College basketball schedules are made annually by, as far as I can tell, some form of ancient, potentially evil, magic and I have a great deal of respect for the people in each program who put them together. The Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team is no different and, as such, have barely released any news about their upcoming season’s non-conference slate.
However, on Monday morning an awesome piece of news dropped!
Wisconsin and Marquette haven’t played in women’s hoops since 2017 and it’s awesome that they have set up a home-and-home series for the next two years. The in-state rivals will play at MU this year and then at the Kohl Center in the 2026-27 season.
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Per a UW release: Wisconsin holds a 13-10 all-time advantage in the series, which hasn't been played since 2017. The teams are tied 5-5 in games played in Milwaukee, while the Badgers hold an 8-4 edge in Madison.
I won’t be sending out a post about every non-conference game that Wisconsin announces, but I’ll keep this post updated as news about the games come out. It hasn’t been announced yet, but one can assume that the Badgers will also play Milwaukee this year as they do most years.
Known 2025-26 Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Basketball Schedule (updated last on 6/9/25)
at Marquette; Saturday, November 8, 2025
Big Ten home opponents: Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Nebraska, Oregon, Penn State, Purdue, Washington
Big Ten road opponents: Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Northwestern, Ohio State, Rutgers, UCLA, USC
vs. Minnesota
at Minnesota
Dates, times, and TV/streaming info will be announced later this summer by the Big Ten. Wisconsin has released their full non-conference schedule near the end of July the past couple of years, so I’d guess that’s around when we’ll see the whole slate.
I like to file FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests with the University of Wisconsin athletic department because one day I’m going to receive something juicy and newsworthy. Until that day comes, however, I will continue to file BORING ones that are resolved once UW sends me a list of people you, nor I, have ever heard of.
The recent Wisconsin women’s basketball head coaching search left, uh, a lot to be desired. Please find my initial thoughts about Robin Pingeton being selected as UW’s head coach below!
After what has been described to me by multiple people close to the process as a confusing and disjointed head coaching search, the Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team has their ninth leader in…
Since Pingeton was announced as head coach she has, to her credit, done a really nice job of rebuilding the Badgers roster and, also to her credit, won her opening press conference. My feelings on the hire have gone from a “one out of ten” to a robust “three out of ten” in just a few short weeks. At this rate, Pingeton and UW will be raising the national championship trophy around mid-January 2026.
I was interested in who else threw their hat into the ring for this less than desirable P4 job, hence the FOIA request. Here is what I asked:
My name is Drew Hamm and I cover the Wisconsin Badgers women's basketball team at my newsletter. I would like to request a list of all candidates that applied for the recent open position of Head Women's Basketball Coach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I would also like to request a list of all candidates that were interviewed by Chris McIntosh and Marcus Sedberry.
On Friday afternoon, I received a list of all candidates that applied for the job barring any candidate “who requested confidentiality in writing during the recruitment and hiring process pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 19.36(7)(b).” I also received an answer to my question on “all candidates that were interviewed.” We’ll start with the second question because, uh, the answer is quite short.
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“Per our Athletics Department, Robin Pingeton was the candidate interviewed by Chris McIntosh and Marcus Sedberry.”
Oh, I see.
Now, I know that in the world of Big Time College Athletics Coaching Searches most of the real candidates aren’t just sending out resumes and hoping for a call. Wisconsin hired a search firm, whom I can only assume they paid an ass-load of money to, to reach out to various agents and see if anyone was interested in the Badgers job. While Pingeton’s name was on the list I received, I’m sure she only “applied” once she had agreed to the job so that all state laws were followed.
I find it hard to believe that she was the only coaching option interviewed, but the way I phrased my request may have been used against me so that UW could just provide a Technically True Response. Did McIntosh or Sedberry interview candidates individually? Did a different combination of senior level staffers interview other candidates?
The other option is almost too embarrassing to think about: what if Pingeton WAS the only candidate they interviewed. I heard from a few sources that a number of coaches said “thanks but no thanks” to Wisconsin when asked about scheduling an interview, but that couldn’t mean they only interviewed one (1) candidate…right?
