They've shared so many moments on the basketball court together.

Lisa Stone, the energetic point guard and Donna Freitag, the mellow post player.

They grew up together, played together at Oregon High School and then collegiately at Iowa.

When Stone took over as the coach at Drake in 2000, she hired Freitag as an assistant, just as she did when she arrived at the University of Wisconsin in 2003.

Monday, their paths officially diverged, though, when Freitag -- citing the desire for a new challenge -- announced she's retiring from coaching when her contract expires at the end of May.

"It's been a decision that I guess I've been thinking about for quite some time," said Freitag, who was the coach at Bradley from 1996 to 2000. "I don't think all of a sudden you come up with it one day and say, 'I want to do something different.'

"It's a process. I think it's evaluating everything, every day, and finally coming to a conclusion in the last weekend I guess, and really wanting to make a decision and moving forward."

For Freitag, that process began earlier this year. She said she doesn't feel burned out -- "I still have a lot of energy left, I still have a lot of love for the game left," she said -- but, at 46 years old, simply wants to use her talents elsewhere.

She informed Stone of her decision Sunday night, after UW's team awards banquet.

"I love Donna like a sister, and I'm going to miss her," Stone said.

Freitag said her contract -- all four assistants' deals are on a year-to-year basis -- had already been renewed for next year. And while she has yet to make up her mind as to where her career path will now take her, it won't be in basketball.

Freitag, who lives outside of Oregon, will remain in the area after completing her second stint as a UW assistant -- she also worked under Mary Murphy from 1986 to '94.

"In this world of basketball, or in coaching I should say, it's so all-consuming," Freitag said. "This is what we do, this is what we think, this is what we eat, this is what we sleep, and when it's time to maybe do something different, you're asked, 'Well, what are you going to do?' You're like, 'Well, I don't know,' because you don't think about other things.

"You are so consumed in what you're doing, and yet there are plenty of other things to do that I know I'll be happy at. It's just I need to investigate that and see where that path may lead me."

Freitag's departure might not be the only change on the Badgers' coaching staff, either.

Assistant Tasha McDowell, the team's defensive coordinator, is a finalist for the vacant coaching job at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, which will be moving to NCAA Division I next season.