Teri Moren’s life is a little easier on the recruiting trail now than it was around this time last year.

Being named the Big Ten’s Coach of the Year will do that.

With Indiana fresh off a second round trip to the NCAA Tournament, Moren’s already pieced together a 2017 pledge class of four commitments. She said she’s not done recruiting yet and could still add a piece or two, but it’s already one of the most talented classes, on paper, that IU women’s basketball has hauled in.

Momentum, it would appear, is working in Indiana’s favor.

“Success, that helps. It does,” Moren said. “You talk about getting to the tournament and it’s one thing to be able to say this is where we want to be. It’s another thing to say we’ve been there.”

Indiana has two forwards committed in Alexis Johnson (Houston, Texas) and Linsey Marchese (Dacula, Georgia) and a pair of guards in Keyanna Warthen (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) and Jaelynn Penn (Louisville, Kentucky). The forwards have been committed since the beginning of last season, the latter two guards made their pledges over the last month.

Penn was the most recent addition, having committed after her visit last weekend. The 5-foot-10 guard is ranked No. 39 in her class and No. 7 at her position by ESPN. That same publication has deemed her worthy of a five-star grade.

Warthen, a 5-foot-9 guard, is a prototypical athlete who’s transitioned into a basketball player. She’s rawer than Penn but is still ranked as a three-star athlete by ESPN, good enough for No. 30 at the guard spot nationally.

Marchese stands at 6-foot-3 and could be a future center for the Hoosiers, ranking No. 14 in the country and checking in as an ESPN three-star. Johnson is more of a power forward than she is a center at 6-foot-1 but is also listed by ESPN as a three-star and ranks No. 38 in the country at her position.

Moren didn’t recruit these four in particular to develop, she said. With IU set to lose five players to graduation next May, the Hoosiers needed to bring in college-ready players to join the rotation early.

“When you lose five seniors, you’ve got to make sure the kids you’re bringing in are going to be able to have an impact immediately,” she said. “We feel like we’ve been able to accomplish that.”

Where IU looks next isn’t immediately clear. Bendu Yeaney, a four-star point guard, visited Bloomington not long ago with Warthen, Johnson and Marchese, but it’s not clear whether the recent pair of commitments from Penn and Warthen will make her lean elsewhere.

As it stands, IU is in Yeaney’s top-five that also includes Arizona, Colorado, Oregon State and Washington.

Indiana's recent storm through the recruiting trail isn't all on Moren alone.

IU's longest-tenured assistant Rhet Wierzba has been a driving force behind the Hoosiers' efforts in locking in talent so far with new assistants Janese Banks and Glenn Box beginning to join in as well. All three have been helping Moren build the class she began the recruiting cycle wanting.

And she doesn't want it to stop.

“We’re still not finished yet, and we’ve still got a couple kids out there that we’ve recruited that we’ll continue to recruit during the season,” Moren said. “We’re excited about the work we’ve done and the kids we’ve had on campus.”