Transfer looking to improve guard play

Experience will not be something the women's basketball team will be lacking this season. The team's top two returnees -- seniors Jill Chapman and Heather Cassady -- have started a combined 153 games in their college careers.\nWhat a luxury, then, that coach Kathi Bennett was able to add junior Kristen Bodine to her squad. \nBodine, a transfer from Butler who sat out last season but practiced with the team, is penciled in to start at the point guard for the Hoosiers this season. \nWhile this will be Bodine's first season suiting up for Indiana, she has already started 25 games at the college level, and in 2000 was named second team All-Midwest Collegiate conference after she led the Bulldogs in scoring (12.2 ppg) and assists (5.2 apg).\n"(Kristen is) a fierce competitor. Kristen is someone that hates to lose," Bennett said. "When the game's on the line, she's going to find a way to get it done, and I think her biggest asset is how much of a competitor she is."\nAdding the 5'11'' Martinsville High School graduate will also allow the team to move Cassady to the shooting guard spot when Bodine is on the floor. \nBennett hopes this will help the team in several ways. She hopes having a Bodine-Cassady backcourt will help free up Cassady for more scoring chances, improve the team's transition game and help the team take care of the ball more efficiently.\n"When Kristen is in, Heather is going to be the two, and I think it frees Heather up, because she's such a great shooter and she has such a quick release," Bennett said. "Heather does a great job of coming off screens. So I think two is a position where she is really going to excel in.\n"I feel like I have two top-notch point guards. When they're both on the floor, hopefully we can take care of the ball really well."\nWith the Hoosiers coming of a campaign where the team barely missed the NCAA tournament, this season will be key for the program taking the next step. The addition of Bodine will help make that step a little easier.\n"Who wouldn't like to be relied on. I want to be able to help the team. I want to be part of the success of the program," Bodine said. "They already showed last year how successful they can be. I'm just hoping I can add to it."\nCassady believes the addition of Bodine is sure to improve the team's already strong backcourt play.\n"Kristen brings a lot of things. She can penetrate, and she gets to the middle really well," Cassady said. "She can penetrate and dish, or if my player doesn't help, she can just take it to the hole."\nBodine is excited to play along side one of the top shooters in the conference and she said she thinks Cassady compliments her game very well and vice versa.\n"I just know that she's a tremendous shooter. We're going to try to get her in a position where she can score," Bodine said. "I've always been the one to give up the ball, push it up the floor, find the open person. But I'm not afraid to let her run the one and have me come off screens."\nComing off a season in which she was a second team All-Big Ten selection, Cassady said she believes the addition of Bodine gives IU two of the Big Ten's best guards.\n"She'll be one of the best point guards in the conference. Kristen's an incredible player," Cassady said. "I think we're starting to get to know each other a lot better. I'm really looking forward to playing along side her this season"