Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Basketball Comes Up Short Against Butler

The Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball welcomed the Butler Bulldogs to the Kohl Center on Sunday afternoon for a Big Ten/Big East battle. Both teams struggled on offense but UW just couldn’t get over the hump in the second half and ended up dropping a winnable game to Butler. Here is the full recap:

Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Basketball Falls to Butler

Final Score

Wisconsin Badgers (5-3 overall, 0-0 Big Ten): 59

Butler Bulldogs (6-2 overall, 0-0 Big East): 51

Four Factors

eFG%: 37.3

Turnover%: 24.6

Off. Rebound%: 42.9

FTA/FGA: 32.7

Key Stats

FG%: 34.5 (19-of-55)
Opp. FG%: 33.3 (21-of-63)
3P%: 15.0 (3-of-20)
Opp. 3P%: 28.0 (7-of-25)
FT%: 55.6 (10-of-18)
Opp. FT%: 71.4 (10-of-14)
Points Per Possession: 0.785
Opponent Points Per Possession: 0.922
Rebounds: 47 (15 offensive)
Opponent Rebounds: 35 (12 offensive)
Turnovers: 16
Forced Turnovers: five

.@DYanisJimenez1 goes coast to coast👏 pic.twitter.com/tQ3xXZdhle

— Wisconsin Women’s Basketball (@BadgerWBB) December 3, 2023

Team Leaders

• Serah Williams: 24 points (10-of-18 FG, 1-of-3 3P), 14 rebounds (six offensive), five blocks, -9
• D’Yanis Jimenez: two points (1-of-6 FG, 0-of-2 3P), eight rebounds, three assists, one block, -2
• Ronnie Porter: seven points (3-of-11 FG, 1-of-4 3P), seven rebounds (three offensive), two assists, -11
• Sania Copeland: eight points (2-of-7 FG, 1-of-5 3P), four rebounds, four assists, one steal, -8

Butler Team Leaders

• Rachel Kent: 25 points (9-of-17 FG, 4-of-9 3P), four rebounds, two assists, one block, two steals, +12
• Caroline Strande: 17 points (5-of-12 FG, 0-of-2 3P), nine rebounds (three offensive), three assists, one block, one steal, +13

Three Thoughts on the Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Basketball Loss

1. Serah Williams was dominant in the post and played her best or second best game of the year…but I think she could still be much better. Let’s start with the positives first! She scored a season-high 24 points while shooting 55.6% from the floor. She took three three-pointers and made one while also tying a career-high in rebounds (14), offensive rebounds (six), and blocked shots (five). She sat out for 2:04 of the game and only turned the ball over three times and played the final 3:49 with four fouls.

Third-career 3FG for Williams❗ pic.twitter.com/kGkHFloSt9

— Wisconsin Women’s Basketball (@BadgerWBB) December 3, 2023

Williams was the focal point on offense and didn’t back down from that challenge even as the rest of the Badgers struggled to shoot the rock. She was constantly double-teamed by Butler and, while she didn’t have any assists, she was still able to get the ball out to a teammate to reset the offense or catch the Bulldogs scrambling.

Having talked to Williams a few teams over the past two years I would say she possesses a soft-spoken confidence. She isn’t a fiery leader often, but multiple times on Sunday after a big play she let out a scream that got her teammates fired up as they tried to mount a comeback. While it eventually fell short, her becoming more vocal on the court this season would be a positive development.

There are still a few too many times where Williams doesn’t finish strong at the rim, but she is improving in that regard. I also noticed that she struggled with Butler’s posts fakes down low on defense. A number of possessions ended with a Bulldog making a layup after getting Williams to lunge in the wrong direction after a head fake. I think you take this last point as a consequence of her being such a good shot blocker, but she still commits some fouls that would be called if she DIDN’T go for a block.

Overall, Williams is progressing like I’d hoped before the season started and it’ll be fascinating to see how good she is by the end of the season.

