The Illinois women’s basketball team has reiterated one goal all season: to play late into March. 

The Illini will get a taste of the quick turnaround of the NCAA tournament starting Monday with three games in six days.

Illinois (14-9, 7-4 Big Ten) will start the stretch against Wisconsin (11-14, 3-9) on Monday night at Assembly Hall. The game will be the second matchup between the two teams in 15 days.

The first game ended in a 64-56 Illinois victory at the tail-end of another three-game stretch in a week for the Illini. Illinois should be fresher Monday, as the team is coming off of an eight-day break, one of its longest of the season.

“I think it helps,” head coach Matt Bollant said. “It’s hard to know. Sometimes when you’re playing well, you don’t want a break, but for the long run it’s definitely good for us to have a break, and we should be really fresh going in.”

Bollant, who has mostly used a six-player rotation this season, took advantage of the break by giving his players three days off.

“My body needed the break. I had a lot of wear and tear,” senior Adrienne GodBold said. “I feel better. My body is getting better.”

The reprieve also gave Illinois time to work on some of its weak spots heading into the final five games of Big Ten play.

“We’ve been working on our man defense,” junior Amber Moore said. “Getting better in our man defense and not having to rely on the Buzz. I know the Buzz creates a lot of opportunities for us, which is good, but we have to know how to defend man as well.”

The Buzz defense has helped Illinois force a conference-high 23.6 turnovers per game, but weaknesses in the man-to-man have given Illinois’ opponents plenty of opportunities to score. The Illini allow their opponents to shoot 41.0 percent from the field, the highest average in the conference.

Illinois has found success when it does even an average job of preventing its opponents from making shots and is 9-0 when its opponents shoot less than 40 percent from the field.

In the first meeting between the teams, Illinois was able to limit Wisconsin to 38.6 percent from the field, while forcing 27 turnovers.

“I think we can pressure them,” Moore said. “When we’re aggressive on defense, we can get more stops and having a lot of pressure on them will help.”

Wisconsin has lost two of its three games since its loss to Illinois, with the only win coming against last-place Indiana. The Badgers have not won a conference game outside of Madison, Wis., and have won only three Big Ten games, though they are the only conference team to beat No. 8 Penn State.

Illinois will continue its stretch of three games in six days at Penn State on Wednesday before hosting Indiana on Saturday. The eight-day break will be Illinois’ largest until the Big Ten Tournament in early March.

“It’s going to be a difficult week,” Bollant said. “We did it once before. We know what it’s like, but it’s a challenge for sure.“

Johnathan can be reached at [email protected] and @jhett93.