3 Takeaways From IU Women's Basketball 81-60 Win Vs. Rutgers

Hoosier Improve To 15-7 Overall and 7-4 In League To Close In On NCAA Berth

Assembly Hall In Bloomington Where Indiana Played Rutgers On Thursday

Hoosiers Improve to 4-0 Against Bottom Five Teams In League

Bloomington-The Big Ten has the peculiarity in 2024-2025 of having five squads at the bottom of the conference who are not particularly competitive. This essentially makes it so anyone not named Northwestern, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, and Wisconsin has five “free” spots in the league for near-certain wins. In Indiana’s case, this goes up to six with the Boilers being a home-and-home series.

The Hoosiers dominated the Nittany Lions in Happy Valley and the Badgers in Bloomington early in the conference slate, while edging past the Wildcats in Evanston a few weeks ago. Tonight’s 81-60 victory at home against the Scarlet Knights improves IU to 4-0 against this group of teams with matchups against the struggling Boilers coming up.

This ineptness at the bottom also should give everyone else a starting point of five to six wins toward the resume. The question is how to get a handful of other positive results to participate in the NCAA Tournament.

So far Indiana has victories at Iowa and Washington and in Bloomington versus Nebraska against likely fellow March Madness participants. Also, the pre-conference slate includes critical neutral-court wins over Columbia and Baylor which will likely be playing in the field of 68, and power-five Stanford at home.

All of this takes us to the point where Indiana is now. They are 15-7 (7-4 in conference) and likely two more non-Boilermaker victories away from ensuring a spot in postseason play for the sixth straight season. These opportunities for those couple of triumphs come starting Sunday at Minnesota, Wednesday at Michigan, and late-season home showdowns with Ohio State and Maryland as well as any Big Ten Tournament results in Indianapolis.

IU Overcomes Slow Start For Victory

The first-half effort showed both how much their opponent struggles and also serves as a warning for the future. The Hoosiers brought at best a “D” effort early and still led by 11. Indiana was fortunate who they were playing against or they could have trailed by at least that much most nights.

Fortunately for IU, they came to life in the third quarter and scored 36 points after just 32 in the first half to stretch the advantage to 28 and be able to cruise from there. The Hoosiers also made 10 triples in those 10-minutes after just four in the opening 20.

In the end, the Hoosiers did exactly what they were supposed to do despite the lethargic play early. In doing so, they cleared the bench for most of the final quarter and moved one step closer to clinching a spot in postseason play. However, the starts have to be stronger going forward or trouble could lie ahead.

2024-2025 May Be Moren’s Best Coaching Job Yet

IU coach Teri Moren may be doing her best job yet on the sidelines. While it is not anywhere near reaching the heights of the last few campaigns it is more impressive in some ways. The last five rosters had few weaknesses and Indiana was predictably among the best in college basketball.

The 2024-2025 personnel is much more flawed with no standout star or strong presence in the post. However, Moren has figured out how to hide the issues while maximizing the strengths in the backcourt after a slow start to the year.

As a result, this squad will almost certainly squeeze every last bit of possibility out of what they are capable of. While that means travelling on the road for March Madness this time, the team and coach did the work as Moren preaches and are once again headed for a successful campaign as the winter winds down.

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