In game one of the 2016 season for the Chippewas, they were flat out embarrassed on the road against the No. 1 ranked team in the country Notre Dame 107-47.

After the game, Head Coach Sue Guevara told me, “We don’t have another Notre Dame on our schedule, and it’s a long season ahead of us. I know this team can win a lot of games.”

She was right, and the Chippewas have already began to prove that.

Since the losing effort to open the season, CMU has went 7-2, although it didn't look all that promising from the start.

Following their loss to the Irish, the Chippewas came back home and split a pair of games. They showed promise by scoring 81 points to beat Furman but then only scoring 57 and losing by double-digits to Elon.

From there, this team showed what I believed it is made the most of. Heart.

Their next game against Oakland, the team had to overcome many lead changes and play together to beat Oakland in double overtime 70-67.

That win seemed to build a lot of confidence and momentum for a team that couldn't find any to open the season.

After the Oakland game, the team went on to win six of it’s next seven games, and in all of it’s wins, CMU has scored over 70 points.

So the real question to ask is, what is this team capable of doing, and how can they get there?

It starts with the shooting. Guevara has said this team needs to shoot the ball at or better than 50 percent every game. Now well that probably won’t happen, I understand her point.

In all of six wins the team has of it’s last seven they have shot close or better than 50 percent. It’s evident that this is a streaky shooting basketball team, when they get hot they can’t miss and the exact opposite when the shots are not falling.

However, if they can even find a way to shoot over 40 percent every game, I think this team has a chance to hang with anyone in the Mid-American Conference with the 3-point shooters and drivers they have.

One of those drivers, cutters, and slashers to the hoop is senior forward Jewel Cotton, who in the teams last emotional victory against Saint Joseph in overtime, left in the third quarter with 15 points and a high ankle sprain.

She is expected to be back by Monday to play, but whether she is or isn’t won’t be the only concern for the Chippewas moving forward. In order to win, this team has to stay healthy.

Guevara said it herself after Cotton went down, “You have to stay injury-free if you want to win a championship.” She’s right.

This team has so much talent on it shooting the ball, but this team leans on Cotton at times. If this team wants to win the MAC, they will need her and others to stay healthy.

Junior guard Cassie Breen and sophomore guard Presley Hudson are the other two who really will play the biggest roles on this team if they can win. Breen left the game against Saint Joseph in the second quarter but returned in the second half to knock down some huge 3-pointers to keep her team in it.

And when CMU needed a basket most, Hudson showed again that she wants the ball in her hands, knocking down a contested 3-pointer to tie the game, sending it to overtime where she then scored the game-winning layup as the buzzer sounded in McGuirk Arena.

If those two players can stay healthy all season as well as Cotton, this team will truly never be out of any game.

This team has another Big Ten Conference test against Illinois on Monday, and this time I think they will be ready.

As for the rest of the season, the sky is the limit for CMU in the MAC, it is going to take the clutch play and good shooting consistently for this team to avoid another heart breaker at Quicken Loans Arena.

This time around, CMU looks like they have what it takes to finish the game with the result they want.