Hoosiers face mirror image in today's matchup

The IU women’s basketball team spent the past few weeks scrimmaging itself before its 108-54 win against Lambuth.

The Hoosiers get another opportunity to face themselves in today’s exhibition game against Grand Valley State.  

“We run the same kind of stuff,” IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. “So it’s going to be interesting how we play against ourselves.”  

The two teams run very similar game plans because their coaches spent time coaching together at Michigan State. Legette-Jack was an assistant, while Grand Valley State’s coach Janel Burgess worked with the post players and later became associate head coach.

“She’s going to play against herself,” Legette-Jack said. “Because we run the same defenses, we run the same offenses. It’s going to be fun to have this game.”  

However, the two teams have more in common than just their game plans and strategies.  

Grand Valley State is also a relatively young team and like IU, has only one senior on its roster.  

While Grand Valley State might be young, it returns four starters and eight letter winners from a team that went 20-10 last season. They are also ranked No. 13 in the preseason Division II rankings and ranked second in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate conference.  

The Hoosiers plan to fine-tune both their offense and defense against Grand Valley State. Senior guard Jamie Braun said IU had extreme issues with its play-calling.

“I don’t think we ran a single play in that game (against Lambuth),” Braun said.

The other goal Braun said she believed it was important for the team’s final exhibition game is to get their defense better prepared for the start of the regular season.

And as far as the scoring in this game, don’t count on the Hoosiers aiming for 100 points again.

“We don’t worry about the score,” Legette-Jack said. “It’s about our journey. It’s too early in the season to be worried about that stuff. We’re just trying to work on becoming a better team.”