Last year, for the first time, the Indiana University women’s basketball team averaged more than 10,000 fans per game at Assembly Hall.
It was a watershed in Teri Moren’s decade as coach. Moren has not only shaped the Hoosiers into a perennial NCAA playoff team, but turned them into a hot ticket, too.
Freedman
And as the 2024-25 season begins Monday against Brown University of the Ivy League, Moren is thinking even bigger.
“What we’ve created here with our fans, this has become one of the most difficult places in the country to play,” said Moren, a native of Seymour who played collegiately at Purdue. “Here’s my goal for us. I want to see those rafters filled every single night. I believe this team is going to be special, this program is going to be special. The popularity of women’s basketball across the country right now. What better state that has the best fans, there’s no reason we can’t get this place full every night for this basketball team.”
Last year, the Hoosiers finished 26-6. Overall, entering Moren’s 11th season as coach, IU has won 20 or more games nine times on her watch and reached the NCAA Elite Eight. Her career record, at IU and elsewhere is 425-229.
Although Mackenzie Holmes, the program’s all-time leading scorer, used up her eligibility (she will be a graduate student coach this season), IU returns three starters in Yarden Garzon, Chloe Moore-McNeil and Sydney Parrish. Indiana expects Holmes back-up Lilly Meister to excel in the low post, and also has added fresh talent.
Ranked 25th in the Associated Press pre-season poll, the Hoosiers dismantled Maryville of Missouri, 95-27, in their only exhibition. IU put four players in double figures. The 6-foot-3 Meister scored 19 points and seems ready for a break-out year as a junior. She hit 9-of-11 shots from the floor.
Moore-McNeil and Parrish have a fifth year of eligibility because of COVID-19 and will be steadying presences and important scorers as well as contributors in other ways, Moore-McNeil running the offense and Parrish rebounding.
Garzon, the native of Israel, who was the Big Ten freshman of the year previously, is a tall guard at 6-3, who sees the floor well, rebounds, and can be a three-point threat. She may be the Hoosiers’ top threat on offense this season.
Also returning from last year’s roster are junior Lexus Bargesser, who brings experience at the point, sophomore Lenee Beaumont, sophomore Julianna LaMendola, and junior guard Hanna Sandvik.
Ciezki, a 5-7 guard, who transferred from Penn State, scored 14 points with 5 assists versus Maryville. From Buffalo, New York, Ciezki played two years for the Nittany Lions and was named honorable mention Big Ten last season when she averaged 11.5 points a game.
Other newcomer transfers are Karoline Striplin from Tennessee and Sharneece Curry-Jelks from the University of Tennessee-Martin. Freshmen arrivals are Valentyna Kadlecova from the Czech Republic, Sydney Fenn, also from Buffalo, and Faith Wiseman from Martinsville.
Reviewing the last decade under Moren, whose first team averaged around 2,400 spectators per game, Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson says women’s basketball has been a winning story by any measure.
“It’s always been a sleeping giant here,” Dolson said. “Teri was able to wake it up. It keeps growing. This isn’t a one-hit wonder.”
This past season, plus the recent summer of WNBA play, demonstrated an unprecedented interest in women’s basketball. Winning games, of course, has boosted IU attendance, and Dolson said Indiana may have helped lay the predicate for the Indiana Fever popularity somewhat.
“I’d like to think there’s some of that” in IU’s success contributing to how well the Fever, the WNBA team down the street in Indianapolis attracted fans.
There are several familiar Hoosiers for 2024-25 and a large mix of new faces, but IU should look somewhat different on the court without the All-American Holmes who was good for about 20 points and 10 rebounds a game.
Still, Moren was vague about predictions for the new season.
“We never put a number on how many games we want to win because I just don’t want to limit this group because I think there’s so much great potential that we have,” she said. “I can tell you that this group is hungry. Our expectations for this program are high. That’s how they’ll always be.”