It's not often the coach of a team that loses by 37 points is ecstatic about his team's performance, while the coach of the winner is challenged to put the best face on the game.
Welcome to the world of exhibition college basketball.
The University of Wisconsin women's basketball team closed out its two-game exhibition season Sunday with a 77-40 rout of UW-Superior before a crowd of 4,032 at the Kohl Center.
Afterward, the Yellowjackets posed for a team picture on the Kohl Center floor and coach Don Mulhern took his name card from the postgame interview room for a souvenir. The players fought any urge to join the
8-year-olds lined up to have their Badgers team posters autographed.
"Our players, since last year when we knew we were going to play against the Badgers, have been thinking about this game," Mulhern said. "It may be a little bit corny, but our players had a wonderful weekend. Everybody, to a T, on this campus has treated us with the utmost respect and dignity, and I mean everybody. It's been a treat for us."
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Meanwhile, UW coach Lisa Stone was a little less giddy about the whole experience. Sure, her team jumped out to a 14-0 lead and generally dominated the way a Big Ten Conference team is supposed to when it plays an inferior Division III opponent.
But even the normally optimistic Stone had to remind herself of the positives.
"There are some good things that happened and I want to make sure our players are aware of that," Stone said, singling out the play of seniors Tara Steinbauer (18 points, 9 rebounds) and Lin Zastrow (12 points, 7 rebounds) around the basket, as well as the contributions of freshman Jada Buggs (6 points, 5 rebounds), junior Ashley Thomas (2 points, 2 assists) and senior Emily Neal (3 points, 4 assists) off the bench.
"But we have a lot of things to work on. We were flat today. We all know we can be better than we were today. But that's what exhibition games are for."
The Badgers capitalized on their size advantage with the 6-foot-4 Zastrow making her first six shots of the game and the 6-1 Steinbauer taking control in the second half when she made five of six attempts. Superior had no starter taller than 6-foot.
"When you're 6-4 and the person next to you is 5-10 or 6-foot," Zastrow said, "you look for that and your teammates are looking for you and the coaches are telling them to get it in there."
Nevertheless, the Badgers, playing without their top two point guards - Alyssa Karel (knee) and Tiera Stephen (concussion) - at times struggled to find their offensive rhythm and committed 16 turnovers.
Sophomore Taylor Wurtz handled the point guard duties for much of the game, with freshman Morgan Paige and Neal also taking turns.
"For the most part I thought we did a decent job," Stone said.
Stone said Stephen should be available for the regular season opener Friday at Saint Louis, while Karel is expected to be out for a couple weeks.