3 Takeaways From IU Women's Basketball 90-55 Win Vs. Oakland

Hoosier Head Back Into Big Ten Play At 9-3

Assembly Hall In Bloomington Where Indiana Played Oakland On Sunday

What Is IU’s Outlook Heading Into Big Ten Play?

Bloomington-After the slow start to the season, Indiana continues to improve as the fall has gone on. After the losses to Harvard and Butler, IU has picked up signature victories against Stanford at home as well as Columbia and Baylor on a neutral site.

Also, the closer calls against mid-majors early have turned into the blowouts that were expected against Maine, Bellarmine, and finally Oakland on Sunday by a score of 90-55 as Sydney Parrish returned to the lineup. The latter two have each produced the largest spread between the Hoosiers and their opponent this season.

As they head back into Big Ten play at 9-3, their NET sits well within NCAA Tournament range and competition in a league that is elite. As long as they finish .500 or better in the conference, a sixth straight trip to March Madness should be assured. As the team continues to get better as the season goes deeper, fans should be confident of the product on the court.

IU coach Teri Moren said that she sees her squad as a whole starting to gel as time goes on.

“From the beginning, I think we felt like there were gonna be some ebbs and flows and peaks and valleys with a new team,” Moren said. “There is no doubt we’ve become a better basketball team in the last month. That’s good as we head into Big Ten play. It’s a daunting league and we want to be playing our best basketball in March. It’s been good for us to grow as a team and improve as a team.”

Is Teri Moren’s System Stronger Than Recruiting Stars?

Purdue coach Matt Painter, Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell, Wisconsin coaches Greg Gard and Bo Ryan, and Moren. All have a specific system they use to win where the sum of its parts is greater than the talent.

As a result, Moren is coming off the first top era of her tenure in a post-Grace Berger and Mackenzie Holmes world. In that time and before that, she has shown she knows how to build a winning team in her roughly decade in Bloomington.

In doing so, she has built a system based on defense that is greater than a single or multiple five-star players. This has caused some in the fan base to grumble about the lack of top talent being recruited and brought in.

However, Painter and Pikiell have provided a cautionary tale on what happens when you abandon a hard-nosed and physical defensive first system for star recruits. Painter went for the best talent he could find without regard for their fit, after the graduations of Robbie Hummel, JaJuan Johnson, and E’Twaun Moore. As a result, he fell off for a couple of years. However, once he returned to finding lower-rated guys who matched his system, he has thrived since.

As for Pikiell, he built a system that won at a level never seen at Rutgers. However, this year he threw out his hard-nosed physical defensive system for a couple of five-star freshmen Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper. As a result, the Scarlet Knights have struggled in ways not seen since the early part of his tenure.

This brings us back to Moren, who like Gard and Ryan has never gone for the very top talent. While this can be frustrating for fans, these leaders may know that not recruiting to their culture can have more negative effects than positive. Sure, winning national titles might be difficult running a program this way.

However, being crowned the very best in the game is never a guarantee. Also, going against what you believe in for pure talent can lead to trouble. If a coach has a plan for doing things in a way that leads to constant postseason appearances and a couple of eras of players that outlive their ranking, it is hard to complain.

As Painter and Pikiell have shown, going the opposite of what you really want, to rake in top talent can lead to things being much worse. This is something IU fans need to remember as they see Moren pulling in 3 and 4-star kids who fit her way of doing things, while at the same time eschewing the highest-ranked players that the high schools have to offer.

How Much Can IU Fans Support Good But Not Great Teams?

Indiana supporters, like any fan base, have shown they have no problem showing up in large numbers and selling out stadiums when they have elite teams. This goes for all sports from football to basketball to all other programs IU athletics fields.

While men’s basketball partisans have shown they can fill an arena regardless of competition level or how well they are doing, the same cannot always be said for other squads. Baseball, men’s soccer, and softball, among others, have continued to be regular postseason participants.

However, the stands at these games with smaller capacities are not always as full as they necessarily should be. This is despite being good, but not elite most of the time. This brings us to women’s basketball which will likely not reach the levels of the past few years, but still be a postseason team similar to the early part of the Moren era.

The question will be what the response is to this. There has already been grumbling from sectors of Hoosier Nation for no longer being top-notch. However, these complaints may be misguided as described above.

If history is any indication, crowds moving forward will be larger than before the recent winning, but smaller than when making deep March Madness runs the last few seasons. While announced attendance will be higher with so many more season ticket holders and assigned seating, the actual number of fans at the game is behind the last few seasons.

Moving forward, one would expect this trajectory to continue. However, the women’s basketball program is in a good spot and crowds should show up in large numbers to support them.

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