Team hopes for happy homecoming against Badgers

There's no place like home. At least that's what the IU women's basketball team hopes.\nAfter two tough road losses in the last week to Ohio State and Michigan, the Hoosiers return home to Assembly Hall to take on Wisconsin at 7 p.m. Thursday.\n"We're coming back home and that's exciting," IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. "Our kids are learning their lessons from the last week, which was a tough week with Ohio State and Michigan. Our goal is to continue to get better."\nThe homestand follows a stretch of games in which the Hoosiers played at three of the toughest road venues in the Big Ten in a span of four games.\nAside from IU's Jan. 21 home game against Purdue, the Hoosiers have played on the road against Michigan, Ohio State and Purdue since Jan. 14.\n"It's good we have our fans at home," sophomore forward Whitney Thomas said. "When we're on the road it's tough with all their fans. We'll have our fans for this game and it will bring a lot more energy, which we need right now."\nIn IU's last game, a 65-63 loss against Michigan last Sunday, the Hoosiers saw an 18-3 early lead slip away. The Wolverines came away with a win in the last minute of the game.\n"We learn from every game and we know we have to play until the end," Thomas said. "It's the Big Ten and it's getting to the end of the season. Everyone wants to get into the post-season."\nThe loss against Michigan was the fifth loss in a row for the Hoosiers (13-9, 2-7 Big Ten). But despite the Hoosiers' recent struggles, they remain upbeat.\n"We still know that our hopes aren't done," freshman guard Jamie Braun said. "We have seven more games, and we've played some really tough teams. Now we're getting towards the end, we just want to play hard and see if we can get seven wins."\nOne of the keys to stopping the Badgers (16-6, 5-4 Big Ten) is containing junior guard Jolene Anderson, a player Legette-Jack knows quite well. Anderson was a member of the 2005 USA U-19 basketball team, where Legette-Jack served as an assistant coach.\n"She was a quiet kid on our team, and for some reason her and I connected personality-wise," Legette-Jack said. "I really enjoyed coaching her and know she's going to be a force for Wisconsin every year."\nLegette-Jack recalled a time when the team was in California and a player knocked Anderson down.\n"She walked over to the bench and said, 'Coach, I have these in my hand,'" Legette-Jack said. "It was her two front teeth. She had knocked her two front teeth out and wanted to know when she could get back in."\nThe coach said she knows it is this type of attitude that she will be facing from the whole Badger squard.\n"Their energy is just contagious," Legette-Jack said. "The electricity that coach (Lisa) Stone gives to her team -- they just feed off her. They don't ever die"