Hoosiers open Big Ten tourney in Indy tonight against Iowa

After playing 29 games this year, it’s No. 30 that matters most. It’s No. 30 that decides the fate of a season. It’s No. 30 that will determine if No. 31 will be played.\nEntering the Big Ten tournament, held tonight at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, the IU women’s basketball team knows this all too well.\nThrough its first 29 games of the season, the No. 9-seeded Hoosiers went 17-12 (6-10) and will be playing No. 8 seed Iowa (14-15, 6-10) in the first round of the tournament tonight.\n“I think we’re a team that no one really wants to play,” senior center Sarah McKay said. “We played really well against our competition, and the better the competition, the better we played. I think we’re one of those feared teams, and even though we’re ninth in the conference, I don’t know anyone who really wants to play us.”\nThe game between IU and Iowa will be a rematch of their Jan. 11 contest in Bloomington. \nAfter leading by as many as 11 points with 10 minutes to go, the Hoosiers squandered their lead and the Hawkeyes took advantage, using a 19-7 run to take their first lead of the second half. The two teams traded baskets for the next few possessions, but Iowa pulled out a late run to secure a 71-67 victory.\nThe Hoosiers vow not to let the same mistakes plague them a second time.\n“We let it go,” freshman Jamie Braun said of the Jan. 11 loss. “I think our defense really let us down a lot, if I recall.”\nBraun said playing much better defense for the entire 40 minutes will be best way to stop a high-scoring Hawkeyes offense that took advantage of the Hoosiers’ mistakes. Challenging the Iowa shooters while providing a tough presence inside and on the defensive glass are what Braun said she sees as the keys to the game.\nBut playing a tight defense is only part of the game plan. In games in which IU shot above 40 percent from the field, the team’s record was 14-1. When they shot below 40 percent, however, the record was 3-11.\nAll year long, first-year IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack has said her team is a very good shooting team. However, she believes a strong showing Thursday will not stem from the offense, but from her players’ hearts.\n“It’s going to be the existence of whose heart is the biggest, and it’s just going to be a great game to be a part of,” Legette-Jack said Jan. 27 in a teleconference. “You can probably see from our team that we’re not the strongest talent out there, but we are very disciplined and we’re very focused on what we can control.”\nStill, Legette-Jack knows a victory against Iowa will be no easy task. The Hawkeyes are coming off a dominant performance against No. 7 seed Wisconsin, defeating the Badgers 103-93. In that game, Iowa shot 53 percent from the field and had five players score in double figures.\n“We believe in magic and we believe in miracles here,” Legette-Jack said. “Right now we have an uphill battle and Iowa is playing fantastic basketball. We have to match their intensity and somehow surpass it.”