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After a second straight Sweet 16 appearance for the Indiana women's basketball program, a loss on Saturday brought a different type of emotion from the players postgame. A program that once struggled to attain national recognition now has arrived and expects deep NCAA Tournament runs every season.

Saturday's 75-58 loss to UConn was a moment of disappointment -- following an Elite Eight run last year -- but also one of great pride.

"I'm really proud of our group," IU head coach Teri Moren said. "We've had a tremendous season, have had some adversity that we've had to overcome. And as I said to these guys, they just continue to show up every day and do the work for us.

"Although we're disappointed, we did not want this thing to end anytime soon because we really enjoy being around each other and working with each other. I'm super proud of my staff and our team in terms of what we were able to overcome and the success that we had this season."

Indiana finished the season 24-9 and 11-5 in the Big Ten and has now gone 45-19 overall and 27-7 in the conference in the past two years.

Three players who played a large role in that were seniors Ali Patberg, Aleksa Gulbe and Nicole Cardaño-Hillary. With Saturday's loss, all three will move on from the program, but not without leaving their mark and helping set the standard for what Indiana basketball should be about.

"Our goals will be high once again for our program, and the standards will stay what they are," Moren said. "But they were cemented by the kids like the Ali Patbergs and the Leks and the Nikki that really believed in the vision but also really have believed in just the work that it takes."

Despite the loss of that trio, Indiana will return two starters who were also a huge part of the past two years -- Mackenzie Holmes and Grace Berger. The experience that they bring will set the foundation for next season and the next group of role players who will be needed to step into larger roles next year.

"Well, the work continues, but it is nice that we have two players in Grace Berger and Mack that are going to be now obviously the example," Moren said. "Ali has been there for us and now the two of them will take over in the leadership role for us. Obviously we got great minutes from Chloe Moore-McNeil this season. She's going to continue to get better.

"Feel really good about the incoming class we have. So our work will continue to keep building this thing because we've checked off a lot of things in terms of goals that we've had for our program, but there are still many other goals that we want to be able to check off in our time here at Indiana."

So while this season didn't end the way anyone around the Indiana program wanted, the legacy that this roster cemented over the past few years is something you can't take away. And, the future still remains bright for another deep tournament run in 2022-23 and continued national success moving forward.

"I think the legacy -- we've been able to do -- accomplish something that we set out eight years ago when we got here. We've had a lot of moments where we can check them off," Moren added. "Like historical moments, right, inside of our program, and to be able to get to back to back Sweet 16s, this is something that these guys are going to have forever."

"Although today hurts and we're disappointed, like I said, the work still continues. We got to the Elite Eight last year, we're disappointed we didn't get there this year, but now we'll turn around."

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