Hope springs eternal, and sometimes the hope matures into the desired result. We can see this very clearly in the current Wisconsin sports environment. The Pack is on top, holding the Super Bowl trophy and undefeated so far. The Brewers are a step away from playing in the World Series. The Badger football team is undefeated and in the mix for the national championship. So who's to say that the UW women's basketball team can't be a world-beater too?
In our cover story this week, veteran sports writer and Isthmus contributor Vic Feuerherd interviews new UW women's basketball coach Bobbie Kelsey and investigates her history and philosophy. With her pedigree and preparation, she seems a likely candidate to nurture the hopes of the UW's women's program to success.
The Badger women cagers have a spotted history, and not a lot of those spots are bright. There's been a lot of promise, usually identified each time a new coach takes the helm. But each successive regime - and they are painfully enumerated by Feuerherd - somehow squanders that optimism and in the end achieves futility.
But new coach Kelsey is undeterred by history. (Or the weather. Maybe she's been fooled by the recent balminess and thinks it's not so different from California, whence she came.) She sees the makings of an elite program here, and she is pursuing it by holding her players to elite standards. It's true that the only ones who can ensure success on the floor are the players.
The coaching staff chooses and prepares those players to contend. We won't go into what happens to the coaching staff when the players fail to deliver. Right now we are dealing in optimism...and hope springs eternal.