Anywho, let’s take a look at some of the names of people that did apply for the job. I will say that almost all of them would fall under the category of “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” and were never considered for the position.
there were a number of high school coaches, mostly from Wisconsin and Iowa
Dave Donarski, the La Crosse Aquinas girls basketball head coach, is a name that some of you might recognize. He has a pair of daughters, Lexi (Iowa State/UNC) and Macy (Montana), that played (Lexi) and play (Macy) college hoops.
somewhat strangely there were two different coaches from Israel that applied
there were a handful of younger applicants who worked in basketball operations or had been grad assistants
there were also a few applicants about whom I could find zero information either because their name was too common (Michael Green) or because they have zero internet presence
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There are four applicants that I want to specifically highlight as they are the four most qualified in my opinion.
Tywaune (Ty) Evans: graduate of UW-Whitewater where he played ball; current assistant coach at Syracuse; was head coach at Tennessee State for three years; has also been an assistant coach at Alabama, Auburn, Saint Louis, and Georgetown; with the latter two teams he was associate head coach
Eun Jung (EJ) Lee: from South Korea; played ball at UL-Monroe and then was on the coaching staff at ULM for 30 years; she is currently the head coach at Sul Ross State in Texas
Tamara Moore: former Wisconsin WBB player; has coached AAU ball in the Twin Cities; currently a scout for the Dallas Mavericks
Jarrod Olson: he has been the head coach at Cal Baptist since 2012; at CBU he sports an overall winning percentage of 0.718 (0.665 for years in D1) and a conference winning percentage of 0.772 (0.720 D1); he has been conference coach of the year five times (three times in the WAC) and won the Kay Yow Coach of the Year Award (given to the top D1 coach in the nation) after the 2020-21 season; 2x WAC Champion and 2x WAC Tournament Champion; 2023 WBI Champions; led CBU to their first ever NCAA Tournament bid in 2023-24
Would any of these four been a better choice than Pingeton? I don’t know and neither does Wisconsin since they apparently only conducted one (1) interview for the job.
The Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team had one roster spot remaining on Thursday, but by Friday they had zero because Croatian center Dorja Iva Žaja officially signed with UW. Robin Pingeton’s 2025-26 roster, her first in Madison, is now complete.
Standing at 1.91 m (oooooooooo, look at me using the fancy metric system) and turning 22-years old in the middle of the upcoming season, Žaja brings a wealth of international and professional experience to Wisconsin’s lineup.
Given her age and myriad years competing internationally, I’d imagine Pingeton hopes that Žaja can slot right into UW’s rotation with limited “ramp up” time needed.
Dorja Žaja Fast Facts
Height: 6-foot-3
Position: center
Eligibility: four years remaining
Previous Professional League: Croatia-Premijer Liga
Hometown: Zagreb, Croatia
Career Highlights: 2019 FIBA U16 Women's European Championship Division B First Team; FIBA U16 Women's European Championship Division B Best Forward; 2022 FIBA U18 Women’s European Championship Division B First Team; 2022 FIBA U18 Women’s European Championship Division B Best Center; 2023 Nike Hoop Summit World Select Team member; 2025 Croatian Premijer Liga Honorable Mention
Dorja Žaja Fast Stats
Career Youth National Team Stats (five tournaments)
GP: 32
PPG: 12.5
RPG: 9.2
APG: 1.8
I apologize to you, dear reader, but I will not be going through each tournament separately to calculate her shooting percentages because, uh, I don’t really want to.
2022 Youth National Team Stats (FIBA U18 Women’s European Championship Division B)
GP: 7
MPG: 25.8
PPG: 14.3 (sixth best in tournament)
RPG: 10.3 (third best in tournament)
APG: 3.1
SPG: 2.0
BPG: 0.7
TOPG: 2.0
FG: 41-of-84, 48.8%
3P: 1-of-1, 100%
FT: 17-of-35, 48.6%
2024 Youth National Team Stats (FIBA U20 Women’s European Championship Division B)
GP: 6
MPG: 28.5
PPG: 12.5
RPG: 7.5
APG: 2.0
SPG: 1.3
BPG: 2.5 (best in tournament)
TOPG: 2.7
FG: 30-of-64, 46.9%
3P: 0-of-1, 0%
FT: 15-of-30, 50.0%
2024-25 Croatia Premijer Liga Stats
GP: 27
MPG: 20.8
PPG: 9.1
RPG: 5.7
APG: 1.6
SPG: 0.8
BPG: 0.9
TOPG: 1.6
FG: 105-of-197, 53.3%
3P: 1-of-2, 50.0%
FT: 35-of-52, 67.3%
2024-25 Women’s Adriatic Basketball Association (WABA) Stats
GP: 13
MPG: 20.7
PPG: 9.4
RPG: 2.9
APG: 1.5
SPG: 0.8
BPG: 0.7
TOPG: 2.0
FG: 55-of-92, 59.8%
3P: N/A
FT: 12-of-23, 50.0%
Dorja Žaja Scouting Report
A 30,000 foot view comparison if you don’t want to read more than one sentence? She is a traditional post player who operates solely in the paint, much in the mold of Carter McCray. But you don’t subscribe to a niche women’s basketball newsletter for that! You want to get in the weeds!
