Julie Pospisilova is miscast as a primary scoring option

The senior wing does a lot of good things on the court, but there is one area where she should be doing less.

I was planning on writing this post last week but I didn’t want to be a huge downer right before Wisconsin senior wing Julie Pospisilova joined the 1,000 Point Club. Well, now that she has passed that impressive benchmark…it’s time to discuss what her role on this team SHOULD be, because she is miscast as the team’s primary scoring option.

Dillon Graff @DillonGraff

Julie Pospisilova is now the 28th player in the history of the Wisconsin women's basketball program to eclipse 1,000 career points. Also worth mentioning, she’s the first foreign-born #Badgers player to accomplish that feat.

This season, Pospisilova is second on the Badgers in scoring, averaging 12.4 points per game (Serah Williams leads the team with 12.8 ppg) but it’s the volume of shots that it takes for her to score those 12.4 points that is the problem.

All five of Wisconsin’s usual starters score in double digits on average, but Pospisilova is the only one who attempts more field goals per game (a team-high 12.6) than she scores points. Williams, for instance, scores her 12.4 ppg on 9.2 FGA. Brooke Schramek scores 11.0 ppg on 7.4 field goal attempts.

Pospisilova leads the team (by far) in field goal attempts (277) and also has the most three-point attempts (117). She is second in two-point field goal attempts (160), behind Williams (200) who doesn’t shoot threes, but has a healthy lead on third place (Schramek, 112). Her usage rate (24.6%) is second highest on the team but her points per possession (0.72) is the worst of any player who gets regular minutes.

She rarely gets to the free throw line, where should could add some easy points, and her offensive rating (which is admittedly not the best way to judge an individual player) is the lowest in the starting lineup. She also turns the ball over at an insanely high rate, all the more reason she should have the ball in her hands for fewer possessions.

Long story short…she is way too inefficient to be shooting, and handling, the ball as often as she does.