For perhaps the first time all season, the Badgers (16-6, 6-5) are facing questions regarding their traditionally stout defense.
Despite ranking eighth in the nation and leading the Big Ten by almost six points in scoring defense, the UW defense is under attack after last Sunday’s second half collapse against Northwestern where the Wildcats converted 65 percent of their field goals en route to 41 points.
With a trip to Minneapolis to face the Minnesota Gophers (11-10, 4-6) looming Thursday night, Wisconsin will be looking for improved defensive containment.
“I think our offensive turnovers … they capitalized on those, and I think that that led to some missed opportunities for us,” junior forward Tara Steinbauer said of Northwestern. “We have seven games left, and obviously we want to get to 20 wins to be a good at-large bid for the NCAA.
“I think that’s very doable, and those successes are attainable as long as we stay consistent to our principles, and that primarily being defense.”
Currently enduring a four-game losing streak, the Gophers have struggled to post impressive offensive numbers all season. However, despite standing at seventh in the conference in scoring and last in field goal percentage, Minnesota remains an up-tempo transition team that likes to push the ball on offense.
“Bloody, if there was one [word to describe it],” senior guard Rae Lin D’Alie said in anticipation of Thursday night’s game. “I mean it’s going to be a fight, it’s going to be basically a fist fight.
“It’s going to be physical, it’s a Border Battle. I guess you could say it’s a rival game, so it’s going to be one of those uptempo, intense, in your face type of games.”
Leading Minnesota’s fast-paced attack are senior guard Brittany McCoy and sophomore guard Kiara Buford, the latter of which is 11th in the Big Ten in scoring with 13.8 points per game. McCoy, meanwhile, ranks second in the conference with 100 assists on the season, good for 4.76 per game.
“They have a returning backcourt; Brittany McCoy, it seems like she’s been there for 25 years, and she’s one of the best defenders in the league, hands down,” Wisconsin head coach Lisa Stone said in her Monday press conference. “Kiara Buford, their other guard on the perimeter, really can shoot the three. Very long and athletic. … They’re a team that is always physical, is always very, very aggressive.”
Only a half-game ahead of Northwestern in the conference standings, Minnesota poses similar matchup problems for Wisconsin.
While the Wildcats burned the Badgers last Sunday by shooting 53.3 percent from behind the arc, the Gophers are even better from three-point land. Converting on 35.1 percent of three-pointers this season, Minnesota is third in the Big Ten.
Whereas Northwestern boasted impressive height with a frontcourt featuring two players 6-foot-2 or higher, Minnesota’s starting lineup relies more on its guards to carry the load offensively.
“Ashley Ellis-Milan, again a player that’s been there for a long, long time, and Jackie Voigt. Their entire starting lineup pretty much is back,” Stone said. “Katie Ohm comes off the bench and… she’s in range right over half court, she’s a deep, deep, deep three-point shooter, can find her in transition.”
As a result, Wisconsin will be looking to fine-tune its defense after the collapse against Northwestern.
In that game, the Badgers held a five-point halftime lead before being outscored by 11 in the second half. Noticeably effective was the Wildcats’ 1-2-2 full court pressure, as the Badgers struggled to consistently move the ball across half court and develop an offensive rhythm in that second half.
“More attacks, swing the ball more, quicker — especially when teams are starting to put on that 1-2-2, or whatever it was,” D’Alie said of how the Badgers plan to improve. “They’re going to see that and see that we didn’t really attack off that when we threw it over the top. So I’m going to be guessing a lot more attack, and just keep sharing the ball. I think we’re sharing the ball well, inside-out, back-in kind of thing.”
For Steinbauer, one of the team’s most important post players, D’Alie’s approach is right on target.
“I think a lot of teams who scout us are seeing that one of the most effective ways to get through the pack defense is to spread us out and to put shooters in the short corners to spread us out basically north and south,” Steinbauer said. “And so I think for us, it’s just going to be doing drills in practice that get us better prepared for that style of play.
“We wholeheartedly believe in our defensive principles, and I think that [in] these next couple days leading up to Minnesota, we’re definitely going to get all the kinks fixed.”
