Although the Wisconsin women’s basketball team returns 10 of 11 letterwinners from last year’s WNIT squad, they’ll still be bringing a new look to the upcoming season.
Championed by Bo Ryan throughout his tenure as the Wisconsin men’s basketball coach, the swing offense has been a crucial part of Badger basketball for much of the past decade. Even for the women’s program, which Lisa Stone took over seven years ago, the swing tenets were a major staple of the team’s offense.
This year, however, Stone and the Badgers are ditching the old and going with the new — the new being a “4-out, 1-in” offense. With 10 of the 14 players on this year’s roster listed as guards, Stone has decided to eschew the swing in favor of a more guard-friendly motion offense.
“I think it just fits our personnel better,” Stone said at Tuesday’s media day. “It’s kind of simple, let’s stretch the defense, spread the floor, give people room to work, to work with each other. … And we’re excited about the fact that our players like it, too, and they’re willing to kind of work through it because it’s a little messy right now, but it’s coming along, every day.”
According to Stone, the new offensive identity will focus more on “reads” and less on repetition, emphasizing ball screens, cuts to open spaces and attacking gaps in the defense. And in opening up the offense to suit the roster, the Badgers hope to improve on last year’s 54.7 points per game average, which was good enough for just eighth in the Big Ten.
The offensive makeover comes a season after Stone changed the team’s defensive philosophy, a move that rendered an average of 58.3 points against per contest in 2008-09 — almost a nine-point improvement from 2007 to 2008. As is usually the case, though, the transition is happening gradually.
“Whenever you go through something new, it takes some time to adjust,” senior guard and tri-captain Alana Trotter said. “But we’re adjusting well and we’re taking our steps. [This offense will] be really good for us; it gives us a lot of options with personnel who can do different things.”
Senior guard and fellow captain Teah Gant, one of five returning starters for the Badgers, said while the team is still working out the kinks of the new offense, she likes the new multidimensional offensive direction.
“There are a lot of different aspects to this offense that we’re working on,” Gant said. “With the open post side, there are a lot of opportunities for guards to drive. Or when other people are screening away, that gives an open lane in the middle for people to drive in. … There are just a lot of different spots that we can create offense from.”
Add to the mix top-100 recruit Taylor Wurtz (Brandon, Wis.), who averaged over 25 points a game as a high school senior, and two-time first-team state selection Catie O’Leary (Janesville, Wis.), who Stone said is a “deep three-point range shooter,” and the offensive prospects of this year’s team are bright.
Moreover, Stone complemented this particular group as having the “best chemistry” she’s seen entering a season, something which could amplify the new offense’s results.
But before visions of Loyola Marymount’s run-and-gun offense of the late-1980s or the Steve Nash-led Phoenix Suns start dancing in fans’ heads, Stone assured everyone that controlling the ball would still be at a premium.
“I have a big problem with turnovers,” she said. “And if we’re going to run and throw it out of bounds, then that’s simply not going to work for us.”
