Women's basketball team ready to start 2011-2012 season

Every November brings a new college basketball season and different team than the year before.

“Every year is a new team,” IU Coach Felicia Legette-Jack said.

The first two games are exhibition games against St. Ambrose today and Indianapolis on Nov. 8. This year’s woman’s basketball team has nine returners from last year and five new faces, including three freshmen and two junior-college transfers.

The team must replace three starters, including leading scorer Jori Davis.

“Hopefully, we can distribute the ball to everybody,” Legette-Jack said. “They have to recognize Jori isn’t coming back. We don’t have a good go-to player.

“We are going to be experimenting and trying different things,” Legette-Jack said. “What you see on Thursday is not what you are going to see on Tuesday.”

Unlike last season, the Hoosiers will use their exhibition games to find their
starters.

“I’m trying to figure out who can start, who can finish and who can play in the middle,” Legette-Jack said.

The Hoosiers don’t play non-conference competition from major conferences until December, when they face Virginia on the road and Oklahoma State at home.
Legette-Jack said she has some players in mind that she believes need to step up and help the team.

“It has to be Jasmine McGhee and Linda Rubene, our two junior-college kids that have the experience of playing at a high level that they can bring right away to the program,” Legette-Jack said.

Last season, junior center Sasha Chaplin played only two games due to injury and averaged seven points per game.

Junior forward Aulani Sinclair said she has seen improvement in sophomore guard Andrea Newbauer.

“Our point guards have improved, especially Andrea Newbauer, because she has kind of controlled the team on her offense,” Sinclair said.

Legette-Jack elaborated on how important defense will be this year.

“We want to speed up the game and have our defense make our offense,” Legette-Jack said.

Sinclair agreed on the speed of the team defense.

“I feel like we are doing a lot more press than last year because we have height and speed,” Sinclair said. “We are just using these two games as a stepping stone for our non-conference play.”