GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — Dancing for the 21st time in program history, the No. 13 seed UW-Green Bay women’s basketball team on Friday takes on No. 4 seed Minnesota at Williams Arena, looking to get their first NCAA tournament win since 2012.
“You get to this point in the season and it’s like anybody, anywhere, anytime—just give me the opportunity,” said Phoenix head coach Kayla Karius.
Karius is quite familiar with Gophers head coach Dawn Plitzuweit, having coached under her at the University of South Dakota from 2016 to 2018. She took over the Coyotes program in 2022 when Plitzuweit left for West Virginia.
“I've learned so much from working under her,” Karius said. “I just think she has an incredible work ethic and does things the right way. In fact, there’s a lot from her program that I’ve held onto and modeled a few things after.”
Plitzuweit's Minnesota defense is stingy—allowing only 57.9 points per game, which is 30th in the country and second in the Big Ten. Karius and her players say the Gophers have a lot of size.
“Not to mention just the mentality of that defense comes first,” said the Horizon League Coach of the Year. “I think that this is probably the best defensive team we've seen.”
Dancing for the third year in a row, participating in March Madness is the standard. Karius has now led the Phoenix to the NCAA tournament in the two years she’s been at the helm. This is why players transferred into the program last spring.
“It makes me smile because I know how badly they wanted it and I know that they wanted to come here for that reason,” Karius said.
“It's cool to work towards this goal and then actually see it come (to fruition) and then obviously, we want to continue on and win,” said senior guard Maddy Skorupski, who transferred in from Oakland last year. “We’re not just, oh, we did it, we’re done. It's, we want more.”
As for how her Horizon League champion squad can get the upset, Karius says she can see the will in her team. There’s been a different look in there’s eyes lately.
“I draw confidence from the fact that we have gamers on our team,” she said. “We have players who have been waiting their whole lives for this moment.”
“I know that we have what it takes," said Horizon League Player of the Year senior forward Jenna Guyer. "We've, we've been in really close games with, you know, losses to Washington, Wisconsin, where we feel really confident from those that we could have pulled it out.”
The Phoenix take on the Gophers at The Barn Friday at 5 p.m.
