Stone previews Big Ten opening week
December 28, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 28, 2010
MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin women’s basketball coach Lisa Stone spoke to the media on Monday as her team opens the Big Ten Conference season this week. Wisconsin (5-7 overall, 0-0 Big Ten) begins conference play on Thursday at Purdue (8-3, 0-0). Tip-off is at 6 p.m. CT from Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind. The game will be streamed live on BigTenNetwork.com.
The Badgers open the home Big Ten season on Sunday when Penn State (10-3, 0-0) comes to town. Game time is 1 p.m. from the Kohl Center. You can watch a webstream live on BigTenNetwork.com.
A complete transcription of Stone’s comments are below or you can watch the video here. Coach Stone’s comments begin at 25:30
The break a good thing for you?
Absolutely. For us, getting our team mended and surviving our tough non-conference schedule, the time off was good for us to get healthy again. Unfortunately, the first practice back, Anya (Covington) injured an ankle, but we’re hopeful for her for Purdue. But other than that, it’s just good. It’s good to get our bodies back and strong.
And I thought our practices over the finals week were the best they have ever been since I’ve been here. In terms of focus, we actually accomplished a lot. It wasn’t just come in and have a study break. We actually accomplished a lot. And then the players got to go home for three days. And that’s nice, really nice. (They) came back refreshed and we’re focused for Purdue.
With your non-conference experience, what have you learned about your team that maybe affects how you go into the Big Ten season?
Well, I told our team, when we came back last night, that we’re not going to play in tougher environments. Wyoming is probably one of the toughest environments you’ll ever play in. That’s why a lot of teams don’t go there. And we came out of there with that overtime win. And being down six points with two minutes to play and came out with a win. Knowing that, what we’ve endured, the adversity that we’ve overcome, that’s the kind of things that we’re hoping that we can see very good results with in the Big Ten.
But again, we’ve played a tough schedule against athletic teams, strong, physical teams, teams that run sets at you, different defenses, different presses. There’s not anything new that we’ll see.
Now the Big Ten is very strong, very competitive. We beat each other up all the time. But the tough times that we’ve been through, hopefully, we’ll see some really good things. And, there’s the famous quote that tough times never last, but tough people do. And there’s a group of women every day on the court, I just came off the court with them, they want to get some things done. And we’re certainly not perfect. We make a lot of mistakes, but we’ve been tested, we’ve been tested hard in the non-conference and we’re hoping that we see very positive dividends here coming up.
What do you expect from the Big Ten this year now that we’re diving into conference play?
I think it’s as competitive as it’s been. You look at what the women’s conference has done in terms of the Big 12 challenge and the ACC challenge, and the strength of schedule of teams.
You can look at Ohio State as being the clear-cut favorite. They should be with everybody back, and they won the conference last year. They’ve got everybody back. Iowa is very talented. I look at the rest of the league and how we all pair. I think it’s a toss-up. Again, it’s going to be teams that stay healthy, that get off to a strong start. We want to get off to a strong start in the Big Ten. You don’t want to start in a hole and try to dig out of it. And that comes from preparation, teams that stay consistent throughout the year. I think the best defensive teams are going to be the teams at the top. I think teams that can take care of the basketball. That certainly has plagued us in the pre-season. We’re getting better at it. We’ve made a focus on it. And I’m hoping that you see a brand new team on Thursday.
Speaking of defense, Purdue ranks second in the Big Ten in points give up and Wisconsin’s third. Do you expect a big defensive battle on Thursday?
It usually is a slug match when we go down there. It really is, always has been. They’re big, they’re physical, they’re very, very good in the glass. And they’re size in terms of strength and mobility is a little bit daunting at times. They have a freshman point guard, Courtney Moses, that has stepped into the starting lineup in place of K.K. Houser and FahKara Malone, some names of the past, and she’s the real deal.
(Moses) is strong, she’s physical, she’s scoring for them. We knew about her in high school. She’s one of the best freshmen point guards in the country, in my opinion. Brittany Rayburn is Brittany Rayburn. I think she hit 30 (points) the other night. They play again tomorrow night. She’s an amazing player, can post up, can get to the rim, is a leader on their team. And then their post players right now. Chelsea Jones started against us last year (but) is not starting now. But their size inside and athleticism and (Chantel) Poston, and (Alex) Guyton, and you can go right down the list.
