WBIT Preview: Getting to Know the Wisconsin Badgers

Oregon State's Women's Basketball Invitational run starts this Thursday when the Beavers welcome the Wisconsin Badgers to Corvallis. This year's Badgers have pulled off some impressive wins, but enter the WBIT on a long losing streak. Here's what you need to know about Wisconsin.

The Badgers got off to a strong start to the season, winning seven of their first eight games, losing only a close contest against Marquette. While they dropped both their games in the Daytona Beach Classic, they rebounded with a huge upset of then 20th ranked Michigan State. The Badgers finished up their non conference slate with an 8-3 record.

In conference play, Wisconsin was able to play competitive against some of the Big 10's best, but were rarely able to pull off wins. They still managed to pull off some big upsets against Nebraska and Oregon, but against the rest of the conference's elite they came up short or were blown out. They finished the season on a 10 game losing streak, including a first round exit in the conference tournament against Illinois. They ended the year with a 13-17 overall record.

The Badgers are coached by Robin Pingeton, who is finishing up her first year with the team. Pingeton came to Madison after a 15 year stint as the head coach at Missouri. Pingeton kept the Tigers competitive in the SEC, and got them to the NCAA Tournament four years in a row from 2016 to 2019, but after a decline performance over the past couple seasons she and the Tigers parted ways.

On the court the Badgers are led by Destiny Howell. Howell is a graduate transfer from Howard, and has become the team's top scorer in her first season in Madison. She finished the year with 402 points, and was the team's best three point shooter, hitting 62 of her 161 attempts.

Kyrah Daniels, a junior transfer from Missouri State, gives the Badgers another strong perimeter shooter. The Badgers are a team that loves to shoot the three, hitting 17 of them in their upset over Oregon. The Beavers probably can't match Wisconsin's pace, so defending it is going to be one of the biggest tasks for Kennedie Shuler, Jenna Villa and Ally Schimel.

Another X-Factor is the Badgers line up is Gift Uchenna. Uchenna joined the Badgers by way of Southern Illinois, and has become Wisconsin's go to player for post scoring. She's also the team's best rebounder, averaging 6.9 per season. Defending Uchenna is going to be a problem for Oregon State, so this is going to be a game where the Beavers need a big performance from Lizzy Williamson.

While Wisconsin's losing record may point to this being a favorable match-up for the Beavers, this is a dangerous team. The grueling Big 10 schedule may have piled on the losses as the season wore on, but the Badgers still showed a lot of fire against some very good teams. Oregon State will have is going to have a tough time on its hands Thursday night. Tip off is set for 6 PM PT.