After a rough senior night loss to Maryland, Indiana women’s basketball aired out some frustrations both publicly and privately.
Head coach Teri Moren called out her players after that Maryland game for their focus and fight. The team responded with a comfortable win at Purdue on Sunday to close out the regular season.
The Hoosiers had two days in between the Maryland loss and the Purdue win, and they had plenty of conversations in that span to make sure everyone was on the same page. Moren said she specifically talked to her veteran leaders, graduate students Sydney Parrish and Chloe Moore-McNeil, as well as her talks with the whole team.
“Syd knows this, and I think I hope our players know this, we’re just trying to help any way we can. That’s our job. And so I just wanted to make sure that Syd and Chloe knew, one, how important this game was, but how important it was going to be for us to come in here, play well, and then enter the Big Ten Tournament,” Moren said after the Purdue game. “Both Syd and Chloe are always so receptive, and they want to help as well. And so we try to collaborate as much as we can with them, and I’ve got to trust that the conversations that they’re having in that locker room are what’s meant to be said, and it’s coming from the right place from all of us.’
Between those conversations and a lopsided rivalry win in West Lafayette, Ind., IU is hoping things are back on track going into the Big Ten Tournament. The Hoosiers are the No. 9 seed, and they’ll take on No. 8 seed Oregon at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis Thursday at noon ET. The winner of that game advances to face No. 1 seed USC Friday at noon.
IU faced Oregon in Eugene on Jan. 24, when the Ducks pulled out an ugly 54-47 win as the Hoosiers went scoreless for the last five minutes of the game. UO is 4-5 since then, with a nice road win at Michigan State following the Indiana game.
Oregon, at No. 40 in the NET and No. 39 on Torvik, ranks just behind the Hoosiers (No. 39, No. 32) in both metrics. Both are projected to earn No. 10 seeds in the NCAA Tournament in ESPN’s Women’s Bracketology, as of Monday morning.
Parrish, of course, transferred to IU in 2022 after two seasons at Oregon. When she was asked about likely facing the Ducks again, she smirked.
“We’re going to have to bring it,” Parrish said. “We had a great game in Eugene when we went out there, but we thought we had the game in our hands. So if that’s who we end up playing, then we’re going to bring it on Thursday to make a run in the tournament. And we’re ready for that.”
Meister bouncing back?
Lilly Meister has endured a roller-coaster season.
The junior played 24.3 minutes per game across Indiana’s first nine contests, and she started the first 15 games of the season. She displayed her potential at times, but was frequently not making the impact Moren was hoping for.
Meister started to really struggle once the calendar flipped to January. The Minnesota native averaged 11.8 points per game through the first two months of the season on 55 percent shooting, but that dipped to just five PPG on 40 percent shooting in IU’s first four games of January. Her playing time dropped, and ahead of the USC game on Jan. 19, Moren replaced her in the starting lineup with Tennessee transfer Karoline Striplin. Since then, Meister has often looked lost for confidence on the court, and her playing time has become even more irregular.
The forward entered the regular-season finale at Purdue having scored just four points over the last month, while shooting just 14.3 percent in 11.3 minutes per game. But she came in at Mackey Arena on Sunday looking more confident, and she gave Indiana some tangible production off the bench. Meister scored six points on 2-for-4 shooting, and also played good defense in her 11 minutes.
IU’s depth has been a real concern throughout the second half of Big Ten play. If Meister can get rolling heading into postseason play, it could be huge.
“We’ve all continued to tell her and try to just encourage her that we do depend on her, especially she and Strip, because we know that those are the two 5s that are going to play the majority of the minutes,” Moren said. “We’re going to need her. There’s no doubt. We need we need Lilly Meister to help us win ballgames.”
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