IU travels to Bowling Green State to take on two-time defending MAC Champ

If the members of IU women's basketball team seem to have a little extra confidence early on this season, they've certainly earned it.\nThe Hoosiers have sprinted out of the gate to a 7-1 record in their first year with coach Felisha Legette-Jack, their best start since the 2000-01 season, when IU started 7-0. The Hoosiers have already beaten two teams from last year's NCAA Tournament, both times on the road.\n"I think the coaches are doing a good job of preparing us," said junior guard Nikki Smith. "(Assistant) Coach (Vera) Jones is a really good scout. We're always well-prepared. We just go into every game with the attitude like we're just going to go out and play our hardest."\nThe Hoosiers will challenge another team coming off a NCAA tournament appearance tonight when they travel to Ohio to take on Bowling Green State University. The Falcons are the two-time defending champions of the Mid-American Conference and have already built up a 4-1 record this season.\n"We're going to have to come out and play great defense to stop their penetration," senior guard Leah Enterline said. "They have some great 3-point shooters, so we'll have to be able to get out and contest them. They have a couple post shooters that are great from the outside as well as the inside, so we'll have to be smart on defense and know where their key players are."\nFor Legette-Jack, the game will be a reunion of sorts. She and Falcon head coach Curt Miller worked on the same coaching staff at Syracuse University from 1994-1998.\n"I've always admired his intellect about the game," Legette-Jack said about Miller. "He's a very good X-and-O coach. He knows how to find kids who can play his system."\nLegette-Jack said Miller and the Falcons are in good shape to qualify for the NCAA Tournament again this year but has no reservations about beating her former colleague's team. \n"We just hope he takes one step back before taking five steps forward, and that step back is when they play Indiana," she said.\nFor IU, one of the keys to stopping the Falcons will be shutting down their 3-point shooters. In Bowling Green State's last game, an 89-58 win against Oakland University, the Falcons hit 12 3-pointers. On the season, the Falcons have hit 44 percent of the 3-pointers they attempted and have averaged 81.2 points per game.\n"We know they're a great 3-point shooting team, so we want to take that away and just play our game," said sophomore forward Whitney Thomas. "If we play Indiana basketball like Coach Jack has been telling us from the beginning, then we should be OK."\nThe game will be the second game in a three-game road trip for the Hoosiers. Last Sunday the Hoosiers beat Notre Dame 54-51 in South Bend. This Sunday they travel to Fort Wayne to play IU-Purdue Fort Wayne.\n"This is like a Western here," Legette-Jack said. "It's never really about the basketball game. It's about the lessons we're going to learn through the game. This one seems really tough and nearly impossible, but that's why you play the game of basketball because you don't know the outcome until you finish the game"