Stronger Garzon Now Suited for Post Play
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Yarden Garzon is not a center. She will never be a center.
And yet, if Indiana coach Teri Moren has her way, post play is coming in a big Cream and Crimson way.
Garzon, a sophomore guard with a dominating perimeter game, is all in.
“The biggest thing for me is to be more aggressive.”
Finesse is fine for the perimeter and team chemistry building, but not for the post battles Moren plans for Garzon this season in the wake of Grace Berger’s departure for the WNBA.
“We want her to play with more moxie, play with more tenacity, and as we call it in our practices, put people in the basket, which means you play through contact, you score, you get yourself to the free-throw line,” Moren says.
Berger was a do-it-all standout for the Hoosiers who thrived inside as well as outside during a Big Ten championship season.
Moren sees the same potential for the 6-3 Garzon, whose outstanding freshman season included averages 11.1 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 45.5 percent from the field, 45.8 percent from three-point range and 86.1 percent from the free-throw line. She led IU with a program-freshman-record 70 three-point baskets and added 95 assists.
Garzon scored as many as 21 points, grabbed as many as 14 rebounds had totaled as many as seven assists to earn All-Big Ten honors and complement the honors she achieved as a member of the Israel Senior National Team.
Those numbers indicate the versatility Moren wants to maximize.
“I want to utilize her like we utilized Grace Berger, as a post,” Moren says. “There were often times that we felt good about the matchup that Grace had on her, and we called plays that would send Grace to the low block, play with her back to the basket.
“We feel like we can do some unique things because Yarden is a big guard. We can put her in positions with her back to the basket and not always revert back to her little fadeaway, that international fadeaway that she brought with her from Israel.”
Preparing for this role meant plenty of strength work with the IU staff as well as coaches in Israel.
“I got stronger,” Garzon says. “That was one of my main goals for the summer. I worked on it a lot. In Israel and with the coaches here, they really pushed me to be aggressive, look at the basket, look for the right pass. On the defensive end, take it to the next step.”
Moren says she noticed a physical different in Garzon during IU’s August trip to Greece.
“I felt like she had gotten taller, but it wasn't that her height had changed. Her shoulders had changed. She filled out in her shoulders.”
The strength hasn’t affected Garzon’s shooting.
“She's still shooting really well,” Moren says. “I like to be able to be creative with her, with her back to the basket a little bit more where she can take advantage of her size.”
Garzon is a Hoosier thanks to Moren’s extensive recruiting connections. A Fort Wayne AAU coach had worked with Garzon and mentioned her to Hoosier coaches. They saw her film and targeted her as someone who could help immediately. It helped that Garzon’s older sister, Lior, had played for Villanova and Oklahoma State, and knew the advantages of playing in the U.S.
She reflected the hard-working culture Moren has built and seeks in her recruiting.
Garzon also has worked hard with assistant coach Ali Patberg on her overall player development. That includes the pick and roll with a focus on putting her in the best position on the floor to maximize her abilities.
Garzon’s improved strength has also helped with her defense.
“I still need to work on it,” she says. “Last year, I learned the system and how we guard as a team. The main point is we have pride on our 1-on-1 defense. As a team, we’re even better at it. I want to understand it better and take it to the next level.”
The next level is the goal for all the Hoosiers in their quest to improve on last season’s 28-4 record and make a deep NCAA tourney run (they are ranked No. 9 in preseason polls), and that includes team chemistry. The Greece trip helped accelerate that. The public will see some of that for the first time this season during Friday night’s Hoosier Hysteria at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
“This is a group that really enjoys being around each other,” Moren says. “There's a specialness that this group has that they really enjoy one another. Doing this as long as I have, that will translate on to the floor. Teams that like each other seem to be teams that play well with one another. That’s an intangible that all great teams have to have.”
They also work well together.
“Nothing about their work ethic has changed,” Moren says. “The extra work that we pride ourselves in doing, it's day-to-day and it's every day.
“It's all about what we have to look forward to and try to get a little bit better every day.”
Garzon will have plenty of backcourt help with All-Big Ten veterans such as Chloe Moore-McNeil, Sara Scalia (a candidate for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, given annually to the nation’s top shooting guard) and Sydney Parrish.
Add All-America Mackenzie Holmes and a roster full of elite talent and you have a team with national title aspirations in the nation’s best conference. The Big Ten also features No. 3 Iowa, No. 7 Ohio State, No. 14 Maryland and No. 23 Illinois.
“We have terrific players,” Moren says. “Our hashtag is ‘work.’ We do more than is required. We have a recipe. It works for us.”