2. I am starting to worry about the rotation and the heavy minutes that the starters are playing. Against Butler, only six players were in the game for longer than two minutes and four played 33 or more minutes. On the season, those six Badgers have averaged 28.7 minutes per game or more. Ana Guillen is next in MPG…with 9.0 and she didn’t get off the bench against the Bulldogs.

Guillen and Leena Patibandla had been performing admirably at the beginning of the season with Halle Douglass and Lily Krahn both being sidelined with injuries, but they didn’t even see the court for a second on Sunday. This is not the first time during Moseley’s tenure that I’ve wondered about the rotation and playing time distribution.

Two years ago, the Badgers had three players average over 33.6 minutes per game and two more who averaged over 26.7 minutes. Last year, UW had four players over 30 minutes per game and their fifth starter averaged 24.8 per game. This is probably something to discuss further in a separate post, but it’s worth watching Moseley’s rotation as her roster returns to full strength.

3. One way to start giving the starters a break is to welcome back two rotation players who haven’t suited up yet this season. And, as luck would have it, the Badgers did just that on Sunday! Halle Douglass and Lily Krahn both made their season debuts against Butler, returning from an ACL injury and undisclosed medical issue (which I’ve been told was appendicitis) respectively.

.@halledouglass is BACK!! pic.twitter.com/y6GPzJr8AA

— Wisconsin Women’s Basketball (@BadgerWBB) December 3, 2023

Krahn came in at the very end of the first half while Douglass made a couple of appearances, the first of which came at the end of the first quarter where she subbed in and immediately made a layup. Neither player played much, Krahn only played the final 30 seconds of the second quarter and Douglass played two minutes, but it was a big step in their respective recoveries to be back out on the court at all.

Douglass will provide veteran leadership for a young team and is probably one of the better players on the team in most categories, while not being the best in any. Krahn didn’t play much last year as a freshman but she could provide more outside shooting for the Badgers moving forward. It was great to see them both back on the bench in their jerseys, instead of warmups, and I’m hopeful that they can slowly ramp up their participation and be fully ready for the bulk of conference play.

Final Thought

Man, this was another game that was there for the taking and Wisconsin just…didn’t. Butler is a Big East team, so they aren’t some pushover but this is a game the Badgers probably should’ve won. There were a number of culprits for the loss, but the main one was as simple as it can get: UW couldn’t put the ball in the basket.

The only player on the team who shot better than 28.6% (if you discount Douglass’ 100% shooting on one FGA) was Williams and the only player to make more than three field goals was, you guessed it, Williams again. The fact that Wisconsin shot so poorly and still only lost by eight speaks to how good their defense was!

Butler actually shot worse than Wisconsin (33.3% to 34.5%) but they attempted five more threes and made four more of them than UW did. Now, the Bulldogs didn’t shoot it well from deep (just 28.0%) but their higher volume of attempts led to more makes. The Wisconsin Badgers had been allowing a ton of three-point attempts all season and it hadn’t bit them yet, until Sunday.

I thought Wisconsin rebounded well, especially on the offensive glass which is an area they had struggled in this year. They didn’t turn it over an obscene amount, but a few were avoidable as a few players left their feet with zero idea what they were going to do with the ball and just ended up throwing it away. It’s also tough when you only force five turnovers on defense.

This was a disappointing game for sure, but I’m going to chalk it up to a “progress isn’t linear” and “sometimes everyone just shoots like butt for one game” situation and not a “THIS TEAM IS REGRESSING OH GOD HELP” situation. Big one coming up this weekend, btw. Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeyes will be at the SOLD OUT Kohl Center and the Badgers have a chance to absolutely shock the world.

It’s about to be ELECTRIC in the Kohl Center!!

We’re sold out for Sunday’s game against Iowa.

See you there Badger fans! #OnWisconsin pic.twitter.com/8M75WXD8pT

— Wisconsin Women’s Basketball (@BadgerWBB) December 4, 2023

Next Game: Sunday, Dec. 10; vs. No. 4 Iowa Hawkeyes; 1:30 p.m. CT; BTN; Kohl Center

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