‘Exciting’ Season Looms for Moren’s New-Look Hoosiers
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Shay Ciezki has no doubt. None. Despite a massive roster overhaul, the Indiana Hoosiers will once again be a formidable force in women’s college basketball, just as they’ve been for the last decade under coach Teri Moren.
“I know a lot of people are doubting us right now,” the senior guard says, “which is what we want. We thrive off of that. I’m excited.”
Excitement comes with new players, more athletic players, a veteran coaching staff and a foundation still rooted in solid defense.
“I’m very optimistic,” Ciezki says, “and it starts with Coach Moren. She’s built this program from the ground up. No matter what team she’s had, it’s been a successful year. I don’t see this year being any different. We’re looking good in practice. It will be an exciting year.”
Roster turnover is the new norm in these transfer portal/NIL times. For IU, three starters graduated from last season’s 20-13 team, including long-time standouts Chloe Moore-McNeil and Sydney Parrish, and six players transferred. Only five players returned, led by Ciezki and guard Lenée Beaumont, who missed the entire season with a knee injury.
Ciezki was a down-the-stretch force last season, averaging 15.6 points, 2.6 assists and 1.3 steals while shooting 53.1 percent from three-point range over the last nine games. Overall, she averaged 11.8 points and 2.8 assists.
Forwards Faith Wiseman and Sydney Fenn, and guard Valentyna Kadlecova also return. Fenn redshirted. Wiseman and Kadlecova played in just 11 games.
“Our leadership will come from Shay and probably Lenée, even though Lenée didn't play at all last year," Moren says. "But in terms of (Beaumont’s) experience and being an old head in our system and in our program, we'll lean on those two throughout the season for great leadership.”
After 10 straight 20-win seasons, seven NCAA tourney appearances, three Sweet Sixteens, one Elite Eight, the 2023 Big Ten regular season title and the 2018 WNIT championship, Moren wants to consistently challenge the likes of UConn (the defending national champ), South Carolina and LSU. The two-time Big Ten coach of the year and 2023 national coach of the year says she’d decided after last March’s NCAA tourney loss to South Carolina that the Hoosiers had to get bigger and more athletic, and they have with six transfers and two top-60 rated freshmen.
“We put together a roster, went into the portal and figured out the pieces that could help us become more athletic,” she says. “We also wanted it to make sense, systematically for us.
“Do I think we got more athletic? Yeah. It’s early, but I think what we've given up for athleticism is a little bit is our ability to shoot it. The jury is still out on can we still be as efficient as we've been accustomed to being outside the arc.”
Last season, IU shot 36.5 percent from three-point range and made 256 three-point baskets.
From the transfer portal IU brought in 6-foot-3 Zania Socka-Nguemen from UCLA, 5-foot-10 Alabama guard Chloe Spreen, 6-foot-3 Virginia forward Edessa Noyan, 5-9 Arkansas guard Phoenix Stotijn, 5-foot-7 guard Jerni Kiaku from Duquesne and North Carolina Central, and 6-foot-3 Northwest Florida State College forward Jade Ondineme.
Injuries limited Socka-Nguemen last season. The former McDonald’s All-America ranked No. 26 nationally coming out of Maryland’s Sidwell Friends High School.
The freshmen are Missouri guard Nevaeh Caffey and forward Maya Makalusky out of Hamilton Southeastern High School in Indiana.
The 6-foot-3 Makalusky was last year’s Indiana Ms. Basketball and the state of Indiana Gatorade Player of the Year. A top-50 prospect, she set the Hamilton Southeastern career scoring record with 1,913 points.
The 5-10 Caffey, a defensive standout, helped Incarnate Word Academy win a national record 139 consecutive games and four straight Missouri Class 6 state titles. She was Missouri’s Miss Show-Me Basketball.
They fit Moren’s recruiting priorities, both from the transfer portal as well as high school, of skill and high basketball IQ as well as more athleticism and versatility.
“There’s intention in how we build the roster,” she says. “We recruit kids who best fit us and our culture.”
For this season, a big priority is the locker room, team chemistry and aligning with the culture Moren and her staff have built over the years.
“We always talk about protecting the locker room,” Moren says. “A year ago, our locker room was not in very good shape. I think it's in better shape today, and a lot of that has to do with Lenée Beaumont and her making sure that this is a healthy environment, it's a healthy locker room.
“We're all in alignment with our goals. We're all in alignment what we value, what our standards are, and I'm going to hold you accountable to that every day.”
To accelerate the teaching and learning process with such a new team, Moren has spent more quality time with her players, even participating in on-court drills. It’s paid off, Ciezki says.
“We’ve thrown a lot of things at people. They’re responding great.”
IU will have an Oct. 27 exhibition against Missouri S&T at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall before opening the season Nov. 4 at home against Lipscomb.
Non-conference games include a Nov. 16 trip to Florida State and a late-November Coconut Hoops event in Fort Myers, Fla., with games against Gonzaga and either Iowa State or Marquette.
“We’re definitely more athletic,” Ciezki says. “We’re fast. We want the ball out quick. We play in transition. It will be exciting to see.”
