Wisconsin womens basketball, Badger women's basketball

No	Player	Year	Ht	Pos	Hometown/School
4	Erin Olson	Soph	5'9	G	Waukesha, Wi/South
11	Stephanie Rich	Jr	5'11	G	Crawfordsville, Ia/Washington
12	Abby Simmons	Sr	5'9	F	Verona, Wi/Verona
14	Ashley Josephson	Soph	5'9	G	Onalaska, Wi/West Salem
20	Lello Gebisa	Sr	6'7	C	West Lafayette, In/W Lafayette
22	Kandace Evans	Fr	5'7	G	Southfield, Mi/Southfield
23	Jordan Wilson	Soph	6'1	F	Naperville, Il/Benet Academy
25	Ebba Gebisa	Jr	6'3	F	West Lafayette, In/W Lafayette
34	Annie Nelson	Soph	6'1	F	Hudson, Wi/Hudson
35	Kjersten Bakke	Soph	5'11	G/F	DeForest, Wi/DeForest
40	Shawna Nicols	Jr	5'10	G	Milwaukee, Wi/Pius IX
44	Emily Ashbaugh	Sr	6'5	C	Woodinville, Wa/Redmond

Date	Opponent	My Pick	Score	Record	Big 10 Record
Nov 7	Minn St Mankato EX		78-49
Nov 11	Wisc AAU Select		84-58
Nov 23	No Ill	W	65-68	0-1
Nov 28	Hampton*	W	49-38	1-1
Nov 29	Butler*	W	61-46	2-1
Dec 1	W Illinois	W	56-64	2-2
Dec 4	@ Notre Dame	L	64-82	2-3
Dec 7	Iowa State	L	76-73	3-3
Dec 13	@ UW Green Bay	W	56-48	4-3
Dec 22	UW Milwaukee	W	54-49	5-3
Dec 30	@ Boston College	L	60-76	5-4
Jan 2	@ Ohio State	L	46-65	5-5	0-1
Jan 8	@ Indiana	L	39-60	5-6	0-2
Jan 11	Penn State	L	59-60	5-7	0-3
Jan 13	Illinois	L	66-57	6-7	1-3
Jan 16	IUPUI-Ft Wayne	W	75-59	7-7
Jan 18	@ Iowa	L	44-66	7-8	1-4
Jan 22	Michigan	L	60-63	7-9	1-5
Jan 25	Northwestern	W	69-53	8-9	2-5
Jan 29	@ Purdue	L	42-58	8-10	2-6
Feb 1	Minnesota	L	48-59	8-11	2-7
Feb 5	@ Michigan State	L	47-72	8-12	2-8
Feb 8	@ Michigan	L	55-75	8-13	2-9
Feb 12	Iowa	W	82-87 ot	8-14	2-10
Feb 19	@ Penn State	L	50-66	8-15	2-11
Feb 22	Indiana	W	66-62	9-15	3-11
Feb 26	@ Illinois	L	59-53	10-15	4-11
Feb 29	@ Ohio State	L	56-72	10-16	4-12
3/4-8	Big 10 Tournament	0-1	0-1
Mar 4	Indiana		39-57	10-17

	G/GS	FG	FGA	FG %	3 Pt	3 PtA	3 Pt%	FT	FTA	FT%	Pts	Avg
Josephson	27/27	121	309	.392	50	122	.410	39	46	.848	331	12.3
Rich	26/26	88	295	.298	52	166	.313	39	51	.765	267	10.3
Ashbaugh	27/21	119	212	.561	0	1	.000	38	64	.594	276	10.2
L Gebisa	26/20	86	203	.424	2	3	.667	57	85	.671	231	8.9
Wilson	27/12	69	154	.448	0	0	.000	45	75	.600	183	6.3
E Gebisa	27/21	44	143	.308	15	56	.232	34	44	.773	135	5.0
Bakke	21/6	18	48	.375	1	4	.250	12	19	.632	49	2.3
Evans	24/0	16	61	.262	3	20	.150	17	25	.680	52	2.2
Nelson	11/0	3	7	.429	0	0	.000	5	9	.556	11	1.0
Gilmartin	2/0	0	1	.000	0	1	.000	2	2	1.000	2	1.0
Olson	15/1	3	16	.188	1	4	.250	2	4	.500	9	0.6
Simmons	3/1	0	1	.000	0	0	.000	1	2	.500	1	0.3
Team		567	1450	.391	122	377	.324	291	426	.683	1547	57.3
Opponents		620	1556	.398	142	419	.339	306	429	.713	1688	62.5

	Min	Av	OR	Dr	Reb	Av	PF	Dq	Ass	To	Blocks	Steals
Josephson	999	37.0	20	76	96	3.6	46	0	40	49	2	21
Rich	982	37.8	16	111	127	4.9	37	1	151	94	24	53
Ashbaugh	673	24.9	62	95	157	5.8	87	4	21	65	25	17
L Gebisa	613	23.6	52	105	157	6.0	66	3	41	75	51	12
Wilson	630	23.3	56	91	147	5.4	36	0	41	55	8	10
E Gebisa	770	28.5	40	59	99	3.7	47	0	38	50	9	11
Bakke	329	15.7	39	37	76	3.6	46	3	18	33	2	5
Evans	296	12.3	13	20	33	1.4	49	0	30	46	2	16
Nelson	52	4.7	4	10	14	1.3	9	0	3	3	1	0
Gilmartin	3	1.5	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Olson	73	4.9	2	3	5	0.3	5	0	1	3	0	0
Simmons	5	1.7	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Team			354	668	1022	37.9	428	11	385	484	124	145
Opponents			335	591	926	34.3	442	0	367	368	69	254

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.