After Indiana's opening win against Brown on Monday Teri Moren said that her team's performance that night "wouldn't win any Big Ten game," but that quickly needs to be changed, as the Hoosiers didn't just lose a Big Ten game with their performance tonight, they dropped one to the Ivy League's Harvard Crimson.
There were several issues that did IU in but its sloppy play and carelessness with the basketball were the main culprits. The Hoosiers gave up 27 turnovers throughout the ballgame, a mark that they haven't had since early 2018, resulting in this 72-68 loss in overtime.
Teri Moren said postgame that "there's no doubt that we're disappointed" when mentioning the turnovers, an area of her team's game that she focused on after the Brown game, but it only got worse in this one.
Yarden Garzon was tied for the lead in scoring with 20 points, but was the leader in turnovers for the game, giving it away seven times.
Moren mentioned Garzon, saying that "her willingness to keep that thing out and not you know, either take a bad shot and or charge is something that we got to continue to show her and she has to grow as a basketball player."
It wasn't just Garzon, though, as it seemed like the entire team was careless with the ball, resulting in this stunning loss that is Indiana's first at home since February 19th, 2022 when it lost at Assembly Hall to Caitlin Clark and Iowa.
Chloe Moore-McNeil spoke postgame, saying "I think that's just the hardest part, just knowing we were supposed to be prepared for that, and we didn't show up for it prepared."
This is a really eye-opening quote from Moore-McNeil, although it couldn't be more true, as IU really should've been more prepared, especially given the fact that turnovers were a point of emphasis after the Brown game.
Even given that, turnovers were prevalent all game, as IU gave it away 13 times in the first half, nine times in the second half and five times in overtime, most of which came because of Harvard's press defense.
Moren said that "we have felt like that's been a little bit of Achilles heel for us," mentioning how this has something that has plagued her team before and, even with the Hoosiers working on it, it still forced historic turnover numbers out of IU.
Chloe Moore-McNeil also mentioned what she thinks the cause for all the turnovers was, saying that it may have been "just controlling, controlling tempo, not letting teams speed us up. I mean, like I said earlier, we knew they're going to come in and do that, so it's hard to see that we have 27 turnovers."
While not all the blame can be put on any specific player, the veterans on this team are surely the ones that some may point to first and Moore-McNeil mentioned that as well.
She said "it's really hard, because I came out with intentions to be a better leader, be a better point guard, but obviously, with the result and 27 I'll go and call that 30 turnovers, I'm very disappointed, not only in my team, but myself, just as that leader."
Moore-McNeil has been a leader for five seasons now, but after this one she was particularly disappointed in herself and her team and for good reason, as the veterans just didn't show up when they had to, turning it over seemingly at every moment.
This may have been a disappointing loss, but it's not something that is worrisome at this point of the season, Moren saying "I'm not sure that I'm worried. I mean, it's early, right? Is it perplexing? Yeah, it's perplexing to me how we are a veteran team, you hit it on the head, and how we can have those moments."
Moren may be perplexed, but that's no excuse and the Hoosiers desperately need to learn from a game like today. With the program that she's built, fans expect better and, if IU doesn't learn from these 27 turnovers things could turn for the worse.
Moren agrees, as she said that turnovers "are hard lessons, but they're lessons that we have to learn, and we got to take those lessons and improve."
As with any Teri Moren coached team, things are sure to get better but, as far as tonight goes, this was an extremely disheartening performance from the Hoosiers,
These 27 turnovers were a part of an extremely lackluster showing from IU, yet Moren says that it's "early in the season and I always say, you know, it's one game, although it's super disappointing they can't break our hearts."
While it may not break their hearts, these 27 turnovers certainly broke this game for IU, resulting in an upset overtime loss to the Harvard Crimson, a game Hoosier fans may remember for a long time.
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