Indiana University Athletics
IU Brings Win-It-All Mentality to NCAA Tourney Quest
3/18/2021 12:45:00 PM | Women's Basketball
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Teri Moren builds for powerhouse status. Never forget that. She didn't take over Indiana women's basketball program in 2014 just to make NCAA Tournaments. Her goal is to win them, and the fact that has yet to happen in her seven Hoosier seasons misses the point.
To achieve big, you first have to aim big.
As Moren contemplates a NCAA tourney like no other (can you say pandemic?), starting with Monday's opener against VCU in San Antonio, she pushes a why-not-win-it-all mentality.
"Our goal is to get into the NCAA Tournament year in and year out. We talk about making deep runs. Not just make a Sweet Sixteen or an Elite Eight, but a Final Four."
That's saying something for a program with a 3-6 NCAA tourney record that has never been past the second round, but Moren (with a 2-2 NCAA tourney mark) has never kept her vision a secret.
With an 18-5 record, a Big Ten runner-up finish to Maryland and a program-best NCAA tourney No. 4 seed, that vision has never been closer to becoming reality.
"We're not afraid to talk about it," Moren says. "You have to. You have to put it out there. Those have always been our goals, particularly in these last couple of years as our program has continued to get better."
Has it ever.
In 2018, IU won the WNIT, the program's first national championship, and if it didn't have the prestige of the NCAA, it was still a significant achieve that indicated, in so many ways, the program had arrived.
A NCAA tourney berth followed in 2019. With a 24-8 record, IU would have repeated in 2020 if the pandemic hadn't shut everything down.
Now comes this record-breaking, pandemic-challenged season. The No. 4 seed tops the No. 6 status achieved in 1983, when it was a 36-team field.
In the current 64-team tourney, IU's previous best seed was No. 8 in 2002.
The seed, All-America sophomore forward Mackenzie Holmes says, provides "validation."
"We know how much work we've put in to get to this moment."
Adds All-Big Ten guard Grace Berger: "It's been a great year. We're super excited to prove (to the nation) what we know about ourselves and what we can do against the top teams in the country."
The Hoosiers have known since they got back together last summer after the pandemic-caused separation.
"We set our goals and what we wanted to achieve," Moren says, "and one of those was to win a Big Ten championship. We were a win away from sharing the title with Maryland."
It starts with difference-making players. Consider the 6-3 Holmes, who has gone where no Hoosier woman has gone before with All-America honorable mention acclaim for a season in which she averaged 18.1 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.9 blocks while shooting 60.3 percent from the field. She also had seven double-doubles
Then there is Berger, who averages 15.3 points and 6.7 rebounds with a team-leading 110 assists. She also has three triple doubles, which are three more than any IU woman has had before. Fellow All-Big Ten guard Ali Patberg averages 13.9 points with 86 assists.
Forward Aleksa Gulbe (9.2 points, 6.2 rebounds) and guard Nicole Cardano-Hillary (8.7 points, 3.6 rebounds) also are difference makers.
"We have a lot of talent at every position," Berger says.
Losing to Michigan State in their Big Ten tourney opener was a big blow for the second-seeded Hoosiers, but could provide a NCAA tourney boost.
"We were very disappointed," Patberg says, "but we learned from it. We'll be better because of it."
Adds Moren: "We have to be much better (against VCU) than we were against Michigan State."
While Moren says the goal is to get, "As deep as we can get," overlooking a 16-10 VCU team that upset Rhode Island and Dayton en route to winning the Atlantic 10 tourney title won't happen.
"We've got to get past that first round," she says. "Our focus is only on VCU. There won't be a second or third round if you don't take care of your first game."
All this success reflects a season in which IU cracked the top 10 in the national polls for the first time. It currently is No. 10 in the coaches' poll and No. 12 in the Associated Press poll. It has been ranked for 37 straight weeks, including all 17 weeks this season, an unprecedented run of success.
"Look at the season these kids have had," Moren says. "I don't want us to forget some of the things we've accomplished. We had the highest ranking we've ever had in this program. We had the most (Big Ten) wins (16) ever at IU."
That the Hoosiers did all that during a pandemic, Moren adds, makes it all the more impressive.
"There is a lot going on in athletics and all these challenges. Sometimes these kids have not gotten their due. They don't care. We have always said we're going to keep our heads down and let our work do the talking for us."
That work also generated a coaching honor. Assistant coach Ashley Williams made the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Thirty Under 30. It honors coaches under the age of 30.
Williams works with the guards and helped develop the All-Big Ten backcourt of Patberg and Berger. The North Carolina native and former North Carolina State player has boosted Hoosier recruiting in North Carolina and the Southeast.
It all leads to Texas, a NCAA tourney opportunity and the realization that top contenders South Carolina, Baylor and Connecticut aren't the only challenge. Covid-19 remains a potential season-ending factor.
Consider Hall of Fame UConn coach Gene Auriemma recently tested positive for the virus despite having received his second vaccine shot. He's in quarantine until March 24.
The message, Moren says, is stay vigilant.
"We talk to our kids all the time about it. We're constantly texting them about group social distancing, wear masks, be careful. We've come too far to put ourselves in position to not be able to play.
"Playing matters to them. They're doing the right things."