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Finding a ton of information on these international prospects is often difficult, but luckily Žaja is 21-years old and has been playing in major European tournaments since 2018 so there were a few nuggets I was able to unearth.
Standing at 6-foot-3, Žaja is an old-school post player that does almost all of her damage on offense at the rim. She possesses an array of post moves and can finish with both hands. What she is most certainly not is a shooter, despite her gaudy 50.0% three-point numbers this year. This season, across 830 minutes in Croatia Premijer Liga and WABA play, she has attempted a mere two three-pointers.
In her highlights above, I love her defensive instincts. She displays an ability to alter/block shots on closeouts while also playing tough interior defense. With Serah Williams off to UConn, the Badgers were certainly in need of someone who could provide rim protection and Žaja fits the bill. She has long arms that can also get in passing lanes and disrupt opposing offenses that way.
Those same long arms help her on the glass and she is an industrious rebounder, especially on the offensive end where she hauled in 20.2% of Tresnjevka’s (her Croatian Premijer Liga team) boards on that end. She positions herself well under the basket to corral missed shots and has been battling grown up professionals for years, which will have her fully prepared for the rigors of the Big Ten.
While there weren’t a glut of ball-handling highlights, Žaja looked surprisingly fluid for a player at her height. I don’t want her running the offense, but she can be a safety valve to get the ball across mid-court if needed.
The Croatian performed well in all of her international appearances, regularly leading her team in efficiency, but Croatia struggled and still hasn’t made it back to Division A in the European Championships for U18 or U20.
Picture taken at 2022 FIBA Women's European Championships
Picture taken at 2024 FIBA Women’s European Championships
Along with representing her nation she also earned a spot on the World Roster for the 2023 Nike Hoop Summit, the first time there was a women’s game at the annual basketball festival. “I was very surprised and happy when I got the invitation. I think it will be a great opportunity for me personally and for my basketball career to participate in a tournament like this,” Žaja told the London Lions website after the rosters were announced.
Žaja struggled in her 8:22 of playing time, missing her only field goal attempt and making one of two free throws. She added a steal but ended up with a plus/minus of -16 for the game, which the World Team lost 100-79.
Other notable players in that game included: JuJu Watkins (didn’t play because of injury), Hannah Hidalgo, KK Arnold, Madison Booker, Toby Fournier, Syla Swords, and Mikaylah Williams.
This season in Croatia, Žaja and Tresnjevka finished with a record of 21-1 and tied for first place in the regular season with Ragusa, with each team winning at home. The two juggernauts later met in the league finals where Ragusa won all three matchups, although two of them were one-point victories.
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I like this pickup for Wisconsin a lot. Žaja has copious amounts of international and professional experience and should not be phased by the physicality of the Big Ten.
You may remember that on April 21, I wrote the following:
“Wisconsin has nine players on the roster and, with both 2025 freshmen decommitting, can bring in up to six more for next year. Here is how I would rank the positions UW needs with their current roster construction:
veteran, with starting experience, point guard
stretch big
backup point guard (multiple years of eligibility remaining)
wing (defensive)
wing (shooter)
best player available on UW’s board, regardless of position lol”
Since then, Robin Pingeton’s Badgers have:
brought veteran starting PG Ronnie Porter back from the transfer portal
While there is still one of my requests remaining (defensive stopper on the wing), you can’t teach height and Žaja has that in spades. Wisconsin now has a full roster and the next step is bringing all of the new pieces together and starting to form a team.
The Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team remained scorching hot in the transfer portal on Saturday when they secured the commitment of combo guard Breauna Ware from Stony Brook. The native of Queens, N.Y. (just like fellow transfer Destiny Howell) started her college career at St. Bonaventure before transferring to Stony Brook ahead of the 2023-2024 season.
Ware was the No. 1 option for the Seawolves last year and will bring some scoring punch to Wisconsin’s backcourt. My love of Big City Guards means that I instantly am in love with Ware’s game without seeing any highlights, however, for you dear reader…I’ll press on.
