Marisa Moseley and Wisconsin sued by five former players

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Five former Wisconsin women’s basketball players have filed a lawsuit saying they received psychological abuse from ex-Badgers coach Marisa Moseley and that the university responded with “a policy of laissez-faire inaction.”

The lawsuit filed Friday in federal court lists the Wisconsin Board of Regents, Moseley and former Wisconsin associate athletic director for external communications Justin Doherty as defendants. The plaintiffs are Lexi Duckett, Krystyna Ellew, Mary Ferrito, Tara Stauffacher and Tessa Towers.

The lawsuit was first reported by the Wisconsin State Journal.

Moseley announced in March that she was resigning for personal reasons. She went 47-75 in four seasons.

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There are a lot women's college coaches (present and past) that this will impact if the players are successful. A number of BIG women basketball coaches especially. I hope the Wisconsin players win the case. There is no place for mental abuse in women's sports by these lunatic coaches. The AAU coaches, players, and their parents can rattle these bad coaches names off one by one. The sad part is that the athletic directors know the problem and do nothing about it. The players need to file against the ADs as well. They are a big part of the problem. Go Bucky.

Bunyan said:

There are a lot women's college coaches (present and past) that this will impact if the players are successful. A number of BIG women basketball coaches especially. I hope the Wisconsin players win the case. There is no place for mental abuse in women's sports by these lunatic coaches. The AAU coaches, players, and their parents can rattle these bad coaches names off one by one. The sad part is that the athletic directors know the problem and do nothing about it. The players need to file against the ADs as well. They are a big part of the problem. Go Bucky.

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I don’t disagree with this at all.. I would add that there are more lunatic / delusional parents then coaches…

Amazing to hear Dawn Pretzelwhite speak about gopher basketball. Huge improvement over the communication skills of Ben and Lindsay.

Bunyan said:

There are a lot women's college coaches (present and past) that this will impact if the players are successful. A number of BIG women basketball coaches especially. I hope the Wisconsin players win the case. There is no place for mental abuse in women's sports by these lunatic coaches. The AAU coaches, players, and their parents can rattle these bad coaches names off one by one. The sad part is that the athletic directors know the problem and do nothing about it. The players need to file against the ADs as well. They are a big part of the problem. Go Bucky.

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Care to identify the abusing current/former BIG coaches, or at least the ones that are well known to AAU coaches, players and families? Other than Moseley and Sharon Versyp, don't know who you are talking about.

100%

BigTenGuy said:

Care to identify the abusing current/former BIG coaches, or at least the ones that are well known to AAU coaches, players and families? Other than Moseley and Sharon Versyp, don't know who you are talking about.

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As much as I would like to, I'll leave that up to the parents and families to out these abusive coaches publicly. However, a telling sign is the massive player and coach turnover in a program. Kinda like two years ago with Minnesota WBB. Look at the article written about Penn State WBB coach Kieger last year about her player abuse. She is still there, and no one said a word. There are a lot of abusive coaches, and once the word gets out, these coaches are not getting commits (at least top tier) and if they do get top tier players, they won't be staying for long.

The complaint has kind of bizarre information. Usually complaints in these situations are more about coaches ignoring or downplaying mental issues whereas Moseley sounds like she was overly involved in at least one players mental health.

It is strange that a coach would act this way. It is still wrong, but you can sort of see why from a coach's competitive perspective that they might think pushing a player too hard or think that berating a player might make them play harder. But getting overly involved in their personal issues and creating divisions on the team does not seem to serve any purpose in winning games.

WoodburyTim said:

The complaint has kind of bizarre information. Usually complaints in these situations are more about coaches ignoring or downplaying mental issues whereas Moseley sounds like she was overly involved in at least one players mental health.

It is strange that a coach would act this way. It is still wrong, but you can sort of see why from a coach's competitive perspective that they might think pushing a player too hard or think that berating a player might make them play harder. But getting overly involved in their personal issues and creating divisions on the team does not seem to serve any purpose in winning games.

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I do agree with you, but put this in a coaches perspective. There is a major push right now to worry about mental health. Even at the high school level, there are trainings you take on mental health. Coaches are being told to take mental health more seriously. You see situations like Stanford women’s soccer where the program was blamed for a suicide. I am not saying what Coach Moseley did was correct. I am saying that coaches can’t seem to win.

For what it’s worth I very much enjoyed Marissa when she was in Minnesota. She had a big personality and reading some of the comments she said I can completely hear her saying. I do believe she meant to have humor behind them. I worked for the team both years she was here. She coached a bad team. Everyone needs someone to blame, that’s the world we are living in. She can learn from this, but I think being sued is over the top. Players definitely need to be advocates for themselves, but at what point do coaches too?

Moseley seemed off kilter at Wisconsin during her tenure:

She reportedly took offense at questions from Matt Wilke about the plan going forward; Wilke then transferred to Utah.

She lost her entire coaching staff after year 2, 1 to promotion, 1 to DIII and fired an ex UConn player (Caroline Doty). The pool of coaches wanting to join her was wanting, and the best she could do to find a #2 was to hire her old college coach who recently had been working in property management after being a high school coach. This seemed like hiring a security blanket.

Moseley also feuded with the local high school coaching association, refusing to appear at their annual clinic the year they gave the featured speaking spot to Lisa Bluder, who was joined by Caitlin Clark. The Marquette coach still showed up.

Moseley barked at Caitlin Clark during a game, reportedly saying to her “you’re not as good as you think you are.” You can’t imagine Coach P addressing an opposing player like that.

Wisconsin apparently at least sometimes asked departing players during her tenure to sign NDAs.