Don't miss out on any of our exclusive football, basketball and recruiting coverage. Sign up with TheHoosier.com here.
Indiana has emerged as a 'new blood' in women's college basketball and that has shown in its second straight Sweet Sixteen appearance. IU advanced to the Elite Eight a season ago and did what is so difficult, followed a record-breaking season up with a season almost as good.
On Saturday, the Hoosiers get a shot at what could be a program changing win against UConn and Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma.
"We do know the magnitude of this game. We've been here before a year ago, and so we do feel like we have some experience," IU head coach Teri Moren said. "As you all know, I have a veteran group and experienced group, so I don't know if it does matter that it's UConn, but it could be any other name across the chest. We just know that we want to keep this thing going as long as we can."
Indiana arrives to the Sweet Sixteen after wins over Charlotte and then upset-minded Princeton in the first weekend. Now, it'll be the first time this postseason that the Hoosiers will be the underdog.
Despite being the underdog, Auriemma knows the talent Indiana has and the emergence the program has made in all of college basketball.
"I think they've been really good since Teri (Moren) got there," Auriemma said. "Just steadily getting better and better. Getting to the point where people now expect them to be at the level they're at.
"Indiana... I think gets less respect than they deserve for what they've done and how they do it.... Don't be shocked — I won't be — if (Indiana) wins this whole thing."
Connecticut heads into Saturday's matchup with wins over Mercer and UCF. The Huskies defeated Mercer by 45 points but just five against UCF. They are led by guard Chrystin Williams averages 14.5 points and guard Paige Bueckers who adds 13.7 points. Bueckers, however, only played in 13 games after suffering a knee injury earlier in the season. She was averaging 21.2 points in the first six games of the season.
Azzi Fudd also adds 12.4 points per game. In total, the top four leading scorers are all guards and three of the four shoot over 36 percent from three.
"We're battle tested," Moren said. "We've played against some really terrific players, whether it's the point, whether it's on the swing, whether it's at the stretch, whether it's inside... I think we're prepared. I really do.
"The game is not hard, right, when you really break it down in terms of what we have to do to be in the game and to win the game against a really great offensive team. We have to be really solid in the half court. Again, I talked about their back-cutting, I talked about their ability to pass and share the ball. So a lot of what we have to do is protect the paint, keep our person above us, not get beat on back-cuts, and make them take contested long twos.
"That's the game plan going in, and if they have to take a whole bunch of outside jump shots, we feel like we may give ourselves a chance."
While UConn is the true 'blue blood' of women's college basketball, Indiana is no longer looking to arrive. It has arrived and a lot of that has to do with the experience of its roster and all of the big time games they have played in, and won over the last few seasons.
Saturday gives them another chance, this time to knock off the centerpiece of the game for much of the last two decades.
"We've been battle tested, because we've a veteran team, because we're an experienced team, this particular group has no panic in them," Moren said. "As long as there's time on the clock, we always feel like we're going to give ourselves a chance to win the game.
"We've had a lot of historic moments in this program since we've been here in our eight seasons. You know, it would just be another thing certainly we could tick off."
The Hoosiers face off against the Huskies at 2:00 pm ET on Saturday afternoon.
----
• Talk about it inside The Hoops Forum or The Football Forum
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Follow us on Twitter: @IndianaRivals
• Like us on Facebook.
