Former Kimberly star Maddy Schreiber hopes to pave way for UWGB women's return to the NCAA Tournament

GREEN BAY – The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay women’s basketball team fell one win short of going to the NCAA Tournament last season.

But it was fair for Phoenix coach Kevin Borseth to wonder if his group would have made the Big Dance had Maddy Schreiber been healthy, something he said before this season would have made a big difference.

“I think Maddy last year was arguably our best player and significant contributor when she went down,” Borseth said.

The 6-foot junior guard-forward and former Kimberly standout is proving his point in UWGB’s first eight games now that she’s fully recovered from a torn labrum.

Schreiber is averaging career highs in points (12.1 ppg), rebounds (4.3 rpg), shooting percentage (58.8), 3-point percentage (45.5) and minutes (27.3 mpg) for a squad that is 5-3 entering a contest against Illinois-Chicago at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Kress Center.

“I feel really good about my game,” Schreiber said. “I feel like each game as a team collectively, we are starting to click with one another. We are starting to figure things out. Figure out our identity.

“That is also helping me and my game and get a flow in the game and figuring out kind of where I’m at in my role on the floor. That has helped a lot. Coming back from last year with an injury, I was unsure of where I was going to be at.”

Schreiber no longer has uncertainties. She is playing with confidence for a team that has upset two nationally ranked squads in Creighton and Washington State and is the favorite to win the Horizon League.

Schreiber works hard to get back on court for the Phoenix

Her sophomore year ended after a game at Cleveland State on Jan. 14, although she didn’t know it at the time.

She exhausted every possible option after sustaining her injury with hopes of returning before the end of the season.

Schreiber worked with Dr. Patrick McKenzie, a renowned orthopedic surgeon for Bellin Health Titletown Sports Medicine and Orthopedics who also serves as team physician for the Green Bay Packers.

McKenzie told her he didn’t want to do surgery unless it was absolutely necessary. But when nothing worked to restore her health, Schreiber and Borseth sat down for a conversation.

“He was like, ‘If you don’t feel 100%, I think we should call it good for this year,’” Schreiber said. “I kind of agreed at the end of the day after exploring all those options. Your health is the most important thing.”

Schreiber’s shoulder issue actually started at the beginning of last season, when she dealt with lingering pain. She did her usual treatments on it and wasn’t concerned, but it kept growing more troublesome as the year progressed.

She remembers getting whipped over another player’s back during a game while attempting to grab a rebound and believes that moment is what sent her injury over the edge.

A likely partial tear of her labrum became a full tear, along with a few other smaller issues.

Schreiber underwent surgery Feb. 10. There wasn’t much she could do for rehab other than wait.

One month turned to two. Three months turned to four.

“A shoulder, you have to let it scar tissue so that everything stays set,” Schreiber said. “You really aren’t doing a whole lot. You are trying to get your range of motion back very slowly. It’s a very slow process, and then all of a sudden, you finally hit that four-month mark and they are like, ‘Alright, you get to do this. You get to do that.’

“You start to progress really fast after that, but the first couple months is kind of rough. You don’t get to do a whole lot.”

Schreiber finally advanced to noncontact drills during the summer. She worked on dribbling and started to shoot before progressing to a point where she was fully cleared.

She isn’t surprised at her promising start to the season, mostly because of the work she put in before it started.

UWGB players have August off, but it didn’t stop Schreiber from working out “like crazy” while at home. She was determined to be ready to go for her teammates by the time they returned to campus.

It’s gone as well as can be hoped, if not better.

Schreiber never dealt with a serious injury during her high school days or her first season at UWGB.

She’s had sprained ankles and tweaks like any player, but never missed significant time. She started 26 games for the Papermakers as a senior in 2020-21 while leading the team to 25 wins and appeared in all 27 of UWGB’s games as a freshman while starting 18.

It was difficult not playing, but Schreiber found ways to get better while idle.

“I’m learning things and being able to cheer on my teammates and their successes,” she said. “Took it as advantage of seeing it from an outsider’s perspective and being able to watch off the court.

“Mentally, yeah, it was hard. But I had a lot of great people to get me through it, and I’m glad to be back.”

UWGB hopes to make NCAAs

The Phoenix also is happy to have one of its stars return.

Schreiber has scored double figures in each of the last four games, including a career-high 23 in a win at in-state rival UW-Milwaukee last month that kicked off Horizon League play.

She had another big game in a loss at DePaul last Tuesday, finishing with 16 points and 6 rebounds while shooting 7-for-12.

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The Phoenix has not made the NCAAs since 2018, but if it stays healthy, it appears this could be the season it finally gets back.

“Our goal, obviously, is to get there,” Schreiber said. “We talk about how we are a good team, and we have to believe that and we have to go out there and believe we are capable of the things we are capable of.

“At the same time, you can’t be overlooking the teams we have to play. It’s each game at a time. You are focusing on each opponent, but at the end of the day, that’s our main goal.”

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Maddy Schreiber is making a big impact for UWGB women's basketball