The mission that lies ahead for the University of Wisconsin women's basketball team is a fairly obvious one.

The Badgers are in the Women's National Invitation Tournament for the second straight year.

They finished second last year, losing to Wyoming 72-56 in the title game on the Cowgirls' home court.

They have plenty of frustration to take out after a disappointing season that saw them fall from preseason Big Ten Conference title contenders to losers on the opening night of the conference tournament -- as the eighth seed.

Only one thing could come close to making up for all the moments of anguish UW has experienced over the past five-plus months.

"Let's win it," Badgers senior guard Janese Banks said. "Why not? A championship is a championship. And we have an opportunity, so we might as well seize the moment."

As UW coach Lisa Stone pointed out to her team Tuesday at practice, only two teams in the nation will end the season with a win -- the NCAA tournament champion and the WNIT winner.

To be one of those two, though, the Badgers (16-13) -- who begin WNIT play by hosting Villanova (16-15) in a second-round game tonight at the UW Field House -- will need the kind of consistency that, for the most part, has eluded them all season. That 's been particularly true on the defensive end.

UW has allowed 80 or more points five times. Opponents have surpassed 70 points five more times. Nine of those aforementioned occasions came during Big Ten play, where the Badgers allowed 68.3 points per game -- second only to 10th-place finisher Penn State.

"Our defense hasn't shown up day-in and day-out, especially (in the) overtime games that we've had," said senior guard Jolene Anderson, referring to three losses -- at home against Wyoming and Michigan and at Iowa -- that could have changed UW's postseason destination. "We should have won every single one of them."

Stone thinks her team fouls too much -- opponents have shot 110 more free throws than the Badgers this season -- a problem that could stem from UW's propensity to get beat off the dribble.

But, above all else, the Badgers say they've simply given up too many easy baskets.

"Shot clock going down, we foul," Banks said. "Or they get layups. They just get easy buckets. And it's frustrating. You work so hard, you work so hard and it's like, 'Oh.' It's like an energy kill. It's just like a downer."

Stone is planning an offseason overhaul of the defense, with summer trips to see former Texas Tech coach Marsha Sharp and Mike Thibault, coach of the WNBA's Connecticut Sun, already in the works. Stone also plans to talk with UW men's coach Bo Ryan, whose team leads the country in scoring defense.

For now, though, all Stone can do is emphasize defense more in practice and hope it shows during what the Badgers hope will be a run of five games.

"We're at this level now, nobody should have to motivate you to play defense," Banks said. "You should want to get stops. You shouldn't want anybody to score on you."