When looking ahead to the season in October, tonight’s game wasn’t one of the games ISU women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly had circled.

Yet more than halfway through the Big 12 conference season, the biggest game of the year will happen tonight as undefeated Oklahoma comes into the hostile environment of Hilton Coliseum to take on the second place Cyclones.

The Sooners, picked to finish near the bottom of the Big 12 by both the coaches and the media, are a perfect 9-0 in the conference and 19-3 overall.

“This isn’t a game I circled, no. And while I’m surprised the fact that anybody’s 9-0, I’m not surprised by how well they’ve played,” Fennelly said.

Iowa State, meanwhile, stands at 8-1 and 17-3 overall.

However, the polls don’t reflect the records of the two squads, as Iowa State currently stands No. 8 in the country, while Oklahoma is No. 17.

Fennelly knows the Sooners are coming into Hilton Coliseum searching for respect.

“I’d be shocked if that’s not a big part of their motivation. It takes a long time to get in those polls, and once you’re in there, it gets tough to move up. This is their chance,” Fennelly said.

Oklahoma leads the Big 12 in scoring at 80.5 points per game, while the Cyclones are second at 78.6 per contest.

“It’s going to be a great game, a really fun one for the fans to come out and watch. Oklahoma really likes to push the ball like we do, so there’s going to be a lot of points scored,” Fennelly said.

The fact that the game is on a Tuesday night is a good news/bad news situation for the Cyclones.

The good news is that the women won’t have to compete for attention with the streaking men’s squad, which plays at Missouri on Wednesday.

The bad news is that generally midweek games do not have the support that games on weekends do.

“It’s a Tuesday night, so who knows what kind of crowd we’re going to get? But hopefully, people will come out and support us, because it really can make a big difference in the outcome,” Fennelly said.

Oklahoma is lead by Phylesha Whaley, who scores 20.0 points per game. The Sooners have three others who are in double digits, and the team plays a seven-person rotation.

“They are a team that was really improved as the season went on last year and have come up and gotten a lot of quality wins this season. They’ve still got some tough games to play, but they are a good team,” Fennelly said.

The Sooners are well balanced in other areas as well, as they outrebound their opponents by an average of 10 boards per game.

“They’re a transition team, they really like to push the ball and play uptempo. They’ve got a great point guard in Stacy Dales, and they can score a lot of points,” forward Tracy Gahan said.

After starting the season 1-2 with losses to Arizona and Tennessee Tech, the Sooners have gone 18-1 since that time, with the lone loss coming to Connecticut.

In that game, Oklahoma drew 10,713 fans to the Lloyd Noble Center, while the largest crowd the Sooners have played in front of on the road is 6,227 at Missouri.

“I hope our crowd has an effect on them. I think it’s been shown by our record that sometimes it does, and even if it is just one kid missing one shot because of the fans, then that helps,” Fennelly said.

The Sooners have come up with impressive wins at Texas and at home against Texas Tech, but they still must face the Red Raiders on the road.

“They’ve really played well, and I’m happy for them that they’ve got it turned around. At the same time, we’re going out there to win,” Gahan said.

With a win tonight, the Cyclones could really get a leg up on the race for the title, something they have talked about attaining all year.

“This isn’t a game that we can just show up and win because we’re at home,” Gahan said. “We’re going to have to play our best game of the season.”