WBB: Iowa beats Wisconsin for 28th consecutive time
That's honestly really impressive! Is it a record for one team beating another consecutively? I don't know! Stop asking me so many questions!
On Sunday afternoon, the Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team got slowly and methodically choked out by the Iowa Hawkeyes, 81-66, in Iowa City. Wisconsin was winning after the first quarter and tied at halftime but, unfortunately, they decided to play both halves in this one and for the 28th consecutive meeting, the Badgers left the court as losers.
There is a high likelihood that these two teams will run it back on Wednesday evening at the Big Ten Tournament but as of this exact second (5:09 p.m. CT, Sunday, March 2) the final bracket isn’t set in stone. If I remember to update this with the actual matchup before hitting “publish” I’ll be legitimately shocked so, uh, you’re on your own there, dear reader!
(Update: yes, Wisconsin will have a rematch with Iowa on Wednesday)
Here is my full breakdown and analysis:
Final Score
Wisconsin Badgers (13-16 overall, 4-14 Big Ten): 66
RV Iowa Hawkeyes (20-9 overall, 10-8 Big Ten): 81
Four Factors
eFG%: 48.2
Turnover%: 20.0
Off. Rebound%: 25.8
FTA/FGA: 27.3
Key Stats
FG%: 43.6 (24-of-55)
Opp. FG%: 51.7 (30-of-58)
3P%: 33.3 (5-of-15)
Opp. 3P%: 35.0 (7-of-20)
FT%: 86.7 (13-of-15)
Opp. FT%: 93.3 (14-of-15)
Points Per Possession: 1.015
Opponent Points Per Possession: 1.306
Rebounds: 25 (eight offensive)
Opponent Rebounds: 34 (11 offensive)
Turnovers: 13
Forced Turnovers: 11
Team Leaders
Serah Williams: 18 points (6-of-14 FG, 0-of-1 3P), 10 rebounds (two offensive), three assists, one block, -13
Carter McCray: 17 points (6-of-13 FG), 10 rebounds (four offensive), one assist, one steal, -11
Halle Douglass: six points (3-of-5 FG, 0-of-2 3P), two rebounds (one offensive), six assists, one steal, -2
Tess Myers: 12 points (4-of-9 FG, 4-of-7 3P), two steals, -14
Iowa Team Leaders
Hannah Stuelke: 21 points (7-of-12 FG), 15 rebounds (nine offensive), three assists, four steals, +14
Lucy Olsen: 22 points (9-of-16 FG, 2-of-4 3P), three rebounds, two assists, +10
Sydney Affolter: 10 points (4-of-6 FG, 2-of-3 3P), three rebounds, four assists, +14
Three-ish Thoughts
I was watching some of the first quarter on my phone as my family drove up to grandma’s for Sunday dinner, but overall I thought things went pretty well in the opening 10 minutes! The Badgers were up one point, were shooting 56.3% from the field, and Serah Williams and Carter McCray were cooking down low.
This was a classic start for Wisconsin against a Good Team and, while it continued through until halftime, everyone knew that it wasn’t going to last for a full 40 minutes. Lo and behold, after the score was tied at halftime…Iowa won the second half by 15 points.McCray went beast mode in the first quarter, shooting 4-of-5 from the field and grabbing two rebounds. She ended the game with a double-double (17 points, 10 boards) and made all five of her free throws but she was also saddled with foul trouble and only shot 2-of-8 from the field in the final three quarters of the game.
I like the mentality that McCray brings to this team and I am quite excited to see her come back next year with a season of Big Ten hoops under her belt.As happens every game, bad transition defense led to a wide open three in the first quarter (from sharpshooter Lucy Olsen natch) and UW was outscored 8-0 in fast-break points for the game.
It was a real rough start to the second quarter for both offenses and halfway through Wisconsin hadn’t even scored one (1) point. They eventually got their lives in order and started scoring and then TESS MYERS BUZZER BEATER TO END THE HALF AND TIE THE GAME! That was exciting which is why I left it in all caps.
The momentum that the team may have been riding into halftime disappeared almost immediately upon re-entering the court. Iowa hit back-to-back-to-back threes to open the second half and all of a sudden the Hawkeyes had a nice-point lead that would never get closer than five points for the rest of the game.
I am legit baffled (four hours after the game ended) by how Marisa Moseley chose to use her bench in this game. Carter McCray and Ronnie Porter each picked up their fourth foul near the end of the third quarter and Serah Williams got her fourth early in the fourth quarter.
Instead of using any of the viable options off the bench, Moseley decided to just…basically only run six players all game. Tess Myers (36 minutes), Porter (32), Williams and Halle Douglass (31), and McCray (30) all played over 30 minutes, while Natalie Leuzinger logged 26 minutes and Lily Krahn had 13.
