WBB: guard Krystyna Ellew enters transfer portal and Wisconsin is looking for a new assistant coach
A busy offseason, as they all are now, is not wasting any time getting started in Madison.
Earlier this week, freshman walk-on Mary Ferrito announced she was entering the transfer portal and we didn’t have to wait very long for the next announcement to be made. On Tuesday afternoon, sophomore guard Krystyna Ellew (Chicago) was the second Badgers player to enter her name into the portal.
“This wasn’t an easy decision, but after a lot of thought I realized it is my best interest to continue my journey elsewhere,” Ellew said in her announcement post. She notes that she’ll have two years of eligibility remaining.
Ellew appeared in 21 games this past season, starting one, and averaged 3.1 ppg, 1.3 rpg, 0.3 apg, and 0.4 spg. She shot 43.6% from the field and 37.5% from deep while making nine of her 10 free throw attempts. This was a bit of a puzzling season for Ellew, who appeared in 29 games (15 starts) as a freshman, and I expected her to, at a minimum, play more than 9.0 minutes per game.
At the beginning of the season her minutes were wildly inconsistent. For instance, she played 23:59 in the season opener against Milwaukee, then 4:59 in the following game against Kansas State, and then 18:50 in the third game of the season vs. North Florida.
She also, strangely, didn’t travel with the team to their tournament in the US Virgin Islands and missed all three losses. When I inquired about her status I received a “no comment” from UW. She played in their first game back, scoring 13 points in 18:41 on Dec. 1 against Florida State, but only played double digit minutes in three games the rest of the season.
In her final nine appearances for UW she only scored three total points and didn’t even get off the bench for the win over Michigan in the regular season finale or the Big Ten Tournament game against Purdue. While no one likes to speculate about players transferring during the season, I don’t think anyone who follows this team closely is surprised that Ellew is looking to finish her career elsewhere.
We at BBK wish Ellew well and hope that she has a great final two years wherever she ends up.
In other women’s basketball news…it would appear that the Badgers are in the market for a new assistant coach next year! Caroline Doty is no longer listed on the coaching staff page for UW and Wisconsin posted an opening for an assistant women’s basketball coach on Monday.
Doty joined UW’s staff in April 2021, coming from the corporate world where she was an account manager at Nike with her last three years there working with the WNBA and G League. She was coaching basketball at Beaverton (Oregon) High School and Lake Ridge (Oregon) Middle School too.
She was a standout high school player at Germantown Academy in the Philadelphia suburbs and then went to UConn where she won three national titles and went to five Final Fours.
“Caroline is the perfect piece to complete my staff puzzle,” said Moseley after hiring Doty. “Her experience at UCONN and work in the corporate world have prepared her for this next step in her journey. It’s not very often that you find a person who has to ability to adapt and evolve like Caroline has done throughout her entire career.”
I sent Doty a message on Wednesday night but she hasn’t responded yet. If she does I’ll update this post.
Regarding Ellew, you put it well that it wasn't a surprise that she left. Certainly I don't know what was happening behind the scenes, but she played well enough when she did play that her lack of PT was confusing. I don't know that she would've turned into an all-Big Ten player, and there are plenty of guards on the team. As you said, good luck to her.
Regarding Doty....that's a weird one. She was an odd hire to start, not having any high level coaching experience before. Moseley talked about how she was a winner, and they could teach her the rest on the way. That was odd reasoning. Coaching turnover isn't uncommon, but I can't help but wonder what changed between now and then.
According to BadgerExtra, "“Coach Moseley decided to go in a different direction with that position," a UW spokesperson wrote." I'm not expecting a public statement saying "here's why I fired Doty", but the fact there wasn't even a pro forma statement like "We thank Doty for her service as a Badger and are moving forward". It's like they tried to keep it as quiet as possible. Some openness would be nice.