Heading into the season, daily three-hour practices are a great way to mold a team into regular season form; however, nothing compares to playing another team.
That opportunity will be laid before the Ball State University women's basketball team Thursday evening when the Cardinals host their last scrimmage of the pre-season against the Hoosier Stars.
"We're tired of playing against the scout guys and playing against ourselves," coach Tracy Roller said. "So it will be nice to go against another team that has some team concepts. We're [Hoosier Stars'] last game [of their season], so they've already been in some tough situations. It's another opportunity for us to get better."
Senior center Becca Bajorek said the aspects of the game Ball State plans to face will help prepare the Cardinals for their season opener at the University of Michigan on Monday.
The Hoosier Stars is a team composed of past women's college basketball players who have since graduated.
"Even though they're out of college, these girls can still play," Bajorek said. "They've got quickness and they have big, strong post players, and that's what we need going into Michigan. So I think it's going to be great for us."
Playing for the Hoosier Stars is Johna Goff, who is the third leading scorer in Ball State women's basketball history with 1,635 career points. Senior guard Tina Bolte, who played with Goff early in her Ball State career, said it will be fun to go against an old teammate.
"I love Johna; she's a really good friend of mine," Bolte said. "We still talk a lot. My freshman year I went against her everyday in practice. So it's going to be like old times with us cracking jokes on each other. She's really fun to go against."
Even though the final outcome won't count toward the season record, Roller said the team is entering today's game with intentions set of winning.
"I'm trying to get everybody as much experience as I can, but I try to play it just like a regular game," Roller said. "In our first scrimmage [this year] we got out to a big lead, which made it easier to sub in and out. But when they started coming back in the second half I subbed like a real game. We do everything but scouting for scrimmage games."
While the Cardinals are aiming for a victory, Bajorek said the players want to improve along the way instead of simply earning a win.
"Any time we come out we want to win," Bajorek said. "That's our main focus because we want to win everything. But when we take a step back and look at it, we're also trying to get better. We take the win, and that's great. But we try to take a step back and see what we need to get better at."
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
