Hoosiers head north to face the Badgers

After suffering its first loss of the season to Ohio State on Saturday, IU women’s basketball is looking to bounce back against Wisconsin at 8 p.m. in Madison, Wis.

Like IU (14-1, 1-1), Wisconsin (8-7, 1-2) struggled in its last game. The Badgers lost to Iowa 81-65 in their Big Ten home opener on Sunday after being outscored by 13 points in the second half.

Creating offense has been a challenge at times for Wisconsin this season. The Badgers are last in the Big Ten in assists per game (12.2), and they are ranked 11th in the conference in field goal-percentage (42 percent).

Wisconsin poses a challenge for IU. The Badgers run a triangle offense that IU Coach Curt Miller said caused the Hoosiers to “play horrible” last season in a 65-53 loss. Miller has been stressing quickness on the defensive side in practice this week.

“What really bothered us last year was their movement,” Miller said. “We have got to be ready to really move against their motion offense and against their quick hits. We didn’t last year. That’s one of the things we’ll hope to get corrected.”

Physically, the Badgers stand tall throughout their lineup. They have 10 players on their roster listed at 6-feet tall or taller.

In contrast, IU has seven such players.

In IU’s 70-51 loss to Ohio State, the Hoosiers struggled to limit the Buckeyes’ points in the paint. Defensive presence in the post was another area that Miller said IU needed to improve tonight.

Limiting Wisconsin in the paint will require IU to defend 6-foot-3 junior forward Michala Johnson. She leads the team in scoring, averaging 15.5 points per game, and shooting 52.9 percent from the field. Johnson has given teams problems in the paint all season, and she is coming off of a 16-point performance against Iowa.

“We’ve got to do a better job defending early in the shot clock, not defending after they — as post players — get to where they want to be,” Miller said. “We let Ohio State’s post players get to where we wanted, and then we tried to defend. We’ve got to be a little more proactive instead of reactive in their movement.”

In the backcourt, the Badgers are anchored by a pair of senior wings in Morgan Paige and Taylor Wurtz. Paige is second in scoring at 13.9 points per game, while the 6-foot Wurtz leads the team in rebounds per game (8.3). She is also averaging 13.7 points.
“It’s a tough matchup for our wings,” Miller said. “They can both shoot threes, but they’re both really good athletes.”

Tonight’s game against Wisconsin is the first of three Big Ten games for IU this week.

The Hoosiers will travel to West Lafayette on Friday to play for the Barn Burner Trophy in a rescheduled game against Purdue before returning home to play Minnesota on Sunday.With three conference games after suffering their first loss of the year, Miller said he was pleased with the Hoosiers’ practice on Monday with a big week ahead.
“You definitely have the players’ attention after a loss,” he said. “We had a lot of attention here in practice, I think. The good thing is our intensity was better. We competed more, and they’re hungry.”

Follow reporter Sam Beishuizen on Twitter @Sam_Beishuizen.