Teri Moren Hopes History Repeats Itself As Indiana Women Start Big Ten Tournament
Much is made in both the men’s and women’s Big Ten Tournaments about the coveted double bye that goes to teams that finish in the top four of the conference.
Indiana’s women’s basketball team has received a double bye in the last two seasons, but the last time the Hoosiers reached the tournament championship game they didn’t receive that advantage.
As Indiana begins Big Ten Tournament play at noon on Thursday as the No. 9 seed against No. 8 Oregon, Indiana coach Teri Moren is making the best out of having to win four games in four days to win the tournament.
The Hoosiers nearly did it in 2022. In a deep Big Ten field in 2022, the Hoosiers were the No. 5 seed and played Rutgers on the second day of the tournament. The Hoosiers dispatched the Scarlet Knights, then beat No. 4 seed Maryland in the quarterfinals and No. 1 seed Ohio State in the semifinals before the Hoosiers bowed to Iowa 74-67 in a competitive Big Ten Tournament championship game.
That’s contrasted by Indiana’s 1-2 record in the Big Ten Tournament since then. Indiana lost in the semifinals in 2023 and its quarterfinal opener against Michigan in 2024. The double bye in those tournaments didn’t work out.
“We’ve gotten those double byes, and sometimes I don’t know if that’s a good thing,” Moren said on Monday’s Inside Indiana Basketball radio show.
“A couple of years ago, we had a game, and then (won) and (got) momentum and kind of caught fire there. I’m hopeful that maybe we can do that again,” said Moren, who seeks her first Big Ten Tournament championship.
To do what Moren hopes the Hoosiers can do, Indiana has to get past Oregon. The Hoosiers had one of their most disappointing performances of the season in the lone meeting in Eugene on Jan. 24.
The Hoosiers made just 37.5% of its shots but still led by one with 3:25 left in the contest. However, the Ducks outscored the Hoosiers 10-2 in the final three minutes. Indiana had seven of its 17 turnovers for the game in the final period.
It wasn’t Oregon’s best performance, either – the Ducks shot just 33.9% from the field – so both teams will undoubtedly hope for a better showing.
“Going down the stretch was not very good basketball by us. We didn’t handle ourselves in terms of just taking care of the ball. Very careless,” Moren said. “I rewatched it and we didn’t play great, but we were ahead for most of the game and then it just seemed like going into the fourth (quarter) they really amped up what they were doing defensively and really got physical with us.”
Oregon prefers to play a low-scoring game. The Ducks ranked 15th in the Big Ten in conference games at 64 points per game. They were fourth in scoring defense, allowing 64.4 points in conference games.
Oregon doesn’t have a go-to scorer. Guard Deja Kelly (11.8 ppg) is the only player who averaged double-figures in points – a player who Moren said was very influential in Indiana’s loss.
What the Ducks do have is one of the biggest players in the Big Ten – 6-foot-8 center Phillipina Kyei. Indiana did a decent job against Kyei in January as she scored four points and had five rebounds, but the Hoosiers do not have a player who can match her physically.
“She is every bit of 6-8. She’s a kid that starts, but doesn’t play a tremendous amount of minutes,” Moren said. “(Oregon coach Kelly Graves) likes to play big and he likes to play small ball, too.”
“Her size is a problem. Anybody that’s that big, you can throw the ball in, and we’re giving up size. We didn’t really bring a double. We just relied on us trying to push her out and make her shoot tough twos away from the basket. I don’t see us going away from that,” Moren said.
Like every team at the Big Ten Tournament and those that advance to the NCAA Tournament, preparation needs to be done for multiple games played in a short period of time.
The daunting task for the Indiana-Oregon winner is that they will advance to play conference champion Southern California at noon on Friday in a quarterfinal contest. JuJu Watkins-led USC has won seven in a row – including two wins over archrival UCLA to catch and pass the Bruins for the Big Ten crown.
Most coaches don’t like to admit that they’re thinking ahead, but Moren noted that the Hoosiers might use some stealth in pre-Big Ten Tournament practices to prepare for the Trojans.
“Inside of every practice, we’re probably going to work on something without them knowing it that we may see with USC. It could be anything, like if it’s a press or if it’s a certain set, we can get our guys to run and we guard. We try to be creative in not getting ahead of ourselves, but when we beat Oregon, that prep is really short,” Moren said.
Moren noted that compromises have to be made. She mentioned that former player and current assistant coach Ali Patberg likes to have long film sessions. She has to cut it down to the areas of highest focus when the games come at a team so quickly.
That also applies to how long practices can be and how much physical exertion players can endure with a game each day.
“You do have to be mindful that a lot of those kids have played a lot of minutes. You want to go into tournament play with fresh legs and fresh minds. I do think that we try to manage that,” Moren said.
For Indiana, the stakes are high. The Hoosiers are projected to be one of the first four teams to receive a bye into the NCAA Tournament. A victory over Oregon should protect that status.
A loss to Oregon could force the Hoosiers to play a play-in game at a NCAA Tournament site or knock Indiana on to the wrong side of the bubble if there are multiple upsets in conference tournaments.
Another factor to keep in mind is that several bubble teams are from the Big Ten. Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon and Washington are right within a place or two of the Hoosiers on the bubble. So is Harvard, who beat the Hoosiers in Bloomington in November.
Indiana beat Nebraska and Washington, but lost to the other teams around them on the bubble. Any slippage by the Hoosiers could see any of these teams pass them in the pecking order.
