Indiana University Athletics
The Right Fit – Hoosiers Aim for Another ‘Special’ Basketball Season
9/23/2024 9:31:00 AM | Women's Basketball
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Coach Teri Moren pauses to reflect. A new Indiana women's basketball season looms, opportunities await and optimism thrives in a program built for national title contention.
Yes, leading scorers Mackenzie Holmes and Sara Scalia are gone, but plenty of talent returns, more has been added and the out-work-the-other team mentality is fully engaged.
"We can't wait to get started," Moren says. "You'll find a team that is together. The chemistry is good. To say this group is ready is an understatement."
The 11th-year head coach is asked if, in the Hoosiers' case, fit is better than talent.
The short answer -- yes.
The longer answer -- yes, to a point. Elite players are crucial, and while recruiting them is big, developing them is bigger.
"We learned that lesson early when we got here, that fit is so important to what you're trying to do when you're trying to build a program," Moren says.
The building is well entrenched. Under Moren, who arrived in Bloomington in 2014, IU has become a consistent national power, going to Sweet 16s and Elite Eights, becoming a top-25 fixture, winning a Women's National Invitation Tournament title and pushing eventual national champion South Carolina to the limit in last season's NCAA tourney.
The Hoosiers have won at least 24 games in four of the last five seasons, with nine straight 20-win seasons. Moren's 226 IU victories are a program record.
While they have done it with All-Americans such as Holmes, Grace Berger and Tyra Buss, all were impressively developed through demanding team training and individual work sessions, and found through rigorous recruiting.
Moren and her staff bring in good players, exceptional players, tough-minded players who embrace going beyond the expected, and if they don't always wow the recruiting analysts, who cares? The Hoosiers sure don't. They just keep winning.
"We feel like we do things differently here in terms of our expectations and what that's going to look like," Moren says. "The standards, the work ethic, all of it being about each other."
The key is finding players who buy into that.
Mission accomplished -- again and again and again.
"I do believe you can find those highly competitive, character players," Moren says. "You've just got to you got to dig a little deeper. You've got to ask better questions in the recruiting process. You have to paint a really vivid picture of what it's going to be like to be here, be a student-athlete here, and that's with the parents as well, but especially with those kids.
"I think you can find those kids, because there's so many of those young players who want to say they like being in the gym, but do they really like being in the gym? And when I say lifestyle, that's what it is around here. We do that because we found by doing that, we've been able to build a program. Doing more than what's required will always be a piece of the recipe. You certainly got to find those skilled players. There's no doubt you have to have talent.
"A lot of these kids just want to go to a player development place. That's the one thing that we try to set ourselves apart. We feel like our skill development here, getting in the trenches with those players and helping them develop.
"The proof is always in the statistics. You can look at Grace Berger as a freshman (5.5 points, 2.8 rebounds), sophomore (13.1, 5.2), junior (15.4, 6.8), and those are part of the recruiting conversation. There's evidence that how we do things works for our players."
As far as this season, IU retains veteran standouts Sydney Parrish (10.8 points, 6.0 rebounds), Chloe Moore-McNeil (10.2 points, 3.6 rebounds, team-leading 160 assists and 44 steals) and Yarden Garzon (11.7 points, 4.4 rebounds, 62 three-pointers).
Moren hit the transfer portal to bring in Penn State sharp-shooting guard Shay Ciezki (an 11.5-point average last season while making a team-leading 74 three-pointers and shooting 36.8 percent beyond the arc) and 6-3 Tennessee forward Karoline Striplin (7.2 points, 3.1 rebounds last year). Moren also signed highly regarded 6-4 Faith Wiseman out of nearby Indian Creek High School. Wiseman, who totaled 1,456 points and 1,072 rebounds at Indian Creek, was ranked No. 61 nationally by ESPN.
Beyond the court, Holmes might have run out of college eligibility, but not in her ability to help the Hoosiers. The Hoosiers' all-time leading scorer is a graduate manager this season while rehabbing a knee injury that sidelined her as a rookie for the WNBA's Seattle Storm this season.
Also, former Hoosier guard Ali Patberg was promoted to full-time assistant coach. Another former Hoosier under Moren, Keyanna Warthen, is the recruitment coordinator and assistant coach.
With Holmes gone, IU will look to 6-3 junior Lilly Meister to make her inside mark. Last year, playing behind Holmes, she averaged 3.7 points and 2.7 rebounds while shooting 71.4 percent from the field.
"We have a lot of confidence in Lilly," Moren says. "She's a steady scorer on the low block. We have to learn to utilize her in different ways.
"I think she will be special."
The same is true of all the Hoosiers.
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Coach Teri Moren pauses to reflect. A new Indiana women's basketball season looms, opportunities await and optimism thrives in a program built for national title contention.
Yes, leading scorers Mackenzie Holmes and Sara Scalia are gone, but plenty of talent returns, more has been added and the out-work-the-other team mentality is fully engaged.
"We can't wait to get started," Moren says. "You'll find a team that is together. The chemistry is good. To say this group is ready is an understatement."
The 11th-year head coach is asked if, in the Hoosiers' case, fit is better than talent.
The short answer -- yes.
The longer answer -- yes, to a point. Elite players are crucial, and while recruiting them is big, developing them is bigger.
"We learned that lesson early when we got here, that fit is so important to what you're trying to do when you're trying to build a program," Moren says.
The building is well entrenched. Under Moren, who arrived in Bloomington in 2014, IU has become a consistent national power, going to Sweet 16s and Elite Eights, becoming a top-25 fixture, winning a Women's National Invitation Tournament title and pushing eventual national champion South Carolina to the limit in last season's NCAA tourney.
The Hoosiers have won at least 24 games in four of the last five seasons, with nine straight 20-win seasons. Moren's 226 IU victories are a program record.
While they have done it with All-Americans such as Holmes, Grace Berger and Tyra Buss, all were impressively developed through demanding team training and individual work sessions, and found through rigorous recruiting.
Moren and her staff bring in good players, exceptional players, tough-minded players who embrace going beyond the expected, and if they don't always wow the recruiting analysts, who cares? The Hoosiers sure don't. They just keep winning.
"We feel like we do things differently here in terms of our expectations and what that's going to look like," Moren says. "The standards, the work ethic, all of it being about each other."
The key is finding players who buy into that.
Mission accomplished -- again and again and again.
"I do believe you can find those highly competitive, character players," Moren says. "You've just got to you got to dig a little deeper. You've got to ask better questions in the recruiting process. You have to paint a really vivid picture of what it's going to be like to be here, be a student-athlete here, and that's with the parents as well, but especially with those kids.
"I think you can find those kids, because there's so many of those young players who want to say they like being in the gym, but do they really like being in the gym? And when I say lifestyle, that's what it is around here. We do that because we found by doing that, we've been able to build a program. Doing more than what's required will always be a piece of the recipe. You certainly got to find those skilled players. There's no doubt you have to have talent.
"A lot of these kids just want to go to a player development place. That's the one thing that we try to set ourselves apart. We feel like our skill development here, getting in the trenches with those players and helping them develop.
"The proof is always in the statistics. You can look at Grace Berger as a freshman (5.5 points, 2.8 rebounds), sophomore (13.1, 5.2), junior (15.4, 6.8), and those are part of the recruiting conversation. There's evidence that how we do things works for our players."
As far as this season, IU retains veteran standouts Sydney Parrish (10.8 points, 6.0 rebounds), Chloe Moore-McNeil (10.2 points, 3.6 rebounds, team-leading 160 assists and 44 steals) and Yarden Garzon (11.7 points, 4.4 rebounds, 62 three-pointers).
Moren hit the transfer portal to bring in Penn State sharp-shooting guard Shay Ciezki (an 11.5-point average last season while making a team-leading 74 three-pointers and shooting 36.8 percent beyond the arc) and 6-3 Tennessee forward Karoline Striplin (7.2 points, 3.1 rebounds last year). Moren also signed highly regarded 6-4 Faith Wiseman out of nearby Indian Creek High School. Wiseman, who totaled 1,456 points and 1,072 rebounds at Indian Creek, was ranked No. 61 nationally by ESPN.
Beyond the court, Holmes might have run out of college eligibility, but not in her ability to help the Hoosiers. The Hoosiers' all-time leading scorer is a graduate manager this season while rehabbing a knee injury that sidelined her as a rookie for the WNBA's Seattle Storm this season.
Also, former Hoosier guard Ali Patberg was promoted to full-time assistant coach. Another former Hoosier under Moren, Keyanna Warthen, is the recruitment coordinator and assistant coach.
With Holmes gone, IU will look to 6-3 junior Lilly Meister to make her inside mark. Last year, playing behind Holmes, she averaged 3.7 points and 2.7 rebounds while shooting 71.4 percent from the field.
"We have a lot of confidence in Lilly," Moren says. "She's a steady scorer on the low block. We have to learn to utilize her in different ways.
"I think she will be special."
The same is true of all the Hoosiers.
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