This year’s women’s basketball team has something to prove.

Randa Harshbarger, a sophomore guard, said people see the team as an underdog after seven seniors graduated last year.

Harshbarger said the team is ready to come out and see what they can do “to shock people.”

The team brought in seven new players this year that are a mix of freshman and transfer students.

Rick Stein, the women’s head coach, said for the team to succeed this year the group will need to see an impact from the recruiting class.

“We have a new group,” Stein said, “More than half of the team is new.”

He said the team’s starting postions are up for grabs everyday.

Despite the new faces the head coach said the team isn’t all that young. The team has six returning players that are meshing well with their new teammates.

“It’s pretty amazing how quickly the group has bonded,” Stein said.

One of the returning players is sophomore Kaydie Grooms, who started all 32 games last year as a freshman.

The 5’10’’ guard said she is excited to see what the team can do this year.

Grooms was the only underclassmen in the starting five last year, which gave her the chance to become even closer with the seniors.

“I’ll have seven friends for life,” she said.

She said she was nervous about so many players leaving, but this year there is a lot of talent on the team.

“(Workouts) have been going really well,” Grooms said. “We’re all on the same page.”

Brett Benning said the men’s team also has good chemistry and everyone has the potential to have a great year.

The sophomore guard played in 23 games last season as a freshman and said this year he wants to make a bigger impact.

Benning said one difference this year is the team has a lot more “big guys.”

“We just got a lot more size,” he said.

Rodney Watson also said a strength of the men’s team is size along with the men’s work ethic.

“Our guard play has length and depth,” the men’s head coach said. “Several guys can shoot the ball (well).”

The team added two freshmen to their class of recruits that otherwise was made of transfer students.

Watson said Alex Stein and Jacob Norman impressed the veteran players on the team with their mentality and physicality.

Both the guard and forward are Evansville natives and graduates of F.J. Reitz Memorial High School.

“Both have a chance to be very good,” Watson said, “for a very long time.