3 Takeaways From IU Women's Basketball 79-66 Win Vs. No. 24 Stanford On Sunday

Team Plays Best Game Of Season So Far In Post-Mackenzie Holmes Era

Assembly Hall Where Indiana Took On Stanford In Bloomington Sunday

IU Misses Holmes More Than Realized But This Can Be Overcome With Great Guard Play

Bloomington-Let’s be clear. There is no replacing all-time greats like Mackenzie Holmes and everyone knew this season would be an adjustment. However, the extent to which her void causes depends on guard play.

Most of IU’s offensive system in 2023-2024 relied on Holmes or another big to run at its maximum the last few seasons. It is not unusual to surround an elite center with four shooters forcing the opponent to either double and leave someone open on the perimeter or let said player score at will on the block. It can work like gold as long as someone outstanding is down there.

However, when this does not occur, the entire ability to score and get great shots falls on guard play. Holmes’ backup Lily Meister was expected to take a leap forward but has struggled big time in the early going. Meanwhile, transfer Karoline Striplin has been only slightly better.

However, the Hoosiers still have shooters and as long as the guards play as they did today, they can somewhat mitigate the lack of a post presence. However, the absence of a top center makes backcourt play especially important, and for the first time this fall it delivered.

As the defense continues to play well, the guards being top-notch can be the difference between winning and losing. IU got 58 points from the starting backcourt trio this afternoon which allowed them to emerge victorious with their top defense. This can be a formula for relatively good success as it was before Holmes showed up. However, the guards have to deliver and on Sunday they finally did.

Chloe Moore-McNeil who led the team with 21 points, said she knew with time, better results would come.

“There was never a doubt,” McNeil said. “There was a panic. It just took a couple games for us to gel together.”

Moren Deserves Patience To Figure Out The Problems

While this season and the program could go any number of ways going forward, IU coach Teri Moren has earned the right to figure this out and Sunday was a good first step. Whether the flaws for this season are fatal overall or eventually the team continues to improve as 2024-2025 goes on, she deserves the benefit of the doubt to try to fix this completely over the next several years.

Purdue coach Matt Painter had a couple of down seasons after his first elite era with Robbie Hummel, JaJuan Johnson, and E’Twuan Moore. However, he has since built one great year after another.

Similarly, Moren is coming off the first top era of her tenure in a post-Grace Berger and Mackenzie Holmes world and needs patience to try to build back up to winning big again. Certainly, she has already shown she knows how to do this in her decade in Bloomington.

The question will be if Sunday’s strong performance turns into the aberration or if the two games before that with the struggles are the exception. Hoosier fans absolutely have to hope it’s the latter.

Moren said winning is indeed what she expects and makes her team feel right.

“I’m not gonna lie,” Moren said. “This feels so much better than how we felt the last two games.”

Again, Is Two Better Than 22 When It Comes To IU Athletics?

I asked this already early in the fall, but want to bring it back up. In almost any circumstance besides golf, the higher number is what many would want when it comes to success in sports. In this case, the obvious answer would be that 22 is the stronger digit as it refers to the number of IU sports that have more or less been successful in the last few years.

Indiana athletics has 24 sports and for the most part, everyone but the big two of football and men’s basketball have had more highs than lows recently. However, the two signature programs have struggled.

So far the results from 2024-2025 say things could well be headed in the opposite direction. With football having its best season in program history under Curt Cignetti, the boys on the gridiron have been the standout squad so far. Also, early results from Mike Woodson’s team seem to indicate a promising winter on the court.

Vice versa, the other sports (outside of swimming and diving) that have been relatively strong the past few seasons, have been anywhere from decent to extreme struggles. After Sunday’s 79-66 win against Stanford, Indiana sits at just 2-2 after five seasons of greatness.

This raises the question of whether women’s basketball and other sports being behind the last few seasons is worth it amongst IU fans if it means a successful season in football and men’s basketball. Supporters of Indiana can comment below on how they feel about this.

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Postgame press conference with Moren and players can be seen below: