Indiana University Athletics
Family Matters – IU Faces Unbeaten South Carolina with Championship Goals
3/28/2024 9:26:00 AM | Women's Basketball
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The challenge is formidable. This much we know. Top-seeded South Carolina is a women's basketball juggernaut in peak March Madness form.
And yet, as fourth-seeded Indiana (26-5) prepares for Friday night's Sweet Sixteen showdown in Albany N.Y., with a chance to shock the sports world, perspective comes from Sydney Parrish, the Hoosiers' senior guard already committed to a final Cream and Crimson season next year.
"We have an end goal of winning a championship," she says.
NCAA tourney success is as much about belief as it is talent, resilience as it is experience. Upsets are a March tradition, and if much of that has previously come with the men, the parity in the women's game has closed the talent gap.
What will it take, not only to beat South Carolina, but perhaps deliver IU's first-ever women's basketball NCAA title?
"There are a lot of peaks and valleys in games," Parrish says. "You have to get out of the valleys quickly and get in that peak as long as you can. Stay up there.
"Your team can bend but can't break. Stay together. There will be times when you're down, when the other team makes a run. Stay together. That's the biggest thing. Just fight. Be the tougher team."
The Hoosiers were all of that in their gut-check victory over Oklahoma Monday night. They trailed for most of the game, trailed by four in the final three minutes, and rallied to advance.
Parrish played a big role (17 points, eight rebounds, five assists) and likely will again on Friday night. She's healthy after missing seven regular-season games with an ankle injury. She's driven by team glory rather than individual success.
Ask her to define her role, and scoring doesn't make the list.
"It's to play for every possession," she says. "If I have an open shot, hit an open shot. Try to be as scrappy as I can on the defensive end. Get those offensive rebounds. Push the ball. Set great screens to get my teammates open. That's my biggest role."
IU has evolved into a national power under coach Teri Moren. It's made the Sweet Sixteen three times in the last four years, including an Elite Eight appearance in 2021.
What makes this team special?
"This year, we're more together," Parrish says. "We have so many pieces. We're all on the same page. We want to win.
"Last year, it was a new team. We had seven new players. We didn't know each other as well. We had great talent but didn't have that chemistry yet."
They have it now. They'll need it now.
South Carolina (34-0) is 105-3 in the last three seasons. It has won by 52 and 47 points in its first two NCAA tourney games against Presbyterian and North Carolina. It won national titles in 2017 and '22. It's played in five Final Fours since 2015, including the last three. This is its 10th straight Sweet Sixteen appearance.
The Gamecocks beat teams by an average of 31 points a game -- against one the toughest schedules in the country, with non-conference games against then-No. 10 Notre Dame (in France), No. 14 Maryland, No. 24 North Carolina, No. 11 Utah and No. 11 Connecticut, plus SEC competition highlighted by defending-national champ LSU.
They have one of the nation's best offenses (86.3 points) and best defenses (55.4). They have depth (nine players average at least 15 minutes per game), offensive balance (seven players average at least 8.0 points; no one averages more than 13.9) and defensive intensity (they force 16.1 turnovers; total 8.9 steals and hold opponents to 31.7 percent shooting). They are second in the nation in bench points (33.6 per game), and fourth in rebounds (46.3 per game).
They are led by All-American and SEC defensive player of the year Kamilla Cardoso (13.9 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.6 blocks, 58.4 shooting percentage), All-American Te-Hina Paopao (11.2 points, 47.5 percent three-point shooting) and All-SEC guard Raven Johnson (159 assists, 68 steals, both team highs).
IU counters with All-American forward Mackenzie Holmes, and veteran standouts Parrish, Chloe Moore-McNeil, Sara Scalia and Yarden Garzon. It entered NCAA tourney play leading the nation in field goal percentage (51.0) and three-point percentage (40.2).
The Hoosiers also played a challenging schedule that included trips to Stanford, Iowa and Ohio State, and a neutral-site game against Tennessee.
"I've talked about the maturity of this group, the poise they show," Moren says. "When you have somebody like Chloe who doesn't get rattled, that's really important. Just getting us into our sets and running the offense and understanding pace and rhythm and what's working and what's not."
Beyond that, the Hoosiers have toughness and resilience personified in Monday night's comeback NCAA tourney second-round victory against Oklahoma.
"We have so many threats; we're so well balanced; and I think it's our maturity level and our composure and the competitiveness that we have," Holmes says. "We're going to fight; we're never going to quit no matter what the score is."
It goes deeper than that, Parrish adds.
"We just love each other. We love each other on the court, off the court. The coaches love us. I love playing for a coach that wants to win for us as much as she wants to win for herself. We all love each other and we're a big family."
