As new Badgers women’s basketball head coach Jonathan Tsipis was officially brought before the media there were the usual themes of “change” and “energy” and “working hard” brought out by both the new coach and athletic director Barry Alvarez.
They were themes brought out just five years ago when we all did this for the hire of Bobbie Kelsey. Not much was different in the rhetoric, except this one thing — Tsipis believes in making the state of Wisconsin a major priority on the recruiting trail.
Former head coach Bobbie Kelsey didn’t believe the talent was here in the state of Wisconsin to turn the Badgers in to a national power. Her belief was in the need to recruit nationally, and no doubt the new staff will a lot of that.
However, Tsipis made it abundantly clear there was good girl’s high school basketball and plenty of talent to draw from in the state of Wisconsin too. It’s something he noticed while coaching at Notre Dame.
At least, the trend of talented players from the state with schools other than Wisconsin next to their name.
Changing that is goal No. 1 for Tsipis’ plans to resurrect the Badgers’ program. As he put it:
“(My goal is) to make sure that the best high school and AAU girls’ basketball players understand this is a place that is going to be special and going to compete for championships. That starts with the outreach with the high school coaches and the AAU coaches. It’s going to be an open-door policy — practice, shoot-arounds, games — as much as we can have that involvement.
“Wisconsin is just a state that prides itself on blue-collar work and I love that fact that kids would have that option to say, ‘I can go to Wisconsin and write the next history of women’s basketball.'”
Right now, Wisconsin is likely the third of the four in-state options for most high school players. While Wisconsin turned away from the home-grown talent, little Green Bay has built a powerhouse program largely on kids from its general vicinity.
Marquette has also gotten most of the rest of the elite talent from the state, and rather easily over the Badgers.
A great example of just how little the program cared about in-state talent is the recruitment of Natisha Heideman out of Green Bay. While she had an in at Marquette, with her brother Sandy Cohen playing on the men’s team, the Badgers were never a serious contender and according to most reports never even offered her a scholarship for this upcoming season.
She was good enough for offers from the likes of Green Bay, Milwaukee and Michigan State — but Wisconsin didn’t even bother. It likely was an uphill battle, given her familial ties to Marquette, but not trying to get one of the elite players in the state was just inexcusable.
Heideman started all 30 games for the Golden Eagles, averaging 13.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game in her first season at the Milwaukee school. You mean to tell me her talents couldn’t have been used at Wisconsin?
That is just one case of plenty of misses from the Badgers over the years and especially so during the Kelsey era.
Since 2000, the Badgers have managed to win the recruiting battles for just three, three of the state’s Miss Basketball award winners. The last of which, Nicole Bauman in 2012, and she will finish up her career at UW this upcoming season.
She was already in the fold when Kelsey came on, and since then not a single Miss Basketball in the state made her way to Madison for her career. Instead, schools like Iowa, Green Bay and Nebraska took the state’s biggest award winner right out from under the program.
Tsipis certainly hit the right note, but his challenge in rebuilding the relationship with high school and AAU programs in Wisconsin is clearly a difficult one. It also is one of the two biggest components to getting things turned around quickly in Madison.
Changing the energy level of the current players will also help, and it appears that group is ready to hit the ground running for their new coach.
Getting that same kind of energy for the state’s best players to make Wisconsin a home for the four years of their careers also appears to be on the ground floor. That work may take more time, but it was very clear on Thursday afternoon in Madison that things were already set to change.
Talking a big game is great, will Tsipis be able to turn his impressive resume in to equally impressive results inside a state that has had its girl’s basketball largely ignored by the state’s flagship university?
Former boss, Notre Dame head coach Muffett McGraw, pretty much summed it up about his abilities.
“Can’t miss. Can do it all,” was her summation to Alvarez. “Well prepared. He’s the guy. He’ll get your program straight in a hurry.”
Only time will tell, but for day one, Tsipis hit all the right notes in beginning to rebuild that relationship.
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