Coming into the 2015-’16 season, Drake University (2-0) was projected to finish second in the Missouri Valley Conference. Not only did they return four starters, but they have the preseason conference player of the year, sophomore forward Lizzy Wendell, who averaged 21.8 points per game last season. Unfortunately for the Badgers (1-1), Drake’s experience and star power proved too much for UW to handle, as they lost for the first time this season, 89-70, Wednesday night.
Wisconsin’s struggles started early, and it never found its way back into the game. The Badgers trailed from start to finish, and the closest they drew in the second half was only 11 points.
“Give credit to Drake. They got on fire and they never cooled off,” head coach Bobbie Kelsey said after the loss.
Still, despite Drake’s great shooting performance, Kelsey was not happy with how her team performed.
“We’re very disappointed in our effort tonight,” Kelsey said plainly.
Defensively, the Badgers gave up only 65 points in their season opener. Tonight, however, Drake’s ball movement and shooting exploited several weaknesses in the UW defense. Drake shot the ball 58 percent from the field, significantly higher than any other opponent that the Badgers have faced this season (including the regular season and their exhibition matches).
Specifically, the Badgers struggled defending the perimeter, allowing Drake to finish the game shooting 43 percent from behind the arc. Additionally, even though Wisconsin knew that Wendell would be a threat, they still could not do anything to stop her. She finished the game shooting 73 percent, totaling 20 points.
Even though the Badgers’ defensive struggles were a combination of many positioning and footwork errors, Kelsey was most disappointed in her players lack of teamwork on the defensive end.
“Some of it was miscommunication on our part,” Kelsey said. “We talked about what we wanted to do at timeouts, and you have one person messing it up—one person not paying attention. Against this kind of team you can not have mental errors like that. You need five people out there, working together, on the same page.”
Moreover, the Badgers’ struggles did not just appear at the defensive end of the court. Despite putting up a respectable 70 points, Wisconsin left too many points on the floor. The Badgers only shot 15 of 26 from the line, and gave up 28 points off 18 turnovers. Additionally, Wisconsin was an abysmal 1-14 from behind the arc. Obviously, the whole team struggled shooting the deep ball, but senior guard Nicole Bauman, who shared the best 3-point percentage in the nation last year at 48.8 percent, shot only a surprising 1-9 from 3-point range.
“My form is a little off,” Bauman said bluntly. “I have to get in the gym and work on it.”
After this eye-opening loss, Kelsey and the Badgers know that they have a lot more to work on going into a nearly month-long road trip.
“You’ve got to do all the little things, and that’s on both ends of the floor,” Kelsey said. “Everybody needs to be knowing what they’re doing.”
