Entering the Big 10 season, Dec 28, 1999

Going into the conference season, a few things are very clear.  This Wisconsin team has the potential to be the best team in school history.  It also has the potential to be the most frustrating.

Jane Albright has brought an enormous amount of talent to the Badgers.  LaTonya Sims, Jessie Stomski, Tamara Moore and Nina Smith all have the talent to be named all Big 10.  But the team has yet to become even equal to the sum of its parts.  The problems lie in the area that looked to be the team's strength going into the season--offense.  

The Badgers are a decent defensive team.  They play excellent post defense.  Their rebounding is about as good as it can be.  But the offense isn't clicking.  This is not a great insight.  It's clear to anyone who's watched them.  They turn the ball over at an alarming rate.  Even worse, there is no flow offensively.

This is still a very young team, but they need to make significant improvements soon.  The Badgers open the league season with home games against Purdue and Illinois.  These two games will go a long way toward determining the Badgers' place in the Big 10 final standings.

It's easy to point the finger at point guard Dee Dee Pate.  But the problems go way behind her.  Of the starters, only Tamara Moore is a good passer.  The rest of the team throws soft, easily readable balls.  The front court is turning the ball over a ridiculous number of times.  The outside shooters are not hitting their shots.  The free throw shooting has not been good.

Wisconsin has had 8 practices since their last game.  The focus has been on offense.  If this team is to reach its potential, they need to make a significant jump in offensive execution and they need to make it now.

The rotation, Nov 22, 1999

Jane Albright has an interesting problem.  She has six players who all have a legitimate claim on a starting spot.  While this is not a bad problem to have, it is one that of the most difficult decisions a coach makes.

Right now, Jane is rotating all six among the five spots.  As long as all five are playing comparable well, this is fine.  But they're not.  Jessie Stomski hasn't started a game on the bench yet.  She probably has to because Jane really can't go back on her word.  But that has to be the only game she doesn't start.  Nina Smith has to start because she's better than anyone else in the middle.  Unless Candas Smith really comes on, Pate has to be the starter at point.

That leaves LaTonya Sims, Kelley Paulus and Tamara Moore.  Sims has earned the right to continue to start.  Right now, Paulus is playing better than Moore.  I think Tamara doesn't understand how hard it really is to play at this level.  She worked hard over the summer and says she is much more confident this year.  But none of that is enough until she performs on the court.  She still struggles to stay under control emotionally and gets easily frustrated.  

But right now, Tamara is pressing.  If it continues much longer if, Jane should probably just make a decision and let the players learn to live with it.  Tamara wants to start.  Kelley would probably take the demotion better.  But Kelley has earned the spot and Jane has to give it to her.

Some early practice thoughts, Oct 31, 1999

It's real hard to watch this team and not get excited.  They're playing decent post defense.  The rebounding looks strong.  I thought they took too many jump shots and didn't get the ball into the post enough, but that got a little better as the scrimmage went on.

 

Just wait'll you see Stomski.  Jessie is just so good.  She's lost 20 pounds and she's in great shape.  She's moving her feet much better and really getting off the floor when she jumps.  She's added a hook shot and has extended her range a couple of feet.

 

Sims didn't play as much as some of the others in the scrimmage.  She's been playing real well in practice, so I assume she wasn't feeling well.  She's added a jumper off the dribble but it's not real consistent yet.  She's become an excellent defensive player.  She's been totally focused in practice.

 

Nina looks like a very talented freshman.  She's not always real assertive on the court, but she's got great hands and such a soft shot.  She's got the normal freshman struggle to stay focused the entire time she's on the court.   She looked much better in her second rotation than she did in her first.  The men couldn't stop her when she went to the basket and she hit a three.  She's going to have 60 pounds on a lot of the people that try to guard her and she's in no way immobile.

 

I cannot imagine how anyone is going to defend our front line.

 

Kelley's been shooting real well.  She tends to be streaky but overall, she's been shooting the ball well.  Dee Dee is playing about as well as she can, which is to say she's not making a lot of mistakes.  She doesn't make a lot of good plays and is still pretty average.  Candas Smith is getting more active in practice so I'll be curious to see how many minutes she takes away from Pate as the season goes on.  I still don't know how good she's going to be, but the ball looks more secure in her hands than it does in Pate's.

 

Jane is pushing them harder and doing more teaching than I've ever seen her.  She stops drills more often to point out mistakes and she seems to be spending a lot more time on basics.  She threw Tamara out of a drill for throwing a no-look pass, even though it was caught.  She just told Tamara that we aren't going to do that this year. A week or so ago, they spent 15 minutes running a fast break drill where they never crossed half-court.  It was just teaching them what lanes they were supposed to be in to start.  Today, they spent a good period of time practicing against a press, with the men pressing.  It went well.

 

Overall, they look to be in better shape.  They're getting up and down the floor better, although we are still not quick.

 

It looks to me like 10 or 11 people will basically compete for minutes.  Nina isn't in great shape and she'll likely have the usual freshman problem with fouls.  Her minutes will be a little limited because of that.  Stomski will be on the court a lot.  Both Konieczny and Bird look good so those four will get the minutes at post.  Jirovec might be better but I don't see her getting more than garbage minutes.

 

It looks to me like Sims, Paulus and Pate will be the other starters.  Tamara will be the primary backup at all three spots so she'll get a lot of minutes.  Her jump shot looks better and she's till our best individual defender.  Black is playing exclusively at the two guard.  She's developed a jumper off the dribble and she's shooting the ball well.

 

Hopefully, Candas will compete with Pate for minutes at point.  Judy Ebeling has moved ahead of Klongland in the rotation and will be the number three point guard.  If Candas plays, I don't see Ebeling getting many minutes, but she is on the outside of the rotation.

 

Kristi Seeger plays both forward spots and may get a few minutes here and there, but I don't think she'll be much of a factor this year.  She's a nice athlete and should play more in the future, especially if we don't sign anyone this fall--which looks like a real possibility.  Leah Hefte is mainly a shooter, but it looks to me like she takes so long to get her shot off that I don't see her playing much.  She would also play essentially the same role as Kyle Black and Kyle does everything better than she does.

 

Klongland was never much more than a walk-on and she doesn't look to me like she's a better player than she was six months into her first season.  I don't see anything that indicates that she did any work over the summer.  She's gonna spend a lot of time watching.  Erin Schmidt is this year's gender-equity walk-on and she's happy to be on the team.

 

Without question, this is the best team we've ever had.  I can't wait for the season.