10/5/2022 basketball Edit

IU Women Picked top-3 in Big Ten, Berger and Holmes Earn All-Big Ten Honors

Alec Lasley • TheHoosier

Senior Writer

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The Indiana women's basketball team enter the 2022-23 season with high expectations once again as head coach Teri Moren looks to take the Hoosiers to a third-straight Sweet 16 appearance.

On Wednesday, the Hoosiers were voted No. 2 in the Big Ten preseason media poll and No. 3 by the coaches. Iowa was the team projected to win the conference in both preseason polls.

The high expectations didn't end there, however. Two Indiana players were selected to Preseason All-Big Ten teams. Guard Grace Berger was a unanimous selection by the coaches, while forward Mackenzie Holmes joined Berger with the All-Big Ten honor as well.

Iowa guard Caitlin Clark was voted as the preseason Player of the Year in the Big Ten.

The Indiana women's basketball program was voted in the top-3 of the preseason conference polls.

Teri Moren has led Indiana to seven-straight 20+ win seasons and four NCAA Tournament appearances in eight years -- a fifth would have been added if the 2020 NCAA Tournament wasn't cancelled due to covid.

In 2021, the Hoosiers advanced to the Elite Eight and followed that performance up with a Sweet 16 appearance last season.

In addition to Berger and Holmes, Indiana returns Chloe Moore-McNeil and Kiandra Browne who both flashed their potential a season ago. Moren also dipped into the transfer portal and added three significant players from the power-five level in Sydney Parrish, Sara Scalia and Alyssa Geary.

"Do we have enough pieces? I think we'll have enough firepower... How our chemistry -- that's the thing that has set us apart," Moren said at IU media day. "I think our chemistry has just been off the charts the last two season, so it's going to be up to us in terms of how quickly we can build relationships with one another, how quickly our chemistry can be, once again, really, really good.

"Because we feel like as a staff, we certainly have the pieces; now we've got to put it all together. I think the things -- some of those things that you can't control are the injury bug, but we feel really confident that if we can stay healthy and come together relatively quickly, we'll have a chance."