"I'm beyond excited and grateful to be a part of this program," Ware said. "I can't wait to bring that NY grit to UW. Let's work! Go Badgers!"
Breauna Ware Fast Facts
Height: 5-foot-8
Position: combo guard
Eligibility: two years remaining
Previous School(s): Stony Brook/St. Bonaventure
Hometown: Queens, N.Y.
2024-25 Highlights: Third Team All-CAA
Fun Facts: has three siblings, one of whom is named Brooklyn DESPITE being raised in Queens; named to Atlantic 10 Commissioner’s Honor Roll as a freshman
Breauna Ware Fast Stats
Career College Stats (two seasons)
GP/GS: 58/36
MPG: 25.6
PPG: 10.4
RPG: 3.2
APG: 2.0
SPG: 0.9
BPG: 0.1
TOPG: 2.9
FG: 202-of-454 (44.5%)
3P: 31-of-92 (33.7%)
FT: 159-of-223 (71.3%)
Breauna Ware Scouting Report
A 30,000 foot view comparison if you don’t want to read more than one sentence? She reminds me a lot of Makira Cook from Illinois, a shorter guard who attacks aggressively and relentlessly. But you don’t subscribe to a niche women’s basketball newsletter for that! You want to get in the weeds!
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So I watched Ware’s highlights from her freshman season (only ones I could find) at St. Bonaventure and, uh, she plays exactly like I had hoped! She is aggressive, flashy, persistent, and has a deep bag of dribble moves and counters to get herself space.
I can’t find out why this happened, but she redshirted her first year at Stony Brook (2023-2024) and then showed a marked improvement in her redshirt sophomore year from her freshman year. Through my intrepid Googling it would appear as though she didn’t sit out the season due to injury but instead due to a logjam of guards on the roster.
Here are some of her numbers from freshman year —> RS sophomore year:
MPG: 17.5 —> 33.6
PPG: 6.0 —> 14.8
RPG: 2.4 —> 3.9
APG: 1.8 —> 2.1
SPG: 0.7 —> 1.1
TOPG: 2.4 —> 3.4
Turnover rate: 28.8% —> 20.3%
Fouls per game: 2.0 —> 1.8
Usage: 25.1% —> 26.0%
eFG%: 46.3% —> 48.7%
TS%: 51.1% —> 55.1%
PPSA: 1.02 —> 1.09
Unfortunately, besides her turnover rate, all of her other rate stats went the wrong way in her second season, although many weren’t too drastic. Ware was the best offensive player for Stony Brook last year and she, quite frankly, didn’t get a ton of help from her teammates.
only two players had a PORPAGATU! above, Ware being one
only three players had a positive box plus/minus, Ware being one
only two players had an ORtg above 95.0, Ware being one
only player on the team with an eFG% above 46% and TS% above 50%
highest assist rate on the team
only player on the team to shoot above 27% from three
The fact that the Seawolves won a dozen games last year is thanks largely to Ware’s offensive efforts as well as the team’s defensive effort in limiting threes (90th nationally in defensive three-point rate and 5th in 3P% defense).
Courtesy of @breauna.ware on Instagram
Ware plays the game of basketball at a high speed. She is both fast and quick and looks equally comfortable beating teams down the court on the break or blowing past her defender on her way to the rim. She moves the ball crisply and can complete passes that many wouldn’t even attempt.
Her ability to get in the lane and have defenders collapse around her opened up a lot of layup opportunities for her teammates in the highlight video above. “I’m a playmaker for sure,” Ware said in a The Statesman (Stony Brook newspaper) story ahead of last season. “Getting my teammates involved first, then it opens up the floor for me. Get to the hole, and-one, drop-down passes to my bigs.”
She isn’t a difference-maker on the boards, but I’m not terribly concerned with that. Ronnie Porter is an excellent rebounder for a guard and then there are also the, you know, bigs who are going to get most boards.
I’m not enamored with her shooting motion, but she improved her free throw shooting to 73% from freshman to sophomore year and her three-point percentage skyrocketed to over 35%. If she feels comfortable shooting the ball she should just keep doing what she’s doing, because it is working. Her free throw rate is impressive and she gets a considerable amount of her points from the charity stripe which is great in case she’s having an off night shooting from the field.
