Freedman
You can’t write a team’s obituary before it plays the big game. No matter the odds it faces. No matter how short-handed the side of the court where the true believers sit.
The Indiana women’s basketball team is coming off its grandest victory of the 2023-24 season, a 75-68 triumph over Oklahoma Monday that sent the Hoosiers to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA women’s championships.
The reward? Or is it a penalty? Next team up for the Hoosiers is South Carolina, 34-0, the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, in Albany, New York Friday at 5 p.m.
As long as 40 minutes remains on the board, as long as seconds still remain on the clock, nothing is in the history books, and fans and even casual non-sports observers know the letters NCAA constitute a synonym for upset.
There are plenty enough Hoosier dreamers who have come to Assembly Hall this year, more than 10,000 strong per home game. A group of them chanted, “Teri! Teri!” to hail Teri Moren when she was introduced prior to the Oklahoma game.
They paid tribute to the 10-year coach from Seymour who has uplifted the program with her leadership to one that counts on adding “NCAAs” to its resume annually. And to someone who presides over teams which compile records like this season’s 26-5.
There are always going to be naysayers and doubters who wonder if IU has a chance versus the Lady Gamecocks, who basically have been massacring all comers all season, even the challengers in the tournament where the play is supposed to be the toughest.
Under famed coach Dawn Staley, South Carolina has won national titles in 2017 and 2022 and in all has won just under 80 percent of its games since she took command in 2008. The Lady Gamecocks come armed with such weapons as 6-foot-7 center Kamilia Cardoso, Brazilian who has danced the macarena on all foes.
This is an IU squad which has achieved much, in Big Ten play, and overall, going 17-0 in Bloomington, offering the forum for 6-3 grad student center Mackenzie Holmes to become the program’s all-time leading scorer. And to showcase guard Sara Scalia’s remarkable three-point accuracy and foul shooting.
Surrounding starters Chloe Moore-McNeil, Sydney Parrish and Yarden Garzon are top-shelf players who would be bigger stars on other teams.
Besting Fairfield and Oklahoma in NCAA contests and reaching the Sweet Sixteen has already made this season a success for IU. They are now playing with house money, with nothing to lose. South Carolina must keep winning or consider this season a failure. Whether that is fair or not, it is reality.
The calendar still reads March, so March Madness magic is still in play, still something to be appreciated. Any team still playing carries its own caution label into the fray for opponents – that it is not to be underestimated. If a team has lived to play another day – and another day – with single elimination wiping out well over half the 68-team field by now, it has earned its place.
This is the third time in five seasons IU has reached the Sweet Sixteen or the Elite Eight and Holmes said being part of an increasingly aspiring squad is what brought her to Indiana from Maine.
“This is the vision that coach Moren had for this program and I knew when I got on campus, I wanted to be a part of it,” Holmes said. “I could tell what she was building, the confidence that she had in her players and her staff and just to be able to be a small piece (of that) history is amazing. It’s the greatest blessing in my life.”
Whether it was drenching Moren in a bucket of water (or turning an entire hose on her), or surprising everyone in Assembly Hall by dashing up into the stands to embrace students after the Sooners win, the Hoosiers celebrated in style the other day. IU players certainly made memories that will stick for the witnesses in the stands who ate up the giddy tone of triumph.
Yet tomorrow always comes quickly once the engine turns over in tournament play and the tomorrow that is another day, come hell or South Carolina, fast approaches. And isn’t that what it has all been about lately – winning the right to play another game?
Sitting in the locker room after the Oklahoma victory, Garzon was asked how it felt to have this season last at least a little bit longer.
“They say March is the best time of year,” said the sophomore guard from Israel.
The only thing better is to keep on playing into April.