They themselves have gone through some adversity. And it’s nice to have their injured player back and have her back on the sideline and getting better. You say prayers for that team. And they’ve gone through a lot as well. But they’re always very, very good defensively. They’re always very good at home. They’ll have a mixture of man-to-man and zone defense against us. But their biggest strength is the glass. They’re all over the boards. And I’m not sure where they rank statistically, but that has to certainly be a key statistic in their defense as well.
Coach, with UConn breaking the record last week, is it a positive for the sport with it now being more in the national spotlight and their record. I know there was a lot of controversy about some of Coach Auriemma’s comments. Is it a positive thing overall for the sport having them break that record?
I tell you, what has happened at UConn is great for women’s basketball, from the top all the way down to little girls that have role models to look at. And those are tremendous student-athletes. Geno’s one of the best coaches in the country. There’s no question about it. What he has done with that program over his time there, and to see the sellout and the attention to that game.
Certainly breaking the record is part of it, but they’re not stopping. I mean, they’re that talented. It’s so good for women’s athletics, not just basketball, to see players like Maya Moore do what she does. To watch that team year in and year out and their bench, they’re all McDonald’s All-Americans. They’re the best in the country. And to watch them play is, it’s the epitome and little girls all the way through college teams, they want to have a shot at UConn and emulate them. They’re the dynasty. And what they’ve done is just great all of women’s athletics.
On the Big Ten level, I think Ohio State and Iowa have done what people would have thought. Is there a team that through the nonconference has opened your eyes and they might be pretty, they might be better than you think?
I think Northwestern certainly has proven themselves, with some of the places that they’ve gone to play, and we were with them out in California, and Joe’s (McKeown) done a great job in resurrecting that program. Amy Jaeschke is one of the best post players out there. I’m not surprised by that. I think others might be. But I also think that you look at Michigan just beat Boston College the other day on the Big Ten Network, (an) undefeated team.
It doesn’t matter to me who the Big Ten team is. They’re going to give that opponent a really, really good game, if not win the game. And I think our league is as strong as it’s been. It’s going to be interesting. Once you get to the midway point of the Big Ten, I think we’re going to have a lot more to talk about because it could be a juggling match, it could be a landslide, who knows? I have no idea.
All I know is I’m preparing my team to go into a place where Wisconsin’s never won at Purdue. And we’d like to change that. But we’ve got a lot of preparation to do. We’ve got four days to prepare. They’re very good. They’re very well coached. They’re very strong defensively. And we’ve got to go in there with that underdog mentality that we want to characterize ourselves with. And go in there and play the best defense we’ve played all year.
Lisa, I know you look for contributions, obviously, from throughout your team, but it seems like when Lin Zastrow plays well, you really play well as a team. I’m talking about game to game. Would you agree that she’s kind of a key link?
I would couple that with our seniors. When our seniors play well, we play well. You’ve got three starting seniors and another contributor, Emily Neal, who against Kansas had just an outstanding game. She is more of a reserve role.
But talking about Lin Zastrow, I think Lin Zastrow is one of the best in the Big Ten myself. She understands this is her senior year. It’s her last time through the Big Ten. She’s playing like it. Her tip-in at Wyoming was big time. I’m not sure how many people saw it. You don’t see that a lot in women’s basketball. It was a one-handed tip-in in the air, puts us to overtime, we go on and win. And she has taken some ownership of her position. She is certainly one of our best players.
I think Alyssa Karel and Tara Steinbauer, those other starting seniors. We’re going as far as our seniors are going to take us. And they’re capable, they’re talented. You throw in a sophomore in Taylor Wurtz, who is a new player herself this year, leads us in rebounds. She’s got double-digit rebounds these last few games. Her confidence level is getting better.
And our younger players are coming along. I’m looking forward to the Big Ten. I’m looking forward to different combinations on the floor, who’s out there and making things go and having us be successful will be out there. But right now, it’s our seniors and we got to jump on their back. They’re the ones that are going to take us as far as we can go.
