3 Takeaways From IU Women's Basketball 74-60 Loss Vs. No. 19 Maryland

Hoosier Now 17-11 Overall And 9-8 In League But Still Almost Certainly Headed Towards 6th Straight NCAA Berth

Assembly Hall In Bloomington Where Indiana Played Maryland On Thursday

Moren Has Made Magic With This Flawed Roster, But Personnel Has Limits Against Certain Athletic Teams

IU coach Teri Moren has built a very successful program in Bloomington on the backs of top post play and elite shooting for the most part. However, she has never had athletic or slashing guards and wings. This can be mostly made up for with a top post player such as Mackenzie Holmes as has been the case recently.

However, in 2024-2025, the Hoosiers lack a top center and rely almost exclusively on outside shooting. Against, athletic slashing guards and wings such as Maryland tonight or earlier in the season against Illinois, this puts Indiana at a massive disadvantage.

The fact that Moren has the Hoosiers on the brink of their sixth straight NCAA Tournament with a fairly flawed roster shows what a terrific coach she is. On nights where shots are not falling as happened on Thursday, this makes victory nearly impossible as in the team’s 74-60 loss to the Terps.

While all the signatures of a Moren squad are there with tough defense and good shooting for the most part, the roster still has a lot of missing pieces and the 11th-year coach on the sidelines has gotten the most out of what she does have. With that said, this almost certainly puts the team’s absolute hard ceiling at the second round of March Madness (more below), and victory impossible on some nights.

How Moren wants to address these shortcomings remains to be seen. Whether it is ensuring having a top center like Holmes on the roster to spread the floor or upping the athleticism in the backcourt (top recruit Nevaeh Caffey will address this some but more is needed here), one of these two things is a must to raise the ceiling beyond what this conference season has brought.

Moren has shown she is very good at using the portal and how she fills in the main spots around Yarden Garzon and Shay Ciezki will determine what the future holds. If this personnel is run back with backups Lily Meister and Lexus Bargesser starting, a ceiling lower than this year is possible.

However, if Moren finds a top big and/or more athleticism on the wings in the portal, the ceiling is raised beyond this season. That Moren is likely taking this group of players to March Madness speaks to her being amongst the best in the game on the sidelines regardless of the rough senior night showing. However, what 2024-2025 has taught her in terms of roster construction, will determine whether seasons like this become the norm (which admittedly is not awful and far better than most historically) or past years near the top of college basketball happen more often.

Seniors Have Rough Night In Final Home Game

Program stalwarts Sydney Parrish and Chloe Moore-McNeil played their final home game as seniors. While their careers have been extremely decorated almost without exception, Thursday was difficult for both of them.

Parrish did hit some late shots to pad her stats with 13 points but still struggled for the most part. Moore-McNeil had a rough game throughout with just four points and several easy shots missed. Whether the emotion of the night got to them can’t be known for sure. However, it was not the best performance from either.

The reason Indiana stayed in the game for a while was because juniors Ciezki and Garzon had huge nights with 15 and 18 points respectively. Also, transfer senior Karoline Striplin had a fine evening with 10 points. However, the struggles of the longtime departing players and zero bench points gave the Hoosiers no chance to emerge victorious.

Moren said she wishes things had gone better for the final contest at Assembly Hall.

“Disappointed on such a special night for our seniors,” Moren said. “I hate it that we couldn’t pull off a victory but Maryland was much better than we were in every category.”

IU Is Still Almost A Lock For NCAA Tournament

With Thursday likely being a quad one loss and a resume that features several big victories away from home, Indiana is in solid shape to make the NCAA Tournament still at 17-11 overall and 9-8 in the league. The big reason this squad is in terrific shape to still participate in March Madness is that they took advantage of their non-conference schedule and trip to the Bahamas. IU picked up neutral court triumphs over postseason-bound Columbia and Baylor here as well as road victories at tourney participants Iowa and Washington in league play and huge home wins over Nebraska and Ohio State.

While they have the same record and similar resume to their male counterparts, the difference in each squad’s performance at the Battle 4 Atlantis. The reason why the women are nearly a lock to play beyond the Big Ten Tournament while the men still have work to do is exactly because of what happened here in November around Thanksgiving.

The most important lesson in all of this is that while those neutral site multi-team events may seem like they are early with plenty of time left, in actuality the performance or lack thereof in these can make all the difference in the world when it comes to whether a squad participates in March Madness. Since the women made hay here, they will almost certainly be playing in the postseason.

In past seasons, senior night was not the final home game since Indiana hosted NCAA contests. This time though the Hoosiers will be traveling somewhere else and are done in Assembly Hall. The irony though is there is a decent chance they will not play outside the state of Indiana again.

The conference finale is against a struggling Purdue team in West Lafayette. The Boilers are everything the Terps are not. While Maryland beats you with speed and athleticism, the Boilers are slower and smaller as a whole. This contest will be on Sunday at 2 pm on Peacock and IU would do well to avoid a bad quad-four loss here to leave no doubt they are postseason worthy.

Parrish said they know beating their rival is a must.

“We have to make sure we go to Purdue and handle business,” Parrish said. “Then it’s game on. We’re a team that is really together and we’ll figure it out.

Following this, the Big Ten Tournament returns to Indianapolis. While March Madness could see the Hoosiers go out of state, a possible landing spot as a likely eight or nine seed is at number one seed Notre Dame in South Bend.

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