A tired and admittedly cranky Lisa Stone was rummaging through her mental Webster's Tuesday in search of the perfect word to describe what happened to the Wisconsin Badgers women's basketball team in its season opener Monday night at South Dakota State.

"Frenetic, that's the word, right?" she asked.

Told by a reporter that it's a good, descriptive word, Stone used it to describe UW's 64-44 loss to the Jackrabbits and then said it better be out of the Badgers' lexicon Thursday night when they face Drake at the Kohl Center.

"That's not who we are," she said. "We have to control the frenetic pace. We can't let their pressure speed us up."

That declaration will be put to the test against the Bulldogs, a team Stone says is very similar to the one the Badgers faced in South Dakota State. One difference, though, is that the Bulldogs are more inclined to pressure full court, a strategy bound to test UW's ability to control that frenetic pace.

Sifting through Monday night's boxscore provides a numerical account of just how poorly the Badgers held up against South Dakota State's defensive pressure. The most striking number? Twenty-three turnovers, including eight by point guard Rae Lin D'Alie. Contrast that with just five assists on 17 field goals.

"Twenty-three turnovers is not going to cut it," Stone said. "Our assist-to-turnover ratio is going to have to be a positive."

There are a number of other subtle hints, as well.

The Badgers were 17-for-50 from the field, a hint that UW was not very patient on offense. The fact the Badgers were outrebounded 31-7 on their offensive end indicates that the offensive impatience left UW little opportunity to position itself for offensive rebounds.

The Badgers also were 5-for-15 from the free throw line, including four misses on the front end of bonus situations in the first half.

Stone's message was simple. "We hit a brick wall suddenly," she said of the first half when the Badgers let a good start go for naught.

"Instead of us rallying, we went a lot of 1-on-1 offensively and 1-on-1 defensively. We didn't handle pressure collectively well enough,. We didn't make defensive stops collectively well enough.

"The message here is that we have to do this together.''

That message could get an extra push against Drake with some lineup changes Stone said she was contemplating. She was especially pleased with the play of freshmen forwards Anya Covington and Ashley Thomas, and one or both of them could find themselves on the floor for the opening tip.

One player not expected to be on the court is junior forward Mariah Dunham, who will miss her second straight game because of a back problem that Stone hopes is OK by the time UW plays Canisius Sunday afternoon.

"I'm not at all over-reacting," Stone said when discussing the possible lineup changes. "We have to get everybody to understand that we can't do this in individual pockets."