[TheFarm07]

With our non-conference schedule structured the way it is, we get our home opener weekend against Riverside and Bakersfield, which should be comfortable wins, allowing us to gain confidence, and to get on the win column.

The Vegas tourney will get progressively tougher with Kent State, then Gonzaga (who we lost to last year) and then the Buckeyes rematch, which I think is a good arc.

Then, a relatively easy matchup at San Francisco before heading to Waco for a tough game against Baylor. That will show us whether we've learned and progressed anything over the first month, if we can acquit ourselves better against them than we did this past weekend.

After Baylor is our finals break before our last 3 non-conference games. UNLV and Western Illinois shouldn't provide much resistance as we shake off the rust before facing Tennessee (sans DeShields as she decided to skip her senior year and play overseas) for our final marquee non-conference game.

We open conference play on a of exceedingly large proportions matchup with UCLA just a week later to end 2017.

So there will be chances for the underclassmen to get their feet wet and comfortable in easier games, but then tough matchups sprinkled in there to measure their progress against Ohio State, Baylor and Tennessee.

[TheFarm07]

With our non-conference schedule structured the way it is, we get our home opener weekend against Riverside and Bakersfield, which should be comfortable wins, allowing us to gain confidence, and to get on the win column.

The Vegas tourney will get progressively tougher with Kent State, then Gonzaga (who we lost to last year) and then the Buckeyes rematch, which I think is a good arc.

Then, a relatively easy matchup at San Francisco before heading to Waco for a tough game against Baylor. That will show us whether we've learned and progressed anything over the first month, if we can acquit ourselves better against them than we did this past weekend.

After Baylor is our finals break before our last 3 non-conference games. UNLV and Western Illinois shouldn't provide much resistance as we shake off the rust before facing Tennessee (sans DeShields as she decided to skip her senior year and play overseas) for our final marquee non-conference game.

We open conference play on a of exceedingly large proportions matchup with UCLA just a week later to end 2017.

So there will be chances for the underclassmen to get their feet wet and comfortable in easier games, but then tough matchups sprinkled in there to measure their progress against Ohio State, Baylor and Tennessee.