In preparing for Thursday’s first round matchup with Northwestern, the University of Wisconsin’s women’s basketball head coach Lisa Stone brought in a special guest to practice this week.
Wisconsin senior guard Joe Krabbenhoft — a member of last year’s men’s Big Ten Tournament championship team — talked to Stone’s squad, bringing the 2008 championship trophy along with him.
“It was cool — he’s been through it and he’s won a Big Ten Tournament,” guard Alyssa Karel said. “It kind of just got us excited. He said it was a really cool feeling and we definitely want that feeling for our team too.”
In order to take home the tournament crown, UW will have to win four games in a span of just four days, a daunting task for any team. What should aid the Badgers in their efforts is the Paradise Jam Tournament, in which Wisconsin won three games in three days en route to a tournament title back in November.
“It’s four games in four days, so you’ve got to bring your toughness,” junior captain Rae Lin D’Alie said. “That’s going to be the key. Whoever is the toughest team out there is going to win the Big Ten Tournament this year.”
First up on the Badgers’ road to the Big Ten Tournament championship are the Wildcats, a team that used strong defensive play to deal a crushing 49-46 road loss to UW back in January.
Northwestern used a slew of defenses in its attempt to slow down the Badgers, including a triangle-and-two in the second half to control UW guards Karel and D’Alie.
Although Wisconsin controlled play in the first half, it could not put Northwestern away, leading by just three points, 29-26, at halftime.
The Badgers started the second half strong, pushing their lead to five points over the first seven minutes of the half. Unfortunately for Wisconsin, however, after reaching 37-32 with 12:47 remaining, Northwestern went on a 7-0 run to take a 39-37 lead with just under seven minutes remaining.
Although the Badgers would go on to tie the game at 39, the Wildcats controlled the final six minutes of play, edging out a 49-46 win after surviving a pair of missed three-point attempts by Wisconsin in the final six seconds of the game.
“Offensively, we need to attack their zone more,” Stone said. “We flat out didn’t attack (last time). We have to attack their defenses and take care of the basketball offensively.”
Despite limiting NU to just 49 points in the game — the fourth fewest scored by the Wildcats in 29 games this season — Stone added the Badgers must also improve their defensive performance from last time.
“Our post D has to be the best it’s been all year,” Stone said. “Our ball pressure has to be at an all-time high, because Amy (Jaeschke) is going to get (everything). Everything goes through her.”
If the Badgers manage to get past their first-round clash with the Wildcats, they will get another shot Friday at No. 2 seed Michigan State in the quarterfinals.
Wisconsin played MSU close on the road in a 59-50 loss back on Jan. 25 before upsetting the then-No. 1 Spartans at home, winning 54-51 on Feb. 22 at the Kohl Center.
“We’re definitely looking forward to, potentially, that game,” D’Alie said. “The last time we played them was one of my favorite games of the Big Ten season.”
Among the other teams Wisconsin hopes to face again are Indiana, Michigan and Purdue, each of whom the Badgers lost to at least once in the regular season.
“There’s a ton of games this year where we had a win at our fingertips and we just kind of let them go,” Karel said. “Those are games that we know maybe if we could have won if we did just a few things different in the final minutes. So, you always want to play those kind of teams in the Big Ten Tournament.”
The three of the four losses to IU and PU came down to the games’ final minutes, while the Badgers’ road loss at Michigan was one of the worst games Wisconsin played on the year.
So, despite just a 2-4 record against the three potential semifinal opponents, Wisconsin feels pretty confident about its draw in the Tournament.
“Looking at the schedule, I think we’ve got a good road to the championship on Sunday,” Karel said. “If we’re focused when we play in Indianapolis, I think we’ve got a great chance.”
