IU women’s basketball has become a fixture in March — Now Teri Moren is tasked with elevating this program even more

As the IU women’s basketball team walked off the floor in Columbia, South Carolina on Sunday afternoon — it was another season of disappointment. Not with how they played or how the season went necessarily, but knowing that the recipe is there for this group and program but there are just a few slight tweaks needed in order to take the next step as a group.

The Indiana season ended at the hands of South Carolina, once again, in another hard-fought and intense matchup. This time, however, it didn’t end with anger or frustration — just more motivation. There’s no doubt when looking at the group on the floor that Teri Moren did everything — and more — to get the most out of this group. Battling through injuries at different points in the season, moving into a new era after watching the program’s most decorated player for the last five years graduate and running into one of the top programs of the last decade wasn’t a perfect recipe.

But nonetheless, Moren’s standards and expectations for this program always remained high as she has now set the foundation for what the Hoosiers should play like and where they’ll be playing each and every year. As South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said after the Gamecocks 64-53 win, however, it just takes some ‘luck’ to get to the next level as a program.

“I mean, Teri can coach. She can really coach. She does a really great job at getting her players to play to their strengths,” said Staley. “Obviously, some of it is luck. Some of it is matchups. Like, it really is, when it comes to the NCAA Tournament. I think you just have to keep plugging. She’s got the talent. She’s got the assistant coaches pool of people. You’ve just got to get lucky. Just got to get lucky.”

Following a first round win over Utah on Friday, Indiana had won 20+ games in 10 seasons and won an NCAA Tournament game in six straight years. That includes an Elite Eight and two Sweet Sixteens. There’s also a Big Ten regular season championship sandwiched in as well. So, when Indiana is winning at a high level, it isn’t just limping into the NCAA Tournament or getting blown out by teams in March; IU women’s basketball has shown to make noise and be one of the toughest outs this time of year.

“I think it shows our year to year — I think we’ve made the NCAA Tournament four years in a row now, and it shows how Indiana keeps building,” IU senior forward Sydney Parrish said. “You lose good players, but you keep building and keep building.

” … If you want to play in March Madness, you come to Indiana. I think Coach Moren has made that a huge deal here.”

Before Teri Moren, the IU women’s basketball program had just four NCAA Tournament appearances and only in 1983 did the Hoosiers win a game in March. The level of consistency that Moren has brought to the program and the stability is something the Hoosier fanbase hadn’t seen.

“We’ll continue with that recipe because I feel like it has worked for us. But as the game has grown and continues to grow, we’re going to have to grow with it. So those are things that in my mind — that come to me, right, in terms of what our team — the direction that our team needs to go in.”

Just as Indiana did a year before, this offseason comes with two major pieces leaving; Chloe Moore-McNeil and Sydney Parrish. Both have been backbones for the program for years and have brought more than just their play on the floor. Their leadership, above all else, is something that can’t be replicated. IU does return Yarden Garzon and Shay Ciezki and other role players like Lilly Meister and Lexus Bargesser. Can top-35 freshman Maya Makalusky develop quick enough over the summer to be a critical part of the puzzle? There are key questions that have to be answered about the roster and the path ahead, and Moren knows it.

“I think some of the things that you learn is, we have to make sure we have the right pieces in our program. So I think that’s where it starts,” Moren said. “We will always be a team that is going to play a certain way. We will always hang our hat on the defensive side of the ball. That’s just what I believe. I get it; we’ve got to score. But there’s just certain things that — in the way that we’ve built this, we’ve really been the gritty, the tough, no-nonsense team.

“I know that we’re going to have a lot of work to do as we push ahead and we lose the kids that we lose, and they were so instrumental. It has been a season of change, but it’s also, I think, made me a better coach. I think it’s made our staff a better staff.”

So as Moren and her staff look to put together the pieces of next season’s puzzle, there will certainly be change and there needs to be in order to elevate the program up to another level. Teri Moren understands what needs to happen and will adjust accordingly, but also won’t be shy to point back at this years team and emphasize that the toughness and DNA of the IU women’s basketball program will still be the top priority.

“I think that’s going to be something that may change as we move forward with women’s basketball, but there’s going to be other things that are going to have to change inside of our program. We’ll address those as we leave here. But I don’t want to get lost and take anything away from the achievements that — especially this year, because this year was tough.

“Again, you don’t replace an All-American. You don’t replace somebody like Sara Scalia and think you’re going to be the same team. It just doesn’t happen. So I’m really, really grateful, really proud of the group that wore the Indiana jersey this year. In spite of all the ups and downs, we still had some really special moments, great moments that we will take from this, and hopefully, it will serve as motivation as we move forward.”

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