I touched base last week in a story about the senior class of the Eastern women’s basketball team starting to break records.

It is something that, coming into this season, I knew would happen. This year’s class may be the best the program has ever had, especially if wins are an identifier — they have the most in program history and are not done yet.

But it got me thinking about an underplayed aspect of this women’s basketball season — pressure and expectations on this team to win.

Of the three programs that got a new head coach in the last year, the women’s basketball team maintained the highest expectations.

This was for two reasons: the new head coach was Eastern’s head assistant before that and the team only lost one player.

Head coach Lee Buchanan has mentioned the word “pressure” to me only a handful of times this season, but he mentioned it after Saturday’s win over Belmont.

One of the things we take for granted, I think, is that the women’s basketball team expects to win the Ohio Valley Conference annually.

Though the Panthers don’t, they are routinely the best program at this school.

With that come high expectations.

The Panthers clinched the OVC’s West Division Saturday, but the coaches and players downplayed the celebration of that feat after the game.

It is only a step in the right direction. It gets them to the semifinals of the OVC Tournament, automatically, meaning they’ll only have to win one game to get to the title game — and win two to win it all.

It is an easier road than, say, the Eastern men’s basketball team, which if it makes the tournament it has to win three games in three days to advance to the title game.

That is a tough ladder to climb.

But it was pointed out to me Monday that the women’s basketball team has a tendency to go one-and-done in the tournament.

This fact has not escaped me, having seen it first-hand the past two seasons.

There was just something about this season, though, even with a “new” head coach.

This senior class will leave Eastern as the most accomplished class of all time, regardless of what happens from here on out.

Kelsey Wyss is the greatest three-point shooter in Eastern history, breaking the record a week ago.

Ta’Kenya Nixon will be the greatest free throw shooter in Eastern history by making one more free throw.

She is scary close to being the greatest scorer in Eastern history, too.

The lasting conclusions for Mariah King and Sydney Mitchell are still up in the air, but they will be finalized soon.

At the very least, both are 1,000-point scorers.

More is expected of these four, though, and I do not know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Will they thrive in the pressure? Nobody can answer that yet.

But they know the pressure is there.

Also, they know none of the records or praise matters if they cannot win the last game of the season, in Nashville, at the OVC Tournament.

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].