9/9/2022 basketball Edit

3 takeaways from Indiana women's basketball schedule release

Kevin Vera • TheHoosier

Staff Writer

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Indiana women's basketball announced their 2022-2023 schedule this past Wednesday for both non conference and Big Ten play. The Hoosiers will start the year with an exhibition game against Kentucky Wesleyan on November 4 and play eight more non conference games after that.

Big Ten play will start on Dec. 4 against Illinois at Assembly Hall and the Hoosiers close out the year at Iowa City against the Hawkeyes on Feb.26 . After a great campaign in 2021-2022, Indiana is looking to get back to where it was and reach a possible Final Four. With several new faces and a strong conference schedule, this upcoming season here are some of my takeaways from the new schedule.

The Hoosiers are coming off of a historic season. Posting a 24-9 record, Indiana made it all the way to the Sweet 16 but lost to the UConn Huskies back in March. Indiana has started to become a prominent face in women's basketball after a pair of tournament runs and the Hoosiers are trying to build the national image on a bigger scale.

Here are some of the takeaways from IU's schedule release.

North Carolina and Tennessee are great games for the program

Indiana is still relatively new to being at the top of women's college basketball. Indiana has had two strong runs in the NCAA tournament in the past couple of years going to the elite eight and the sweet sixteen. If Indiana wants to continue to show on a national level that they are one of the top programs in the country, they have to continue scheduling non-conference games like North Carolina and Tennessee.

Both programs posted winning records in 2022 and made Sweet 16 runs in March. Indiana has competed well in the Big Ten but if it is serious about turning around the notion of the program, you have to win outside of your conference and playing those well-rounded non-conference games is a must. These two scheduled games against North Carolina and Tennessee are a win for the program.

At this point, both games against Iowa are 'must wins'

The battle for the regular season Big Ten title was fun to watch in 2022. Indiana was hanging on in the middle of the season but tailed near the end losing four of their last five conference games to end the year. Two of those games were against the Iowa Hawkeyes and both games were lost by less than ten points.

The Hawkeyes eventually were both the regular season and tournament Big Ten champions and gave Indiana trouble all year. Indiana would even lose both regular season games back to back and lost in the tournament championship game to Iowa. With the help of arguably the biggest star in the sport in Caitlin Clark, Iowa controlled Indiana all year and that has to change for the Hoosiers. Iowa was the one team the Hoosiers couldn't get through, but now it's a new year. The Hoosiers face Iowa on Feb 9. In Bloomington and then again on Feb 26.

The last regular season games could decide if Indiana contends for Big Ten title

Indiana is returning a strong team with more experience while also adding a couple of talented transfers in Sydney Parrish and Sara Scalia. With that, the Hoosiers are looking good to compete once again in the Big Ten. Looking at the last six games of the regular season, Indiana could possibly be in a position to win the conference but it won't be easy. Four of those six games are against either Purdue or Iowa with the other two being against Ohio State and Michigan, both finished ahead of Indiana last year.

If things go accordingly, Indiana will be in the hunt for a regular season title, and that stretch to end the year will be crucial. Indiana fared well against Ohio State last season but both games were close. Indiana lost to Michigan last season in a top ten matchup in disappointing fashion. Playing Purdue is never easy no matter what the teams are looking like and the Hoosiers have to play them twice at the end of the year.

Finally, the games against Iowa could be the make or break for Indiana considering what happened last year. I think the Big Ten race will be competitive once again this year but for Indiana, the final stretch of games could maybe decide if it will be regular season champions.