With games against No. 24 Chattanooga and high-majors No. 19 DePaul, Georgia Tech, No. 23 Miami (Fla.) and West Virginia, the Hoosiers challenged themselves during this season's non-conference slate.
IU was able to upset Chattanooga, battle against DePaul in the Preseason WNIT Semifinal, and hold off Georgia Tech at home en route to a 7-2 record before facing Miami and West Virginia in the Florida Sunshine Classic during the past two days.
The Hurricanes and Mountaineers entered their respective clashes against the Hoosiers with a combined record of 19-2; Miami had breezed to a 10-0 start before losing by just seven points to No. 4 Baylor, while West Virginia was riding a seven-game winning streak.
After falling to Miami in valiant fashion on Monday night, courtesy of 28 points and eight rebounds from IU sophomore point guard Tyra Buss, the Hoosiers were forced to face another challenge less than 24 hours later.
Despite four Hoosiers finishing in double-figure scoring, including 23 points from Buss, West Virginia won the physicality battle to hold off IU, 75-64 on Monday night. The Mountaineers led for all but 21 seconds of the affair.
"I'm disappointed that we weren't able to get out of here with a win," IU Coach Teri Moren said. "We played two incredible teams in Miami and West Virginia. I'm pretty confident that they will both be in postseason play."
The Hoosiers (7-4) were out-rebounded by seven against the Mountaineers as sophomore forward Amanda Cahill corralled just one board; the 6-foot-2 Ohio native entered Monday night's game averaging 7.5 rebounds per game. IU turned the ball over 20 times against West Virginia; a category that has plagued the Hoosier cause this season. IU entered Monday night ranked 174th in turnover-margin in Division-1, averaging 15.2 turnovers per game.
Despite trailing by 14 points with 3:04 remaining in the first half, IU finished the half on a 7-0 spurt to trail by just 37-30 at the break. The Hoosiers shot 10-of-20 from the floor in the second half, but were unable to come within striking distance of the Mountaineers. Tyra Buss knocked down a 3-pointer to help IU cut the deficit to 67-58 with 2:48 to play, but it wasn't enough to stem a comeback.
"We have to learn how to adjust to how physical the two teams were," Moren said. "When you're not as deep as we need to be, we have a very small margin for error. Everything that we do has to be on point."
IU may have dropped both games during their trip to the Sunshine State, but Moren said that her team was able to find positives in both games. Regardless of the outcomes, Miami and West Virginia served as NCAA Tournament-level competition that the Hoosiers will be habitually playing when their Big Ten season starts on December 31st.
"It's never how you want to go home for Christmas break," Moren said. "But there's lessons to be learned. Everything we learned is fixable, and that's the most positive thing that came out of the weekend. It also gave us a gauge of how tough you have to be to get to the postseason."
A year ago, IU breezed through a relatively easy non-conference schedule. The Hoosiers played the 176th-toughest schedule in Division-1, which led to a 10-1 record. IU played just one team from a power-conference, 13-17 Boston College, and beat them. The Hoosiers went 5-15 in Big Ten play, resulting in a 15-16 rookie campaign for Moren.
This season, though, IU has used their non-conference schedule to challenge themselves against some of the nation's best teams. The Hoosiers' strength of schedule has jumped up 65 spots due to facing three ranked opponents and four power-conference schools. IU may have lost at least three more non-conference games than last season, but the Hoosiers think it should pay off.
"I think it definitely helps us prepare more," Cahill said last week of a tougher non-conference schedule. "It gives us more confidence down the stretch of games because we know how to handle them. Losing a few games against good opponents will probably pay off more down the road during the Big Ten season, which is really the end goal."
With six Big Ten teams receiving votes in this week's Associated Press poll, Buss anticipates that this year's non-conference schedule will prepare the Hoosiers for a daunting conference season.
"100 percent," Buss said. "That's what we wanted, we wanted our coaches to get this kind of schedule for us so we can prepare and face harder teams. The teams that we've faced are definitely going to prepare us for Big Ten teams down the road."
IU will close out its treacherous non-conference slate on Monday night, when the Hoosiers host Yale at Assembly Hall. The Bulldogs will serve as another strong test, as Yale lost to West Virginia earlier in the season as well, by ten points.
