Women's Basketball: Notre Dame Tips Off Rugged Slate
9/6/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Tickets | Composite MAC Schedule
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - A high-profile start against a national power, and then plenty of stiff tests on the road to defending a championship.
Sue Guevara wouldn't have it any other way.
Guevara's Central Michigan women's basketball team opens the 2016-17 season with a Preseason WNIT game at Notre Dame on Friday, Nov. 11.
The Irish made five consecutive trips to the Final Four from 2011-15 and last year reached the Sweet Sixteen, finishing 33-2. Playing top-notch competition in November and December is standard operating procedure for the Chippewas under Guevara.
Two years ago, they faced ninth-ranked Kentucky and top-ranked South Carolina, and in 2013-14 they played three top-10 teams and four ranked in the top 17 in the first five weeks of the season.
"I like the challenge, our players want the challenge," Guevara said. "That's what we're doing. It's been good for us every year because we have the team that wants to attack, wants to compete -- compete for championships.
"You win championships by beating teams that are competing for championships too. It'll really give us a good test right out of the gate. It's a feather in our cap that we're one of 16 teams that were picked to play in it."
The Chippewas will play at least two, and possibly three, more games in the WNIT after their opener with Notre Dame. They will face either Fordham or Furman in the second round. Their third, and possibly fourth, opponent in the tourney is to be determined. The field includes the likes of Nebraska, Missouri and Washington.
CMU opens at home against Oakland on Nov. 22, will play in the Cal Poly Holiday Tournament over Thanksgiving weekend. The remainder of the non-league portion of the schedule includes dates with two Big Ten teams, Purdue and Illinois, along with defending Conference USA Tournament champion Middle Tennessee.
Three of the teams on the schedule -- Notre Dame, Purdue and Middle Tennessee -- played in the NCAA Tournament last season. Notre Dame finished No. 1 in RPI a year ago, Middle Tennessee was 59th, and Purdue was 66th. The Chippewas finished at 67, which ranked third among MAC teams.
The Chippewas, who finished 22-11 and made the WNIT last season, begin defense of their MAC West title on New Year's Eve at Kent State.
"I like our schedule," said Guevara, who is in her 10th year at CMU. "It's almost a mirror of last year with the exception of Purdue and the WNIT. We had good games with everybody last year in our non-conference. We return almost the exact same team."
After opening the MAC slate at Kent State, the Chippewas play three consecutive league home games against Akron, Buffalo and Ball State. Buffalo defeated the Chippewas in the MAC Tournament championship game last March; Akron (East) and Ball State (West) were runners-up in their respective divisions a year ago.
The Chippewas will play defending East champion Ohio and the Bulls twice each in home-and-home series. Last year, CMU played each just once in the regular season, both on the road. Both the Bobcats and Bulls, along with CMU, are on the short list of legitimate contenders for the MAC title.
"We lost to Buffalo and OU on the road last year and I would have loved to have them come to Mt. Pleasant," Guevara said. "And now they get to."
The Chippewas play host to Western Michigan on Feb. 11 and go to Western on March 1. They close the regular season at home against Eastern Michigan on March 3.
It could very well work to CMU's advantage that it plays host to some of the league's best early in January.
"Our whole crowd has been a really good sixth player for us," Guevara said. "They're really into it. Our kids feel that energy, they hear the fans. Our arena is so intimate, the fans are right there and they're loud and we feed off of it.
"I think with all the tight games that we played last year, our crowd certainly helped us win quite a few of those games. So it's very important that we have as many people in those stands as we can, and if we can get the students to help us, that doubles it."