BASKETBALL

IU women’s basketball players with message to recruits: ‘If you want to play in March Madness, you come to Indiana’

With the transfer portal open, the IU women’s basketball players have a message to potential recruits — come to Indiana to win.

Published

12 hours ago

March 25, 2025

Alec Lasley

With the transfer portal open, the IU women's basketball players have a message to potential recruits -- come to Indiana to win. (Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times-USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

As the transfer portal opens up on Tuesday for the expected hundreds and thousands of players around the country, the IU women’s basketball players have a key message to potential entrants and they didn’t mince words.

“If you want to play in March Madness, you come to Indiana,” IU senior Sydney Parrish said after their 64-53 loss to South Carolina. “I think Coach Moren has made that a huge deal here.”

Despite bowing out in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 on Sunday afternoon, Indiana made it 10 20+ win seasons and a sixth year in a row with at least one NCAA Tournament win. Before Teri Moren made her way to Bloomington, the IU program had just four NCAA Tournament wins in its history — with the last win coming in 1983.

Indiana has advanced to an Elite Eight, two Sweet Sixteens and won a Big Ten Championship in the last five years. They’ve been a one-seed, three-seed and four-seed twice in that span as well and been ranked in the AP Top 25 every season, finishing in each of the past four years before this season.

So, to say that statement is true would even be an understatement. The consistency and growth that the program has seen under Moren is uncanny. But, there are expectations and standards.

“When you come here, you’ve got to expect to work hard every single day. Nothing is going to come easy,” Indiana guard Chloe Moore-McNeil said. “Also, it’s the culture piece, as well. You’ve got to put others first and be willing to play team basketball and give up a good shot for a great shot.”

“Work hard every day, and if you don’t want to work hard, it’s not the place for you,” Parrish added.

Indiana is expecting to go through yet another restructuring of its roster this offseason. After losing All-American and the program’s most decorated player last summer in Mackenzie Holmes, they also lost Sara Scalia, an All-Big Ten performer as well. Now, it’s Chloe Moore-McNeil and Sydney Parrish who are off after being part of the major culture shift and two of the best leaders the program has seen. Indiana will also see Karoline Striplin’s career end after transferring in for her final year last summer.

Indiana does have a good core returning in All-Big Ten Second-Team wing Yarden Garzon, 14.4 points and the programs all-time leader in made 3s, and sharpshooter Shay Ciezki. Lilly Meister, Lexus Bargesser and Julianna LaMendola are all expected to be back in Bloomington, as of now, — so part of that culture remains intact. But, as Moren knows, there need to be improvements made to a roster that has a lot of holes to fill.

“Well, I think we’re going to have a lot of holes to fill. I think with the portal opening, I think there’s going to be a lot of schools out there that are going to have some holes to fill,” Moren said. “We’ll go back — trust me, we’ve already sort of been in the process of kind of figuring out what we feel like those holes are going to be and addressing those, and then like the rest of the country, everybody will be in the portal.

“But for us, it’s going to be real important because we don’t go into the portal — we’re very careful. I think — you’ve followed us; you know that there’s certain types of players that have to fit Indiana and the way we do things in our program. We’ll have to address those and find out, but I think we’ll have probably several holes to fill.”

From players like Ciezki or Striplin this past year to Scalia or Sydney Parrish a few years ago, to even Nicole Cardano-Hillary a few years ago, Moren has done well landing key contributors and backbones of the team each of the last few summers. But, this year’s additions are even more critical than years past.

“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.”

From Grace Berger to Mackenzie Holmes to Chloe Moore-McNeil and now Yarden Garzon. Players who have come to Indiana as freshmen have grown significantly throughout their careers. There’s no denying the player development that Moren and her staff have emphasized in her 11 years in Bloomington and that’s grown to be even more evident with the players who have transferred in with either one or two years of eligibility remaining.

“It takes hard work, and it takes showing up every single day. If you want to play for somebody like Coach Moren, you come to Indiana, and I think she’s shown how she’s built this program, like Chloe said, from the ground up and has made greats,” Parrish said. “Think of Grace Berger, Mackenzie Holmes, the Chloe Moore-McNeil. Those are three names nobody knew who they were in high school. Nobody. Right, Chloe? Nobody knew who they were in high school, and they came and took a chance on Indiana, and they’re pros now.”

So the final message from two program greats to recruits who are out there looking for their new home? Come play for the IU women’s basketball program where you’ll grow as much as a person as you will a player.

“She wants to win for us. She puts the team first. She puts her players first. She is a player’s coach,” Parrish said of Moren. “She’s really receptive to us in practice. She kind of lets the leaders take control in practice sometimes, as well, and she trusts us. I think that’s huge coming from a head coach. Just so grateful that she takes chances on kids in the portal, kids not in the portal, and she just wants to win at all costs.

“The confidence she has in us,” Moore-McNeil added. “She’s behind us ten toes down.”