Ware’s ball-handling is as slick as you’d hope and while her turnover numbers have been high, she has also been a young, high-usage floor general and turnovers just kinda happen to those players. Can’t speak too much on her defense, but her steal numbers are fine. Her advanced defensive stats aren’t great but, again, her team also wasn't very good last year.
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While it looks like Ware profiles as a point guard I do think she can be on the court at the same time as Porter when the Badgers are on offense due to her ball movement and ability to create her own shot. It’s the defensive side of the ball where I’m not as excited about the two of them sharing the backcourt. Ware is on the shorter side and Porter is three (or so) inches shorter than Ware. In the Big Ten…that’ll be a problem.
I like taking a chance on Ware because she has shown improvement throughout her college career. Playing in the Big Ten is obviously more challenging than playing in the Colonial Athletic Association, but I’m willing to bet that a player who worked hard to get better in the CAA will do the same in the B1G.
You may remember that on April 21, I wrote the following:
“Wisconsin has nine players on the roster and, with both 2025 freshmen decommitting, can bring in up to six more for next year. Here is how I would rank the positions UW needs with their current roster construction:
veteran, with starting experience, point guard
stretch big
backup point guard (multiple years of eligibility remaining)
wing (defensive)
wing (shooter)
best player available on UW’s board, regardless of position lol”
Since then, Robin Pingeton’s Badgers have:
brought veteran starting PG Ronnie Porter back from the transfer portal
There is only one of my requests remaining! A defensive stopper on the wing is all that’s left on the list and Pingeton has led me to believe that she’ll be finding the correct fits sooner rather than later. Hell, it might even happen before this hits your inbox at the rate Pingeton and staff are going!
On Tuesday, the Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team announced the signing of forward Shay Bollin from the transfer portal. Bollin, who missed all of last season with a back injury, started her collegiate career at Duke before transferring to Illinois for the past two years.
Bollin was a four-star recruit coming out of high school but has found herself behind other talented players on the depth chart at both Duke and Illinois while also dealing with lingering health issues. A fresh start in Madison, featuring a clean bill of health, could be exactly what she needs to find success on the court.
"I'm beyond excited to begin this next chapter at Wisconsin," said Bollin. "From the moment I connected with the coaches and players, it just felt like home. I can't wait to grow both on and off the court, and chase big goals while representing the Badgers."
Shay Bollin Fast Facts
Height: 6-foot-3
Position: forward/wing
Eligibility: two years remaining (although she did graduate from Illinois, so perhaps it’s only one?)
Previous School(s): Illinois/Duke
Hometown: Raynham, Mass.
Fun Facts: No. 33 ranked player in the 2022 recruiting class per espnW; dad played basketball at Colgate and mom played basketball at Ithaca College; mom, Laurie, was Shay’s AAU coach too
Shay Bollin Fast Stats
Career College Stats (two seasons)
GP/GS: 37/0
MPG: 6.6
PPG: 2.3
RPG: 1.1
APG: 0.4
SPG: 0.2
BPG: 0.1
TOPG: 0.4
FG: 32-of-71 (45.1%)
3P: 11-of-38 (28.9%)
FT: 4-of-7 (57.1%)
Shay Bollin Scouting Report
A 30,000 foot view comparison if you don’t want to read more than one sentence? Bollin hasn’t really played enough in college to garner a decent comparison, but I think that former Illini teammate Brynn Shoup-Hill and former UCLA (and current pro in Germany) forward Lina Sontag could provide us with a blueprint for what Bollin can bring to the table. While that was just one sentence, it begged a number of questions that I think this niche women’s college basketball newsletter is perfectly equipped to find the answers.
First things first, I have some serious concerns about Bollin’s injury history. While I also have no doubts that she has worked incredibly hard to rehab and get back on to the court, sometimes the body doesn’t care what the mind wants. Her injury history is lengthy:
missed junior season of high school due to medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL) reconstruction on her right knee
missed senior season of high school due to the same surgery on her left knee
missed all of last season due to a lingering back injury
The Illinois women’s basketball page has an excellent story/interview with Bollin from when she transferred to Champaign and it goes in depth on her upbringing and injury history. I highly recommend taking 10 minutes to read it.
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One of the main points (re: her surgeries) is that due to growing so quickly at such a young age, Bollin suffered from patellar subluxations which means that her kneecap would pop and dislocate from its socket. While she knew she would eventually need surgery to fix it, she hoped that she could put it off until after college. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic she took the opportunity to have the surgery as a high school junior to try and miss as little basketball as possible.
