By now, most people know two things about the Northwestern women’s basketball team.
First, there’s an ugly 17-game regular-season losing streak.
Second, there’s an even uglier 45-game regular-season conference skid.
But as far as NU head coach June Olkowski is concerned, the Wildcats have just one thing on their to-do list right now.
“The only thing we’re dealing with is our first game,” Olkowski said. “That’s all we’re looking at and nothing else.”
That’s the approach Olkowski and her older and more experienced Cats are taking as they host Illinois-Chicago tonight at Welsh-Ryan Arena in the season opener for both teams.
NU doesn’t have much video footage or scouting to work with, since it hasn’t faced the Flames in five years.
“We know barely anything about them,” Olkowski said. “But we’re taking it seriously, and we want to put on a good show for the home crowd.”
The Cats get a chance to win their first regular-season game since Dec. 18, 2001, in tonight’s match.
“(This game) is very important for us,” sophomore center Sarah Kwasinski said. “It’s our first game and it’s the start of something new. We’re really excited about it.”
NU is looking to get off to a good start for the 2002-03 campaign after stumbling out of the blocks last season.
The Cats fell in last year’s opener to Northern Illinois and went on to lose their next four games before notching their first win of the season.
But NU doesn’t want to overemphasize tonight’s game.
“Every game is important, not just the first one,” Olkowski said. “Of course, we all would like to get off to a good start, but this one game isn’t going to make or break us.”
Although a positive outlook at the start of a season is a given for most teams, the Cats have reason to be particularly optimistic this year. The starting lineup will have a great deal of experience, especially compared to last year’s squad.
NU has only one freshman on its roster, as opposed to five last year.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how much of a difference that makes,” Olkowski said. “Sometimes, (freshmen) are just deer in the headlights.”
The Cats won’t have to deal with getting players acclimated to the college level, but they still have one big problem: turnovers.
NU turned the ball over 21 times against an overworked Dominican Republic team in last week’s 56-46 exhibition victory.
Last year, committing more than 20 turnovers was a staple in the Cats’ unhealthy diet of losses.
“Maybe we tend to force things a little,” sophomore guard Samantha McComb said. “Sometimes we need to just let the offense flow and not let it hurt us so much.”
Kwasinski, who led the Cats in scoring and rebounding last year, thinks the turnover problem can’t be traced to one thing.
“It’s all about being careful with the ball,” Kwasinski said. “We just need to respect possession and not take it for granted. It’s really not something we can practice.”
The team is aware of all the talk of losing streaks but chooses to ignore it.
“It’s not like we’re not all aware of it,” Olkowski said. “But we can’t be looking ahead — when you’re in the middle of taking a midterm, you’re not worrying about the final exam.”
