when she finds an opening, that ‘Port Wing’ floater usually finds its way to the bottom of the net.

As you can imagine, this unique style of play is nearly impossible to defend. While the possessor of any special talent can be game-planned against, Anderson is simply baffling. A slasher can be contained through double-teams or an effective zone; a shooter can be handled through a simple box-and-one or man-to-man scheme, and a dominant inside player can be controlled by collapsing on the post. But Anderson’s uncanny normalcy is unstoppable. How do you take away a player who doesn’t do anything special? How do you defend someone whose only tangible skill is scoring?

Until the league finds the answer to that question, expect Jolene to keep lighting up the scoreboard with remarkable proficiency. And don’t expect to read too much about Barb Franke when the next round of women’s basketball accolades hit the stands.