Where was freshman big Alie Bisballe when McCray and Williams were in foul trouble? Where was D’Yanis Jimenez (two straight DNP-coach’s decisions btw) who is, ostensibly, the backup point guard when Porter picked up her fourth? Jovana Spasovski couldn’t get off the bench until there were 30 fucking seconds left in the game? The rotation made absolutely zero sense against Iowa and, tbqh, hasn’t all season.QUICK THOUGHTS: Halle Douglass had an excellent game passing the ball; good free throw shooting for UW; Hannah Stuelke is a monster in the paint; freshmen Taylor Stremlow (Verona, Wis.) and Teagan Mallegni (McFarland, Wis.) each got some playing time for Iowa in this one; Stremlow had 2 points/4 rebounds/3 assists in 10 minutes and Mallegni went 1/2/1 in seven minutes
Final Thought
I’m finding it tough to get too worked up about games like this. Iowa is better than Wisconsin (for 28 straight meetings actually) and the Badgers gave ‘em a good game for one half and then the wheels fell off in the second half. ::shrugs::
The UW players fought hard but were let down by the coaching staff who, for whatever reason, decided that the rotation needed to be shortened in this game when three of their starters had four fouls, two of which picked it up in the third quarter. The Badgers are headed to the Big Ten Tournament (which wasn’t a guarantee three weeks ago) but there is basically zero hope of UW pulling an upset and advancing.
Many fans have started looking towards next season and wondering what the roster will look like and who the coach will be. It’s not a certainty by any means, but Wisconsin may be in the market for a new head coach based on whatever they find after their internal investigation into Tessa Towers’ allegations is concluded. The UW powers that be may also just decide that this season’s record wasn’t good enough.
Let’s take a quick look at the four seasons of data we have with Marisa Moseley as head coach:
2021-2022: 5-14 Big Ten, 8-21 overall
2022-2023: 6-13 Big Ten, 11-20 overall
2023-2024: 6-13 Big Ten, 15-17 overall; WNIT bid
2024-2025*: 4-14 Big Ten, 13-16 overall
*minimum of one more game to be played
Barring some sort of miraculous tournament run this will be the first season of Moseley’s tenure that did not see an uptick in wins, Big Ten or overall. UW’s offensive rating this year was the best it has been with Moseley in charge, but their defensive rating was the worst. Wisconsin’s net rating (not NET, but net as in difference between offensive and defensive ratings) has been trending the wrong way the past three years after being awful in her first season.
The Badgers picked up a couple of nice wins this year (vs. Michigan, at Penn State) but struggled mightily against top competition for the most part. Based on the NET rankings through Mar. 1, Wisconsin was 0-10 against Quad 1 teams, 1-3 against Quad 2 teams, 2-0 vs. Quad 3 teams, and 10-2 vs. Quad 4 outfits. The Michigan win is a Quad 1 win on Torvik’s site and when the NET rankings update on Monday it might be there too, but one big time win isn’t really what people thought was going to happen this season.
Were expectations too high heading into the season? I don’t know, a handsome genius predicted in his annual Big Ten Preview Guide that the Badgers would finish…14th in the Big Ten, so my expectations were calibrated correctly. I think. However, I am still leaving this regular season disappointed.
The wins were down overall and in conference. There wasn’t a ton of internal development of younger players. The team’s defense got worse throughout the year. One player left the team midway through the season and it has yet to be acknowledged by UW. A former player alleged that the current Wisconsin coaching staff was emotionally and mentally abusive. The vibes were…not great around this team.
All that being said, I would be wary of making a coaching change based solely on Wisconsin’s record because building a women’s basketball program in Madison has proven to be difficult and you won’t attract ANY coaching talent if you get “fire happy” because the team didn’t have a good enough Big Ten record. However, the off the court allegations are grounds for an immediate firing, regardless of how successful the coach is.
Anyways, we’ll have some “End Of The Season” posts and Big Ten Tournament posts coming this week on Badgers Ball Knower. Go Badgers. Here’s what the bracket looks like.
Next Game: Wednesday, Mar. 5; vs. 11-seed Iowa Hawkeyes; 6:30ish p.m. CT; Peacock; Gainbridge Fieldhouse; Indianapolis; Big Ten Tournament
These are both very good comments and I would like to address them in a longer post after the season is over. (didn't want you to think I'm ignoring them)
re: rotation questions & player development - most of the time the choices coaches/people make sense from a certain point of view. So when I see a "huh?" (like the rotation, minutes for younger players, etc.), I try to think about the POV/circumstances that would make that decision make sense.
I think that in MM's mind, there are 6-8 players who are clearly a cut above everybody else & doing what they need to do to get time-on-court. That's not to say that the rest of the team will never get there, they just clearly haven't gotten there yet.
As for bench minutes... It's not like there have been a ton of positive-side blowouts that would have allowed players to sub-in. And for blow-outs on the negative-side, I don't know if I want to ding a coach for having a mentality that the "current performance is the best practice for the next performance". If the first team hasn't gotten it right, then keep them on the floor learning from the situation.
re: recruiting - given the decades long "meh" of the program, I actually think that MM has done pretty well to recruit Williams, Porter, Copeland, Bisballe, etc. Yes, in-state can/should be better; but going to NYC, MN, KS, & MI to pull quality players is something to note. (And yes, Sania transfered... but that is going to happen when good players get overlooked by their home-state team; I don't fault MM for that one). McCray is a great transfer get; Meyers & LaBarbera were/are quality players.
I do have concern about the defensive issues, shot-selection (# of 3pt attempts way down this year), etc. & do wonder how much of that is on the coaching staff's ability to communicate/educate.