It’s rare for head coach Bobbie Kelsey to give her team a motivational speech before games. While her players likely could have used a little more inspiration in the locker room after two consecutive lethargic starts, Kelsey fully expects her team to be ready to go in their toughest challenge yet against Maryland (5-1 Big Ten, 16-2 overall) Wednesday at the Kohl Center.
The Badgers (2-4, 6-10) are not worried about an accomplished Maryland team and its deep roster, but instead are more concerned with their own performance.
“Anybody can beat anybody on any given day,” Kelsey preached to her team at practice Monday afternoon.
The Badgers, though, will likely need to play their best game yet to upend a Terrapins team that has made the Final Four for two consecutive seasons, something the Badgers are hoping to one day accomplish.
“We’re trying to build a championship culture,” Kelsey said. “And building a culture takes time, it’s really hard to do.”
After a strong start to her Big Ten season, senior point guard Dakota Whyte played her worst conference game to date Sunday, finishing with just eight points and two assists in 36 minutes in the Badgers’ 71-65 loss to Illinois.
Whyte said her struggles were due to a “lack of focus,” but that it won’t happen again. And while the past two games have been especially disappointing for the Badgers, plenty of positives have emerged.
Last week, senior guard Tessa Cichy returned to the floor after a four-game absence in the beginning of the conference season. Kelsey said Monday that while Cichy has played quite well since recovering from an illness that kept her out of four games, she plans to bring Cichy off the bench for the third consecutive game Wednesday night and not break up the chemistry her starting lineup has built.
Sophomore guard Cayla McMorris played quite well in Cichy’s absence and is expected to start for the seventh straight game.
Prior to last week, the Badgers led the Big Ten in 3-point percentage in conference games, but UW has struggled from behind the arc the last two games, hitting just 24.3 percent of its shots. In their toughest test to date, 3-point shooting will likely be an offensive key for the Badgers. Maryland’s depth and talented frontcourt players will likely be two keys for the Badgers on the defensive end.
“Anytime you have a team of that caliber, you have to [have] a solid game plan, because they do have some bigs on the inside,” Kelsey said.
Sunday afternoon, the Badgers played more 2-3 zone than usual, something Kelsey said is a result of former Syracuse University and current Badger assistant Coach Palmer’s addition to the bench, but Maryland presents different matchup problems than the Fighting Illini.
The bottom line for Kelsey and the Badgers is that no matter how difficult the opposing matchup might be, if you make shots you give your chance to be successful.
“Once you get those kind of kids in the [Maryland’s] program, you just roll, and you continue to get them. So we’re working hard every day to get those kinds of players in our program,” Kelsey said. “But in the meantime, you have to hit shots.”