Now, presumably, Bollin has been cleared to play by Wisconsin’s medical staff and so I am inclined to believe that she’ll be ready to roll on Day 1 in Madison. Let’s continue this post under that assumption so I don’t have to continually type “if she’s fully healthy” after every piece of analysis, ok? Ok.
Standing at 6-foot-3, Bollin infuses a healthy does of height into UW’s roster. I wouldn’t characterize her as a traditional post player like Serah Williams or new transfer addition Gift Uchenna, but Bollin should provide matchup issues for opposing teams all the same. She attempted a healthy amount of threes (57.1% three-point rate, 86th percentile nationally) two years ago, but she was also 10-of-14 on field goals at the rim.
While her sample size is prohibitively small, that is the exact type of shot diet I like to see from a wing/stretch big/taller player. Bollin fills a role that the Badgers have lacked in recent years and will spread the floor so players like Uchenna can operate closer to the basket with fewer bodies in her way.
Bollin is the type of low-usage/high-efficiency player that teams crave and if she can keep her three-point percentage above 34% with more minutes than she’ll be one of the most underrated portal pickups in the conference. Her advanced defensive stats are also promising but, again, we don’t have a huge back catalog of evidence since she hasn’t played in over a year.
Courtesy of @shaybollin on Instagram
Since we don’t have that, I used Bart Torvik’s handy website and searched for similar players to Bollin to see if there was an educated projection to make for her in an expanded role. I found two players to whom Bollin compares favorably:
Lina Sontag, 6-foot-3, stretch big, Freiburg (1. Damen-Basketball-Bundesliga) and UCLA before that
Shoup-Hill, who just so happened to be Bollin’s teammate at Illinois, transferred to the Illini from Dayton with her head coach Shauna Green ahead of the 2023 season. In her three years in Champaign, Shoup-Hill was a low-usage/high-efficiency poster girl. Take a look at these stats:
never had a usage rating higher than 13.5
never had an offensive rating lower than 102.7
never had a box plus/minus lower than 4.2
shot 32.4% from deep on above average volume, but 81.2% from the free throw line (career free throw rate above 30%)
more valuable on defense than offense per box plus/minus
Shoup-Hill was also an average rebounder, a below-average passer, and turned the ball over a bit too much, but her defensive and timely shooting contributions were plenty to make her a valuable piece of the Illini rotation.
In the 2024 season, Shoup-Hill averaged slightly more minutes than Bollin did but in 2023 and 2025 she played 55.7% and 71.1% of Illinois’ minutes respectively. Those happened to be her two best seasons in her career too. If you look at her shot diet from 2024, it looks strikingly similar to Bollin’s.
Shoup-Hill (2024 season)
13-of-19 at the rim
11-of-39 from three
only six other field goal attempts
Bollin (2024 season)
10-of-14 at the rim
11-of-32 from three
only seven other field goal attempts
In 2025, Shoup-Hill played far more minutes and had a high box plus/minus, a higher offensive rating, cut down on her turnovers, and had lower usage than in 2024. This is the path that Bollin should be charting for the upcoming year.
Across the pond, Sontag is a German national who played for two seasons at UCLA but never really carved out a significant role for the Bruins. Before this past season she left Westwood and returned home to Germany to play professionally. She played in three games in the 2024 Paris Olympics and has also played for the senior German national team in multiple EuroBasket events.
Last year Sontag played in 14 games for Freiburg in the DBBL and averaged 6.7 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 3.4 apg, 1.2 bpg, and 1.1 spg in 23.1 mpg. She shot more threes than twos (and hit them at a 34.9% clip) while also blocking an astonishing 40% of the shots that Freiburg blocked as a team. She is (right now) a better rebounder and passer than Bollin but the shooting and defensive profile is quite similar.
On April 21, I wrote the following:
“Wisconsin has nine players on the roster and, with both 2025 freshmen decommitting, can bring in up to six more for next year. Here is how I would rank the positions UW needs with their current roster construction:
veteran, with starting experience, point guard
stretch big
backup point guard (multiple years of eligibility remaining)
wing (defensive)
wing (shooter)
best player available on UW’s board, regardless of position lol”
Since then, Robin Pingeton’s Badgers have:
brought veteran starting PG Ronnie Porter back from the transfer portal
There are only two of my requests remaining! A defensive stopper on the wing and then one more Rotation Player At Any Position are all that are left and Pingeton has led me to believe that she’ll be finding the correct fits sooner rather than later.
