The Badger women's basketball team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is not the school's most prominent. Even if you consider the historical disparity in American college sports, at the least, the university's women's ice hockey and volleyball teams would probably be prioritized over the basketball team. Something that traditionally wouldn't be true at many if not most other major universities in the United States.
Much of that is probably to do with many of the basketball team's performances in recent years. It's, of course, not to say that the Badger fanbase wouldn't love to see a successful women's basketball team.
And a report from WDJT indicates that the quest for one continues.
Head coach Jonathan Tsipis fired
According to USA Today, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has fired head coach Jonathan Tsipis. The move came very shortly after the Badgers were eliminated from the Big Ten Tournament. Tsipis might have been let go after the season was over anyway. But the convincing fashion in which it happened in a blowout loss to Illinois may have hastened things.
Tsipis left the head coach at George Washington University in the District of Columbia to join Wisconsin. At George Washington, Tsipis had immense success in conference play. With the Badgers, he scored some of the highest-ranked recruits in the country.
But those results didn't often translate on the court.
It remains to be seen who might be selected to succeed Tsipis. Or what could be the next move for Jonathan Tsipis? He was the first male head coach in the history of the program.
The Badger women's basketball team has had good results in its history
For many Wisconsin fans, it could seem like a whole other lifetime ago.
But the women's basketball team was, at least at one point, rather consistently good. The team has thus far never had much success regarding the NCAA Tournament. But, when the timing has been correct, it's had some outstanding success at the Women's National Invitation Tournament.
The program arguably peaked so far during the head coaching tenures of Jane Albright and Madison native Lisa Stone.
They were followed by Bobbie Kelsey and then Tsipis. Albright had less fruitful stints at Wichita State University and Nevada's University, Reno, afterward before retiring. Stone has continued coaching, currently leading the women's basketball team at Saint Louis University.
The hopes of the university and its fanbase are likely to be two quality Badgers basketball teams simultaneously and in the not too distant future. For the last quarter-century or so, the Badger men's team has been among the country's top programs.
