3 Takeaways From IU Women's Basketball 76-60 Win Vs. Nebraska
Hoosier Improve To 14-7 Overall and 6-4 In League To Close In On NCAA Berth
Assembly Hall In Bloomington Where Indiana Played Nebraska On Sunday
Hoosiers Beat Clone Of Themselves From 2023-2024 By Responding To Every Nebraska Run
Bloomington-In 2023-2024 IU won at a high level with an elite center in Mackenzie Holmes surrounded by four shooters who were less athletic. Fast forward to 2024-2025 and Nebraska is built exactly the same way with a top center in Alexis Markowski surrounded by four shooters who lack athleticism relative to others in the Big Ten.
In both cases in the last couple of seasons, the Hoosiers have dominated the matchup winning both contests by a combined 38 points. The difference in the results has come down to defense and coaching, and in that, Indiana has a massive advantage.
IU coach Teri Moren has outcoached Amy Williams and maximized her personnel with strong three-point shooting and smothering the Cornhuskers on the other end from doing what they want. Moren does not have a top-post player this year as Karoline Striplin is the best weapon down there and is still inferior to many starting-level centers in the power-five.
Despite this, Moren managed to maximize Striplin who scored 13 points, and take away Markowski who had just 8 points. Her team also guarded the long-range shot as Nebraska was just 3-11 from out there while the Hoosiers were 13-30 and won 76-60 in front of an announced crowd of 11,476 that was quite loud despite being a fair bit smaller than the amount given. Once again the quality of fans is there but the quantity needs to be better when Indiana is not a ranked team like in past seasons.
When it comes to the domination on the court, Moren said after she has a pretty good idea how to attack the Cornhuskers.
“Nebraska is a man-to-man team,” Moren said. “They may throw a little bit of zone but they’re like us, they are very man-to-man oriented.”
Hoosiers 1 or 2 Wins Away Against Tournament Level Teams From Clinching Spot In 6th Straight March Madness
The Hoosiers sit at 14-7 overall and 6-4 in the league after Sunday’s pivotal win over a tournament-level Nebraska side that fell to 16-6 and 7-4. With the dominant win Sunday, IU is closing on a sixth straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Indiana came into Sunday as a projected nine-seed and is now one step closer to March Madness.
Given their resume to this point, the Hoosiers are likely either two more victories against NCAA caliber opponents from locking up a spot or one more win against that level of competition combined with a win to begin the Big Ten Tourney from getting there. This is assuming they take care of the three games against the very bottom of the league when they face Purdue twice and Rutgers this coming Thursday.
The chances for strong results against competition also headed for the postseason come at Minnesota, at Michigan, home against Ohio State, at Michigan State, and home against Maryland. In other words, two wins in these five games or one plus a Big Ten Tourney victory would likely do the job. Anything beyond that would likely be just to improve their seeding.
Sunday was a terrific first step in punching their ticket to March Madness after responding to every Cornhusker run in the second half and winning going away. Holding leads has been an issue for IU recently and what happened in this contest was an important improvement in this area.
Grace Berger Released By Indiana Fever
In a move that was not related to the game, the local WNBA team the Indiana Fever released former Hoosier star Grace Berger. This will undoubtedly and understandably upset IU fans but the professional squad in the state had a good reason for doing this.
Whether Berger catches on for another franchise in this country or will have to continue her career in Europe where she is now for the winter remains to be seen. There was a legitimate reason for Indiana fans to be upset about Berger seeing minimal time last year.
However, after the Fever acquired three top-level players this week (Natasha Howard, Sophie Cunningham, and DeWanna Bonner) to join stars Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, and Kelsey Mitchell, there was simply no room for Berger as they try to make a serious run at a championship this coming summer.
After rocky management the last few seasons, the Fever are now led by top coach Stephanie White and elite general manager Kelly Krauskopf. This franchise knows what it is doing now and absolutely would have kept Berger if they thought she could help. However, with this not being the case, they could ill afford questions or the distraction about whether a local college star and fringe WNBA player would see any playing time.
More than anything though, this shows the Hoosiers are in the right hands when it comes to Moren. The fact she was able to maximize a roster the last four seasons that had at best two fringe professional players in Berger and Holmes shows her ability to get the most out of what she has.
Moren took that level of a squad to three second-weekend NCAA appearances and a Big Ten championship in the last four seasons. This shows her ability to get the most out of her roster and beat teams in the conference and nationally with far more top-end talent.
While this season won’t end with the highs of the last few, once again Moren is getting the maximum out of what she does have and will very likely get this year’s squad to another March Madness appearance. A lesser coach could have easily missed the postseason with the good but flawed roster that now resides in Bloomington.
Turning back to Berger, if IU fans want the local team to draft Hoosier players again, they need to understand when a sound business decision is made. If these same people want the Fever to take a chance again on someone with local ties, the decision needs to be accepted and understood even if supporters are justifiably upset.
I wrote about this when Berger first broke into the league a couple of years ago and clearly she didn’t show she had enough to be in the top league in the world in the Fever’s eyes despite some better moments late in her rookie season. With Clark now selling out Gainbridge Fieldhouse every night, they no longer need Berger to sell tickets. Whether that was the reason in the first place for taking her I have no idea.
However, if it was, shame on the franchise for a very short-sighted business decision at the time. There is no evidence this is the case though and I will give the team the benefit of the doubt that this was not the motivation but at best a bonus.
As a result, every IU fan needs to accept this as a sound business decision and root for the local WNBA squad to win a title next summer and in future seasons which is well within reach. Like the Hoosiers, they have “Indiana” in their name and that should be enough to cheer them on for many IU fans as they chase a championship.
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Good article but I have to disagree a little
1. You can say what you want about coaching. Yes, Teri Moren devised a great game plan but the PLAYERS executed it. I don’t think that Amy Williams was clueless or is not an excellent coach. Her players just go beat by a superior performance.
2. I watch other women’s games, even with good teams , where the crowd is quite sparse compared to us. I think it’s a little unreasonable to expect the frenzy of nationally ranked seasons. That doesn’t happen in most places, Fans everywhere show up for winning . Just ask Coach Cignetti. Either we are going to be a good team yearly with above average attendance of Teri will have to recruit players who will get us to a national threat level.
3. Pro sports is a business, as college sports has become. Anyone that is upset about Grace is acting like a child. The fact is if any team thinks she can play in the league they will sign her.
Keep up your great work