Do-It-All Moore-McNeil Thrives on ‘Toughness’
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Chloe Moore-McNeil will not overwhelm with words. This senior Indiana guard will not talk you into submission.
But put a basketball in her hands and give her a challenge to face, and opponents have big problems.
How big?
Consider Moore-McNeil does everything but make the scouting reports for the Hoosiers, and likely would do that if given the chance. She scores, defends, rebounds, runs the offense and leads.
Statistics show she averages 9.9 points, 4.7 assists and 2.1 rebounds with a team-leading 29 steals, but her impact goes way beyond that.
“Chloe is as tough as they come,” coach Teri Moren says. “She’s reliable. I trust her not just with decisions on the floor, but having the assignment to guard the opposing team’s best player.
“She has a lot on her plate -- guard the best player and run our team. That takes an amazing talent and toughness. If there was a category for toughness, she’d score high in every game because she gives her best.”
We saw that best during Sunday’s tough-minded victory at rival Purdue. We’ve seen it for four seasons as Moore-McNeil does it all in the quest for more Indiana victories, of which there have been 89 and counting.
Flashback to the Purdue win, when Moore-McNeil buried a crunch-time, step-back, shot-clock-beating three-pointer, which followed a crucial steal against the Boilers’ Rashuda Jones.
IU perhaps doesn’t win without them.
In the aftermath, Purdue coach Katie Gearlds praised Moore-McNeil’s ability to make the extra pass, to cut and to hit what she called a “nasty” step-back three-pointer.
Beyond the on-court excellence, Moore-McNeil embraces accountability. In this blame-the-other-person world, that’s refreshing and vital.
“She owns her mistakes,” Moren says. “That shows maturity. She can say, ‘My bad.’ We all are so happy she runs this team.”
Moore-McNeil runs without ego. Asking her to talk about herself is like asking Bigfoot to reveal his secret hideaway.
It ain’t happening.
Ask Moore-McNeil’s to describe her offensive mindset in playing without standout forward Sydney Parrish against Purdue and you get this:
“We all have the mindset that with Sydney out, we all need to do a little more.”
Ask her about being more offensively aggressive in delivering a career-high 20 points against the Boilers and she says, “We all put it on ourselves to do a little more with Sydney out.”
Do you detect the pattern? It’s team over individual, we over me.
It matters.
It’s among the reasons why No. 14 IU (16-2 overall) is positioned for a second straight Big Ten title (it shares the conference lead with Iowa at 7-1), and a lot more.
“We come together, especially on the road,” guard Sara Scalia says. “The biggest thing is our team is close. We know we’re all we got.”
Moore-McNeil and Scalia each played the entire game at Purdue’s Mackey Arena, and the Hoosiers needed all of it to win 74-68 in one of college basketball’s toughest environments.
“I don’t know that I told them they’d play 40 minutes,” Moren says, “but you have to do what you have to do. They are in tremendous shape. They have the experience.
“Sara was great defensively. Chloe always has the task of a tough player to guard.”
Even the fittest players have limits. Against Minnesota, Moren said she thought Moore-McNeil “looked a little tired” in her 29 minutes.
“A lot has to do with the fact she has to guard the team’s best player, then run our offense and push the pace,” Moren says.
“She expends so much energy guarding kids of her talent.”
Losing a player of Parrish’s talent and experience (10.8 points, 5.8 rebounds) is a big blow, especially on the road against your biggest rival.
But then there’s this:
Key injuries rarely derail IU.
The Hoosiers lost standout guard Grace Berger for multiple games last season and won. The year before that, they lost standout center Mackenzie Holes for multiple games and won.
This requires depth and tenacity; it means players giving more, doing more, from the starters and reserves.
“Adversity is nothing new to us,” Moore-McNeil says.
Adversity could continue given the uncertainty about how long Parrish will be out. IU’s next game is Sunday when it hosts Northwestern (7-11, 2-5).
“When a starter goes down,” Moren says, “it’s all hands on deck. It requires the rest of them to do more, including the bench. Can they hold the lead and help us defensively while we try to give some players a rest?
“We’ve been through it. We don’t like it, but we do have that experience.”