Hoosiers hope to start winning streak at home

IU Coach Curt Miller embraces the role of underdog.

He said that’s exactly what his women’s basketball team will be Nov. 16 as they take on Indiana State at Assembly Hall at 7 p.m. in the team’s home-opener.

“Indiana State will be favored and certainly has more talent than us,” Miller said. “But I want to scratch and claw and fight to protect our home court and to try to start to build this now and not just talk about the future, the future, the future. I’d like to continue to scratch and claw for now.

“They come in here with a more experienced roster. I think that they’re clearly more talented in multiple positions, so I call us the underdog. I like that role.”

The Sycamores (2-0) come in allowing 44 points per game, while scoring an average of 62 points per game. They are led offensively by guard Anna Munn, who comes in averaging 16 points per game. Forward Racheal Mahan is also averaging 14 points per game.

But Miller believes his team can figure out what the Sycamores are doing offensively if his team just watches its keys. Focusing on reading plays and following plays has been an important point in practice, he said.

“Indiana State is very disciplined and very structured,” Miller said. “If we pay attention to what’s happening, we will understand what Indiana State is trying to accomplish at the offensive end.”

He said he is more focused on what the Sycamores do defensively. He called their 44 points per game allowed “incredible” and said he admires the team’s aggressiveness on that end of the court.

“It just looks like every single possession, it means something to them to get a stop,” Miller said. “They never take a play off. We have to stay intense. We have to stay focused, or their defense will eat us up. If you relax, they’re going to make you pay.”

Senior guard Jasmine McGhee echoed the importance of focusing on the offensive end for the Hoosiers.

“We just have to be focused on going out here and playing our hardest and executing our plays,” she said. “It’s very important, that’s the main thing, just stay focused.”

The team will look to piece together its first win streak of the season after a 63-62 victory Nov. 12 night at Murray State.

But Miller said winning isn’t the only thing this team is focusing on.

“Wins would be a bonus,” he said. “Right now we’re just looking to become more of a consistent basketball program, not only on the court, but in the locker room. We have days where we have good practices, then we’ll string together multiple poor practices. We’re really looking for consistency and growing as a program. If that equates to wins, that’s all a bonus right now for us.”

The other area Miller would like to get going is the crowd’s intensity at Assembly Hall. Friday, the team starts a stretch in which nine of its next 11 games are at home. Miller finished his last 64 games at Bowling Green with a 60-4 home court record.

“One of the things we talk about as we build this program, we have to make Assembly Hall a tough place to come get wins,” Miller said. “We need to start trying to make Assembly Hall as tough a place as possible.”