New college basketball coaching eras begin at UW-Madison, Marquette

College basketball fans across Wisconsin are celebrating the start of a new season Tuesday.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison men and Marquette University women reached the NCAA tournaments last year. Meanwhile, their counterparts saw coaching changes. Marisa Moseley and Wisconsin native Shaka Smart will make their debuts this week.

Here’s what fans can expect as basketball season gets underway.

Badgers men look to gain experience

The Badgers will take on St. Francis on Tuesday. The team is eager to face outside competition, said head coach Greg Gard.

“It’s going to stimulate us, it’s going to cause some adversity, it’s going to cause some stress, which is good,” he said. “And that’s how we’ll grow and prepare as we go forward into the season.”

Last year, the team reached the second round of the NCAA tournament. Now, the Badgers have a young roster, and it’ll benefit from experience, Gard said. He’s still unsure who will play off the bench, he said. The team has several promising young underclassmen, including Jonathan Davis, Chucky Hepburn, Steven Crowl and Ben Carlson.

“The depth this team can have, I think, is a benefit and a strength of this team,” Gard said. “I think there are a lot of unknowns that even I don’t know the answer to that I’m going to watch unfold in front of us.”

Former Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan will make his official return Friday when the Badgers take on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, where Ryan’s son is head coach. Ryan usually heads south for winter before the start of basketball season so Friday will be special, said Gard, who coached under Ryan for years.

“I didn’t think he could play golf every day of his retirement, but he has proven me wrong,” Gard joked.

Marquette men and women are in action Tuesday

Men’s head coach Shaka Smart coached his first preseason game at Marquette last week.

“It really didn’t matter that it was an exhibition game. It really didn’t matter that it was a Division II opponent,” said the Wisconsin native. “We just wanted to play in Fiserv Forum — our home floor — in front of some of our fans.”

Smart previously coached at Texas and Virginia Commonwealth University, taking both teams to the NCAA tournament. Marquette was 13-14 last season, and the Golden Eagles have lots of new players on the roster this year. The team will face SIU Edwardsville on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Marquette women will open their season Tuesday against Alcorn State. The Golden Eagles, led by head coach Megan Duffy, are returning 10 players from last season when they made their fourth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance — the longest streak of any Division I team in the state.

Moseley and Badgers women open season against St. Thomas

Marisa Moseley will open her first season as head coach against St. Thomas on Wednesday. She’s really excited, she told reporters this week.

The Badgers went 5-19 last season. Building confidence among the players is an important first step, said Moseley, who won five national championships as an assistant at the University of Connecticut. The Badgers won their exhibition game against the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh last week.

“I feel like we’re in that state right now where our kids really understand and expect to win,”she said.

Before the UW-Oshkosh game, she heard players in the locker room say, “Let’s beat them by 50!”

“I’m like, ‘OK, I like the passion. We haven’t even played one game yet,’” she joked. “But that mindset of them thinking we’re at a different level already is half the battle.”

She said she hopes fans see passion and excitement from the team this season.

“There’s going to be a hard nose way that we play, so we’re going to compete, and we’re going to get after it, and they’re going to enjoy playing the game,” she said. “Fundamentally sound, that we’re going to make the right pass and the right screen, and we’re getting rebounds at the right time.”

She wants fans to feel like the Badgers are on the right path, she said.

Over the weekend, Moseley and her staff visited the farmer’s market in Madison, where they gave away 500 tickets for Sunday’s game against NJIT.