Andy Bagot
UWBadgers.com Insider
Julia Pospisilova She’s approaching a personal milestone she never thought was feasible: a first-of-its-kind achievement that deserves a spot on the Wisconsin women’s basketball record book.
Pospisilova, a six-foot senior guard from Prague, Czech Republic, is looking to score her 1,000th point. As Badger prepares for 1st Indiana, she has her 971 for the weekend.
Dating back to 1981, Pospisilova is the 28th member of UW’s 1,000 Points Club, but the first born outside the United States. .
“I think it’s a big deal, but I didn’t expect to reach 1,000 at the same time,” Pospisilova said after a recent practice.
why not?
“Well, come on, I wasn’t really a big scorer,” she said.
Pospisilova was a teenage prominence in the Czech Republic. She played for her national team at the European Championships and won two gold medals. Her all-around game caught the eye of a US college coach when she was participating in a student exchange program at her Grove Downers (Illinois) North High School.
Former UW coach Jonathan Chipis brought Pospisilova to Madison, where he scored a modest 5.1 points per game and 8.9 points as a sophomore before the coaching changes were made.
input Marisa Moseley, a former Boston University coach in the system that had room for multi-faceted talent like Pospisilova. That is, Pospisilova took more shots in his junior year (381) than in his first two his season total (376), leading the Badgers with a 14.1 average.
In less than two seasons under Moseley (35 games to date), Pospisilova has scored in double figures 36 times, compared to 10 in her freshman and sophomore years. She is currently pacing the Badgers in points, rebounds, assists and steals and is in contention for 11th place.th The player who leads UW in scoring in consecutive seasons in the program’s history.
Moseley said Pospisilova has a high IQ for games and is “someone who can see what I see and understand the reasons behind it”. 32 points, 9 assists, 9 rebounds, 6 steals and 4 blocked shots.
“She did some really great things while we were together,” Moseley said.
Pospisilova believes her play on the defensive end has improved under Moseley, stating that she has “got the ball in my hands and can see the floor”.
One area Moseley hopes to extract more from Pospisilova is in the area of leadership.
Moseley said of the captain, “We tried to push her a little bit to be more vocal, to step outside of her comfort zone, to be a role model as well as a verbal leader.” , especially in moments where there are language differences. ”
The primary language of the Czech Republic is Czech. Pospisilova registered English as a second language, replaced by a cautious and thoughtful tone. She majored in Finance and International Business and has been awarded Academic All-Big Her Ten twice. She is one of her nine UW players to come to the Badgers from another country.
“Sometimes she can’t say what she wants to say,” Moseley said. Considering how beautiful she speaks the language and how well she’s doing academically, it’s a testament to her and how wired she is.”
In addition to embracing a new language and culture, Pospisilova, despite calling herself an introvert, had to learn new playing systems and forge new relationships with coaches.
“Sometimes it’s hard to get to know me,” she pointed out.
“She’s a pretty alert person,” Moseley confirmed.
Moseley was asked if he knew why Pospisilova was upset.
“I’m not sure,” said the second-year coach. That’s one of her challenges when she and I just spent her two years together.
“I know she’s a competitor and I want to win. I’m trying to figure out if I should press the button.”
Another hurdle for Pospisilova is that her college career has revolved around struggling programs. The Badgers are 30-70 overall while in Madison and 11-50 in the league.
Pospisilova said she plans to savor success in exchange for pending milestones.
“Sure. I wish I could play in the NCAA Tournament,” she said.
However, the reconstruction has a bright side.
“We haven’t had our best season, but we’re definitely laying a good foundation for the future,” said Pospisilova. rice field. I left here ”
Moseley echoed that sentiment.
“We talk about it quite a bit,” she said. “This may not be the group seeing[the breakthrough]but this group looks like the architect behind it.”
“It’s not easy to build anything. There are supply issues. There are worker issues. There are time delays. All these things happen when you’re building a building.”
“We’re building this program and it doesn’t always go the way we want it to. But we need these basic ingredients to be able to build. Laying it all down, without someone like Julie, without someone like Brooke[Schlamek], Wilkemat Even if you come here and see the vision, you can’t make a breakthrough. Otherwise it’s mush, quicksand. Suddenly it really falls apart. You need a really strong foundation. ”
The youngest of three, Pospisilova is looking forward to seeing her parents, Pavlina and Martin, for Senior Day in late February. Her brothers, Adela and David, visited last season. Pospisilova said her parents watch every Wisconsin game on her BTN Plus.
Pospisilova admitted that she considered moving after the coaching changes were made, but chose to stay because of the relationships she had built within the team.
“This is a good foundation for my future,” she said, adding that 20 years from now, her most enduring memories will be of her family inside the UW locker room.
“My team is my second family and I can always rely on them no matter what,” she said.
When Pospisilova looks back, she’ll be proud to remember the milestone she’s been chasing.
“It’s really nice to be able to leave this footprint here after the work is done,” she said.