If the Hoosiers keep doing that, anything is possible.
Perhaps, even, a national championship.
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Teri Moren builds for powerhouse status. Never forget that. She didn't take over Indiana women's basketball program in 2014 just to make NCAA Tournaments. Her goal is to win them, and the fact that has yet to happen in her seven Hoosier seasons misses the point.
To achieve big, you first have to aim big.
As Moren contemplates a NCAA tourney like no other (can you say pandemic?), starting with Monday's opener against VCU in San Antonio, she pushes a why-not-win-it-all mentality.
"Our goal is to get into the NCAA Tournament year in and year out. We talk about making deep runs. Not just make a Sweet Sixteen or an Elite Eight, but a Final Four."
That's saying something for a program with a 3-6 NCAA tourney record that has never been past the second round, but Moren (with a 2-2 NCAA tourney mark) has never kept her vision a secret.
With an 18-5 record, a Big Ten runner-up finish to Maryland and a program-best NCAA tourney No. 4 seed, that vision has never been closer to becoming reality.
"We're not afraid to talk about it," Moren says. "You have to. You have to put it out there. Those have always been our goals, particularly in these last couple of years as our program has continued to get better."
Has it ever.
In 2018, IU won the WNIT, the program's first national championship, and if it didn't have the prestige of the NCAA, it was still a significant achieve that indicated, in so many ways, the program had arrived.
A NCAA tourney berth followed in 2019. With a 24-8 record, IU would have repeated in 2020 if the pandemic hadn't shut everything down.
Now comes this record-breaking, pandemic-challenged season. The No. 4 seed tops the No. 6 status achieved in 1983, when it was a 36-team field.
In the current 64-team tourney, IU's previous best seed was No. 8 in 2002.
The seed, All-America sophomore forward Mackenzie Holmes says, provides "validation."
"We know how much work we've put in to get to this moment."
Adds All-Big Ten guard Grace Berger: "It's been a great year. We're super excited to prove (to the nation) what we know about ourselves and what we can do against the top teams in the country."
The Hoosiers have known since they got back together last summer after the pandemic-caused separation.
"We set our goals and what we wanted to achieve," Moren says, "and one of those was to win a Big Ten championship. We were a win away from sharing the title with Maryland."
It starts with difference-making players. Consider the 6-3 Holmes, who has gone where no Hoosier woman has gone before with All-America honorable mention acclaim for a season in which she averaged 18.1 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.9 blocks while shooting 60.3 percent from the field. She also had seven double-doubles
Then there is Berger, who averages 15.3 points and 6.7 rebounds with a team-leading 110 assists. She also has three triple doubles, which are three more than any IU woman has had before. Fellow All-Big Ten guard Ali Patberg averages 13.9 points with 86 assists.
Forward Aleksa Gulbe (9.2 points, 6.2 rebounds) and guard Nicole Cardano-Hillary (8.7 points, 3.6 rebounds) also are difference makers.
"We have a lot of talent at every position," Berger says.
Losing to Michigan State in their Big Ten tourney opener was a big blow for the second-seeded Hoosiers, but could provide a NCAA tourney boost.
"We were very disappointed," Patberg says, "but we learned from it. We'll be better because of it."
Adds Moren: "We have to be much better (against VCU) than we were against Michigan State."
While Moren says the goal is to get, "As deep as we can get," overlooking a 16-10 VCU team that upset Rhode Island and Dayton en route to winning the Atlantic 10 tourney title won't happen.
"We've got to get past that first round," she says. "Our focus is only on VCU. There won't be a second or third round if you don't take care of your first game."
All this success reflects a season in which IU cracked the top 10 in the national polls for the first time. It currently is No. 10 in the coaches' poll and No. 12 in the Associated Press poll. It has been ranked for 37 straight weeks, including all 17 weeks this season, an unprecedented run of success.
"Look at the season these kids have had," Moren says. "I don't want us to forget some of the things we've accomplished. We had the highest ranking we've ever had in this program. We had the most (Big Ten) wins (16) ever at IU."
That the Hoosiers did all that during a pandemic, Moren adds, makes it all the more impressive.
"There is a lot going on in athletics and all these challenges. Sometimes these kids have not gotten their due. They don't care. We have always said we're going to keep our heads down and let our work do the talking for us."
That work also generated a coaching honor. Assistant coach Ashley Williams made the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Thirty Under 30. It honors coaches under the age of 30.
Williams works with the guards and helped develop the All-Big Ten backcourt of Patberg and Berger. The North Carolina native and former North Carolina State player has boosted Hoosier recruiting in North Carolina and the Southeast.
It all leads to Texas, a NCAA tourney opportunity and the realization that top contenders South Carolina, Baylor and Connecticut aren't the only challenge. Covid-19 remains a potential season-ending factor.
Consider Hall of Fame UConn coach Gene Auriemma recently tested positive for the virus despite having received his second vaccine shot. He's in quarantine until March 24.
The message, Moren says, is stay vigilant.
"We talk to our kids all the time about it. We're constantly texting them about group social distancing, wear masks, be careful. We've come too far to put ourselves in position to not be able to play.
"Playing matters to them. They're doing the right things."
If the Hoosiers keep doing that, anything is possible.
Perhaps, even, a national championship.
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