The Wisconsin Badgers previously battled hard to bring back a top women’s basketball player who was considering the transfer portal.
Ronnie Porter, a senior guard, has spent her entire career thus far with Wisconsin and the guard has earned a reputation over the past two seasons as a workhorse. Porter has averaged more than 32 minutes per game in both of her seasons as a starter. The guard has started 62 games including one start during her freshman year.
Wisconsin lost virtually the entire roster to the transfer portal after the resignation of coach Marisa Moseley, and even Porter had considered entering as well. Despite packing her bags and planning on leaving Madison for good, the Badgers were able to persuade the guard to finish her collegiate career with the program and under new coach Robin Pingeton.
Pingeton is bringing new talent, new experience, and a whole new outlook on basketball to the Wisconsin Badgers and that includes a new plan involving how to utilize Porter. Pingeton recently spoke about the usage of Porter last season and how it will be important to find a way to reduce the minutes the guard plays each game.
Wisconsin Badgers Guard Ronnie Porter Set to Receive Minutes Reduction, More Bench Help
With new talent comes new opportunities and the Wisconsin Badgers will not look like the same team on the court under coach Pingeton. Whether the results will be better or not is still unknown, but the team will certainly play differently than Badgers have in years past.
For Porter, Wisconsin is going to utilize the guard as the main facilitator and playmaker for the offense while allowing forward Gift Uchenna Okeke to do most of the dirty work in the paint. Previously, Porter was the best guard and most capable all-around guard on the team by far. Porter did not have enough help on the roster, but Wisconsin now has a team that will rely heavily on guard play.
Destiny Howell is arguably the top transfer the Wisconsin Badgers added and the guard is more than capable shooting from outside. Howell averaged 14.9 points per game last season while shooting 34.3% from long-range. The guard will almost certainly take some of the pressure off of the shoulders of Porter while also providing a great outside option for Porter to kick to.
Porter is by far one of the best players who has played for the program over the past three seasons, and reducing the minutes of the guard is in no ways meant to be a negative thing. Rather, Porter will have the chance to rest and the offense should no longer have to rely upon the guard facilitating play for the team to find positive results.
For the Wisconsin Badgers, the previous pairing of Carter McCray and Ronnie Porter was a dangerous one and when the guard is given a capable big on the floor the opportunities are endless. Porter will have the chance to do so this upcoming season, but the addition of new outside help should make for an interesting shift in how Porter plays.
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