Hoosiers open season at home

Wednesday, coach Kathi Bennett ended practice early. She'd been stressing the importance of the transition game throughout the scrimmage but wasn't getting what she wanted.\nInstead of yelling more, she ended practice, sent the team to shoot their free-throws and retreated to her office.\n"Minus today, we've been doing a good job," Bennett said. "Now we're going to play for real, and see where we're at and which players will come to play. We want to play great defense. I feel that you want to put yourself in a position to make teams beat you. How you do that is to play great defense, do a better job of taking care of the ball, and have great shot selection."\nBennett hopes what she has been pounding into the team will appear this Friday, as the Hoosiers face the University of Washington at 4 p.m. in Assembly Hall.\nIU didn't perform at the level Bennett said she had hoped it would in the two exhibition games. The team only played 12 minutes of defense in the loss against the Lady Reebok All-Stars, she said. The team showed improvement in defense in the win against Tapiolan Honka, but that improvement was overshadowed by the team's 24 turnovers.\n"We saw a lot of things we need to change," junior center Jill Chapman said. "Our transition defense slips away from us at the end of the game, so we need to make sure we play the whole 40 minutes. We kind of improved in our second game, but we need to be patient because it'll come."\nWashington returns all five starters from last year. Sophomore guard Loree Payne will be sidelined with a stress fracture. But the Huskies have senior guard Megan Franza, who averaged 17.2 points per game, and with Payne, was the highest scoring duo in the Pac-10 last year.\nThis game will kickoff not only the new season, but the new coaching staff. \n"People on the team are older, and the freshmen are playing really well," Chapman said. "We are competing every day, and the new coaching staff provides an entirely different atmosphere. We do more to get fundamentally prepared and focused. It's a lot better."\nIn addition to three freshmen, the team can use forward Erin McGinnis and center Jelena Lazic, juniors who had to sit out last season because of transfer rules. The Hoosiers count on big performances from junior guard Heather Cassady and senior guard Rainey Alting, who were named co-captains of the team.\n"I hope there is some separation where we get some consistency from a few players," Bennett said. "We're looking for that, and hopefully as we play our first few games we figure out what the rotation is going to be. But right now, I feel that our depth is good, but I would like to see some separation."\n \nSignee \nJenny DeMuth of Highland, Ind., has signed a letter of intent to play with the Hoosiers next season. DeMuth, a 5-foot-11 forward, averaged 23.1 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. She was a 2001 Miss Basketball candidate and earned AAU All-America honors playing for Mohr Magic.