Non-MAC schedule provides challenges for women's basketball
The CMU women’s basketball team will open the 2009-10 regular season in Chicago.
It will play DePaul of the Big East Conference at 9 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Nov. 18 in Champaign, Ill., against Big Ten foe Illinois.
“Those kinds of teams get you ready for Toledo and for Northern Illinois,” said coach Sue Guevara. “It’s going to be challenging, and the conference is going to be challenging.”
DePaul, coming off a trip to the 2009 NCAA Tournament, is ranked 17th in the Associated Press Top 25 preseason rankings and 25th in the ESPN/USA Today Poll. The Blue Demons finished last season with a 23-10 record, going 10-6 in the conference.
“The game’s going to prepare us a lot (for conference play). They are probably a lot bigger and more physical than what we may face in the MAC,” said junior forward Kaihla Szunko.
The Fighting Illini, despite ending last year with a 10-21 record, beat Penn State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.
CMU will then return to Mount Pleasant to host Loyola-Chicago and Georgetown in its first two home games of the season.
The Chippewas will try to exact revenge on Loyola-Chicago (8-21 overall, 3-15 in the Horizon League), which beat the Chippewas 87-82 last season in the team’s home opener Nov. 21.
The nonconference slate
After beating CMU 82-77 in Washington, D.C., last season, Georgetown (20-14, 7-9 in the Big East) also will play CMU for the second consecutive year.
The Hoyas will travel Nov. 25 to Mount Pleasant for the “Recess in Rose” afternoon game.
The competition does not let up as the team will travel to Indiana State (14-16, 10-8 in the Missouri Valley Conference) for a rematch following last season’s 84-83 CMU win.
The Chippewas will play their third Big East team in as many weeks when Louisville (34-5, 14-2 in the conference) travels Dec. 2 to Mount Pleasant. The Cardinals are ranked 23rd in the AP Top 25 and 17th in the ESPN/USA Today polls after coming off a loss to Connecticut in the national championship game.
During media day Oct. 27, Guevara expressed her excitement with the Georgetown and Louisville games at Rose Arena, citing the team’s competitiveness against both programs last season.
“It’s a different style than what we’re going to see in the MAC,” Guevara said. “We have to do something different to play against those types of teams.”
CMU will round out the nonconference schedule with a Dec. 5 trip to Valparaiso, Alabama (with games against Alabama-Birmingham Dec. 14 and Alabama A&M the following day) and host Howard Dec. 19.
The team also will travel to Florida at the end of December to compete in the Miami Holiday Tournament before opening up the conference schedule in early January. The Chippewas will meet No. 12 Texas in their first game of the tournament.
“It’s a schedule that will really get us ready for the conference,” Guevara said.
