Wisconsin women's basketball: previewing the wings
A versatile, veteran group will look to lead the Badgers this season.
Here at Badgers Ball Knower headquarters it is time to fully enter season preview, uh, season. With two teams to focus on, it’s best we get started a little bit earlier than you might think so that we can discuss everything we want to.
We’ll be diving into each position group (I’ve divided them into bigs, wings, and guards based on a complicated proprietary formula) for both the men’s and women’s teams. We’ll be looking at the conference overall as well as making some predictions (closer to the season) that you aren’t allowed to bring up at the end of the season unless I was right.
First up we talked about the bigs on the women’s hoops team and now it’s time to take a look at the wings.
As these positional distinctions were made by me and my proprietary formula that I will NOT be sharing with anyone, there are sometimes some kinks that need to be worked out. For instance: where does Sydney Hilliard fit in?
She is listed as a “guard” on the official roster and her height is only 5-foot-11, but take a look at the senior’s shot chart from last season.
Image courtesy of CBB Analytics (a very cool hoops data visualization site)
She did not attempt one (1) single shot from beyond the arc. I know it looks like she did, but he foot must have been on the line or something because every single place I looked said she went 0-for-0 from deep last year. With a shot chart like that, she’s practically a big! She certainly isn’t a guard, at least in the shooting sense.
It almost looks like ::swallows throw up:: a Ben Simmons-type shot chart.
So, I think we should just slot Hilliard in with the wings and go from there, ok? Ok.
Wings
Halle Douglass, junior, 6-foot-1, Lake Forest, Ill.
Sydney Hilliard, senior, 5-foot-11, Monroe
Julie Pospisilova, senior, 6-foot-0, Prauge, Czech Republic
Brooke Schramek, junior, 6-foot-0, Naperville, Ill.
Savannah White, freshman, 6-foot-2, St. Paul, Minn.
The Badgers have a pretty ideal group of wings in terms of class distribution. Hilliard and Pospisilova are both true seniors, having played significant minutes since they were freshmen, while Schramek and Douglass are both true juniors, also having played major minutes since their first year on campus.
All of this veteran depth will be great for the development of White, a 4-star freshman who won’t have to be thrown right into the fire. She averaged 14.7 points, 10.0 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 3.9 blocks and 2.7 steals per game as a senior at DeLaSalle but could still see the court early with those type of box score-stuffing numbers.
The three leading scorers from last season all come from this group as well, with Pospisilova leading the way at 14.1 ppg, Hilliard clocking in with 12.8 ppg, and Schramek adding 8.2 ppg. Pospisilova led the team in 3-point rate, hoisting up 5.8 threes per game, and Hilliard got to the free throw line regularly, averaging 3.3 feebie attempts per game. Sadly, neither of them converted those attempts at an efficient rate (31.2% from deep for Pospisilova and 62.7% from the charity stripe for Hilliard) but hopefully some time in the gym this offseason will help those numbers.
It is worth noting that Hilliard only played in 18 games last season and missed the final nine games of the campaign while attending to a personal matter.
“Sydney has the support of our entire program while she is away from the team for this period of time,” head coach Marisa Moseley said at the time. “She knows we are all here for her.”
It is great to see her back on the roster for the 2022-23 season and hopefully she was able to deal with whatever her personal issue was and can get back to playing hoops.
This group should be one of the strengths of Moseley’s roster this season. They have versatile, veteran talent as well as a young, potential-filled player that they can bring along slowly. With improved play from the bigs down low, the wings could find more room to operate away from the basket. Later this week we’ll take a look at the guards who need to replace point guard Katie Nelson’s steady leadership, 3.9 assists per game, and insane stamina (38.3 minutes per game in 29 starts).
Nice writeup. Personally, I'm looking for a breakout season from Douglass. She had a good second half of the season, especially once she began starting.
How were Syd's assists, and "time of possession"? Guess I'd categorize her as a true point guard. But we have entered the era of positionless basketball, so this is fine.