When the Badgers took the floor for their first practice, they faced more questions than any Wisconsin team in recent years.

The first question surrounded the coaching staff.  New coach Lisa Stone entered the scene with unlimited enthusiasm and energy.  She also entered with limited experience in Division 1 coaching.

There were also questions surrounding the talent of the players.  Or, to be brutally honest, the relative lack of talent.  Stephanie Rich was named honorable mention All Big 10 after the 2002-03 season and would be counted on to lead the team.  Fellow guard Ashley Josephson had overcome a back injury to have a solid freshman year in 2002.  Junior Shawna Nichols had proven herself to be a heady, fundamentally sound, if very slow guard who would be looked on to provide a quality backup.  

The front line looked to be the team's strength.  Emily Ashbaugh had proved herself to be a solid, if unspectacular Big 10 player.  Lello Gebisa was inconsistent but could be domination.  Jordan Wilson showed promise in her freshman year.  But it was Ebba Gebisa that seemed to have the potential to make the jump to stardom.  If Bucky was to improve, Ebba would have to lead them.  

And they would have to stay injury free.  While the Badgers could put a respectable group on the floor to start a game, they had the weakest bench in the conference.  When Stone looked to her bench, she would find a group of eager, but untalented players.

Ebba didn't become a star and injuries didn't stay away, but the Badgers improved anyway.

Before the season started, Nichols career ended after she was unable to sufficiently recover from a series of concussions.  That left freshman Kandace Evans as the only scholarship guard besides the starters.  

With Nichols out, Ebba Gebisa returned to the small forward spot she occupied in the 2002 season.  Rather than step up, Ebba took a step back.  She played hard but was almost a total non-factor offensively.  Her reluctance to try and score cost her a starting job as the season went on.

The Badgers opened the season slowly, as they exhibited offensive struggles that would plague them all season.  If the 2003 Badgers can be described in a sentence, they would be described as a hard working team with a lot of heart that couldn't shoot. That lack of the most basic skill in basketball haunted the team throughout the season.

The Badgers looked like a very bad team early.  In early games, there really was not any area that looked like a strength.

The team had no where to go but up and they did.  As the year went on, it became clear that the biggest strength of the team was its character.  They never hung their heads, never quit trying and only rarely did not play hard.  

As the season progressed, the team's defense, passing and rebounding all improved.  The shooting never got much better.  Rich shot under 30% for the season and few players were better.  Despite playing hard, the team didn't manage to score 40 points in several games.

Injuries played a factor.  Lello Gebisa sprained an ankle, Kjersten Bakke blew out an acl and Rich missed the Big 10 Tournament after breaking her hand.

There were several low points.  A missed lay-up cost the team a win against Michigan.  An excellent effort against Iowa was undone by several major mistakes down the stretch.  It took most of the season, before the players learned to play on the road.

But there were also considerable signs of progress.  There is no question that they were a better team at the end of the season than they were at the beginning.  As the season progressed, the Badgers became a much better defensive team.  They played significantly better on the road toward the end of the year.   

The improved play did not translate to many wins, but that speaks as much to the strength of the Big 10 as it does to the Badgers.  But they did make enough improvement to make the future look brighter.

This was a team that played better than the sum of its parts.  That is a tribute to the coaching job Stone did.

It's not likely that there will be a huge jump in the standings next season, but the team should make more progress and Stone's program should continue to grow.

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