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The challenge is formidable. This much we know. Top-seeded South Carolina is a women's basketball juggernaut in peak March Madness form.
And yet, as fourth-seeded Indiana (26-5) prepares for Friday night's Sweet Sixteen showdown in Albany N.Y., with a chance to shock the sports world, perspective comes from Sydney Parrish, the Hoosiers' senior guard already committed to a final Cream and Crimson season next year.
"We have an end goal of winning a championship," she says.
NCAA tourney success is as much about belief as it is talent, resilience as it is experience. Upsets are a March tradition, and if much of that has previously come with the men, the parity in the women's game has closed the talent gap.
What will it take, not only to beat South Carolina, but perhaps deliver IU's first-ever women's basketball NCAA title?
"There are a lot of peaks and valleys in games," Parrish says. "You have to get out of the valleys quickly and get in that peak as long as you can. Stay up there.
"Your team can bend but can't break. Stay together. There will be times when you're down, when the other team makes a run. Stay together. That's the biggest thing. Just fight. Be the tougher team."
The Hoosiers were all of that in their gut-check victory over Oklahoma Monday night. They trailed for most of the game, trailed by four in the final three minutes, and rallied to advance.
Parrish played a big role (17 points, eight rebounds, five assists) and likely will again on Friday night. She's healthy after missing seven regular-season games with an ankle injury. She's driven by team glory rather than individual success.
Ask her to define her role, and scoring doesn't make the list.
"It's to play for every possession," she says. "If I have an open shot, hit an open shot. Try to be as scrappy as I can on the defensive end. Get those offensive rebounds. Push the ball. Set great screens to get my teammates open. That's my biggest role."
IU has evolved into a national power under coach Teri Moren. It's made the Sweet Sixteen three times in the last four years, including an Elite Eight appearance in 2021.
What makes this team special?
"This year, we're more together," Parrish says. "We have so many pieces. We're all on the same page. We want to win.
"Last year, it was a new team. We had seven new players. We didn't know each other as well. We had great talent but didn't have that chemistry yet."
They have it now. They'll need it now.
South Carolina (34-0) is 105-3 in the last three seasons. It has won by 52 and 47 points in its first two NCAA tourney games against Presbyterian and North Carolina. It won national titles in 2017 and '22. It's played in five Final Fours since 2015, including the last three. This is its 10th straight Sweet Sixteen appearance.
The Gamecocks beat teams by an average of 31 points a game -- against one the toughest schedules in the country, with non-conference games against then-No. 10 Notre Dame (in France), No. 14 Maryland, No. 24 North Carolina, No. 11 Utah and No. 11 Connecticut, plus SEC competition highlighted by defending-national champ LSU.
They have one of the nation's best offenses (86.3 points) and best defenses (55.4). They have depth (nine players average at least 15 minutes per game), offensive balance (seven players average at least 8.0 points; no one averages more than 13.9) and defensive intensity (they force 16.1 turnovers; total 8.9 steals and hold opponents to 31.7 percent shooting). They are second in the nation in bench points (33.6 per game), and fourth in rebounds (46.3 per game).
They are led by All-American and SEC defensive player of the year Kamilla Cardoso (13.9 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.6 blocks, 58.4 shooting percentage), All-American Te-Hina Paopao (11.2 points, 47.5 percent three-point shooting) and All-SEC guard Raven Johnson (159 assists, 68 steals, both team highs).
IU counters with All-American forward Mackenzie Holmes, and veteran standouts Parrish, Chloe Moore-McNeil, Sara Scalia and Yarden Garzon. It entered NCAA tourney play leading the nation in field goal percentage (51.0) and three-point percentage (40.2).
The Hoosiers also played a challenging schedule that included trips to Stanford, Iowa and Ohio State, and a neutral-site game against Tennessee.
"I've talked about the maturity of this group, the poise they show," Moren says. "When you have somebody like Chloe who doesn't get rattled, that's really important. Just getting us into our sets and running the offense and understanding pace and rhythm and what's working and what's not."
Beyond that, the Hoosiers have toughness and resilience personified in Monday night's comeback NCAA tourney second-round victory against Oklahoma.
"We have so many threats; we're so well balanced; and I think it's our maturity level and our composure and the competitiveness that we have," Holmes says. "We're going to fight; we're never going to quit no matter what the score is."
It goes deeper than that, Parrish adds.
"We just love each other. We love each other on the court, off the court. The coaches love us. I love playing for a coach that wants to win for us as much as she wants to win for herself. We all love each other and we're a big family."
Players Mentioned
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