A non-conference schedule is put in place to serve purposes specific to a team’s needs prior to its tougher stretches of conference play. 

But that purpose will change every season depending on a team’s individual needs, and between this season and last, the ISU women’s basketball team has seen that purpose change more drastically than usual.

With every player returning to least season’s squad, focus during the non-conference schedule was on the more intricate parts of the team, such as deepening the playbook and refining finer aspects of technique.

But with two starting freshmen and three other newcomers this season, using just a fraction of that playbook and introducing a new style of play have been the sources of concern as the Cyclones (4–1) bring several new players into the mix this season.

“Right now it’s not about talent; it’s about fast-tracking their experience level,” coach Bill Fennelly said. “Our playbook is about 20 percent than what it normally is, and we’re trying to make this as simple as we can on them. We’ve tried to let them feel comfortable with what we’re asking them to do.”

With a senior point guard as talented as senior Alison Lacey running the show on offense, at times the young ISU team may be prone to letting her do a significant portion of the work.

Because of that, a large part of the team’s offensive struggles this season are due to problems with consistency in action and scoring. 

“Sometimes we get caught watching [Lacey] play instead of everyone playing,” Fennelly said. “If they didn’t buy a ticket to the game, they need to go play with her. Sometimes we end up looking for someone else to do something instead of being aggressive and trying to create action.”

Iowa State will continue a stretch of playing nine out of their next 10 games at home this weekend when they welcome Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Sunday at noon.

Adapting to the offense will continue to be a large part of what the Cyclones will work on as their non-conference schedule progresses. 

Players with more than a year of experience at Iowa State will maintain an increased role as tone-setters for the team while the talented freshmen continue to acclimate themselves.

“We just have to get used to what we’re running,” sophomore guard Whitney Williams said. “We’re still bringing in new things, and as a play that has been here before, it’s about talking them through things and trying to get them to understand the pace of things and where we have to be.”

Arkansas-Pine Bluff (1–5) has had a rough go of it thus far this season, as Sunday marks the seventh of 14 consecutive games the Golden Lions will play on the road to start the season.

The Golden Lions are also members of Southwestern Athletic Conference, the same league as Mississippi Valley State, a team the Cyclones defeated Tuesday with an 83–44 victory.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff, which has two players on the All-SWAC preseason second team, is coming off its first win of the season, taking down Texas-Pan American 69–58 Tuesday night.