When IU takes the floor in Cleveland, OH against Cleveland State, the Hoosiers will have a chance to match a record that has stood since the inception of women's basketball at IU.
With a 12th consecutive win in Saturday's 2 p.m. matchup, the Hoosiers (11-0) would equal the best start to a season since the inception of women's basketball as a varsity sport at IU in 1971-72. It would also make them the winningest team in non-conference schedule games in program history.
The 12th win would also make this Hoosier squad the winningest team in non-conference games in program history.
"We're excited. I think they know there's something out there to shoot for," IU Coach Curt Miller said. "But even a smaller battle is Cleveland State who beat us last year and beat us rather convincingly."
In the matchup Miller referenced, Cleveland State snapped IU's six-game winning streak 69-58 at Assembly Hall last December.
"We want to play better," Miller said. "We certainly haven't forgot about last year's game."
Cleveland State (5-5) enters the Saturday's game coming off of a 65-60 win on the road against New Hampshire.
The Vikings run a five-out motion offense which Miller said is a bad matchup for IU. At any given moment, the Vikings have the potential to have five shooters on the floor who are all comfortable shooting the ball from anywhere on the court.
"It's always hard to guard teams that are good at running the five-out motion," senior forward Tabitha Gerardot said. "One of our keys will be to stay level headed throughout the whole game and not get concerned when they go on runs in a way that causes us to panic or rush our offense."
A potential matchup problem could come from Cleveland State's Haley Schmitt. The six-foot-one senior forward is shooting 15-30 from beyond the arc through ten games this season.
IU's post players will be forced to stay with Schmitt and the other Cleveland State forwards at all times, defensively.
"The can really spread you out," Miller said. "Their post players are as good as shooters as their guards so our post players are going to have to go out and guard on the perimeter which makes it very difficult."
IU's offense will look to bounce back after having one of its worst games of the year in a 51-45 win against IUPUI last Sunday.
In that game, no Hoosiers were able to convert on more than two field goals. As a team, IU shot 34.1% from the field.
Gerardot said that she and her teammates are trying to quickly put the poor shooting performance behind them.
"You just go out there as a team and think, 'oh, we don't play like that. That's not our game,'" she said. "So we're going to have to turn that around so we look forward to the challenge."
IU earned national recognition on Monday by receiving four votes in the AP women's basketball poll. Miller said that the recognition was respect to IU for being 11-0 but that the Hoosiers are trying to keep their eyes on the game ahead.
"We haven't talked about it. We haven't celebrated it. We know that we have a long way to go to where this program wants to be," Miller said. "Cleveland State is really difficult for us. We're going to have to play one of our best games of the year to come out of there with a victory"
