BLOOMINGTON – On Wednesday, Indiana women’s basketball held its second-annual Indiana basketball media days alongside the men’s basketball team. Teri Moren, Sydney Parrish and Sara Scalia were all made available in a press conference-style format. Then, the players were open for discussion in a roundtable setting. Throughout the day, a few general themes began to appear after talking with players and coaches.
On Thursday, Indiana women’s basketball released a full schedule ahead of the upcoming season. At first glance, it looks like the Hoosiers are in for a challenging Big Ten schedule to go along with non-conference matchups with Stanford and Tennessee.
Here’s a few takeaways from media day and the schedule release:
Indiana is hungry and not satisfied with a record setting 2022-23 season
Last season was a historic year for Indiana women's basketball. The 28 wins the program had last year were the most of any team in the 42-year history of Indiana women's basketball. The Hoosiers won their first Big Ten title in 40 years and were ranked has high as No. 2 in the AP poll, the highest in program history. Indiana also made the NCAA tournament as a No. 1 seed for the first time ever. It was a season of firsts for Indiana women's basketball last season, but it came to a close in heartbreaking fashion. A 2-point loss at home in the second round of the NCAA tournament to Miami (FL) cut the Hoosiers' historic season short.
"I'm not over it... it kinda hurts," Parrish said Wednesday. "I think it will just be another thing that drives us throughout the season."
"It can't be all of their motivation, because like I said, I don't want it to take away from all the other great things that we accomplished a year ago," Moren said "Certainly if they want to use it for fuel, I'm okay with that."
Multiple times throughout Wednesday's media day, Hoosier players mentioned how difficult it was to bow out of the NCAA tournament earlier than they expected to. However, they all pointed to last season as being a big step forward for the program as a whole.
Indiana joined the elite programs at the top of women's college basketball last season. That hasn't stopped Indiana from continuing to carry a chip on their shoulder moving into the upcoming season.
We're up against the very best, we wouldn't have it any other way, but we still are who we are," Moren said. "We're the team that has always prided itself in its work ethic. We're the team that will continue to play with a chip on its shoulder. We're the team that kind of feels like we still have so much to achieve. That's why we are who we are, is because we walk into whether it's Cook Hall or Assembly Hall every day with this workmanlike attitude that we haven't achieved anything yet. That's what I love about our team and their mindset. They're still -- as we always say, there's more work to be done."
For Indiana, it's now about sustaining the level of success they had a season ago. That begins with scheduling tough non-conference games against the best teams around the country. The Hoosiers did that this season. Games on the road against Stanford and neutral-site games against Tennessee and Princeton provide challenges in the non-conference slate for an Indiana team that knows it will be pushed during conference play.
The Hoosiers know they haven't quite made it to the summit yet, but they can see the top.
Newcomers expected to fill large roles
Indiana brought in three new players to the team this offseason. Two of them are freshmen -- Lenée Beaumont and Julianna LaMendola -- and the other is a transfer from UT Martin, Sharnecce Currie-Jelks. Beaumont and LaMendola are both former Gatorade Player of the Year's from Illinois and Texas respectively. Currie-Jelks is the reigning Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Year.
That's a lot of talent to integrate into an already young and talented Indiana roster, but Moren isn't worried about that and points to the Hoosiers' offseason trip as a big reason why.
"Anytime you can take international trips the way we did, it just helps with those new kids," Moren said. "Lenée and Jules and Sharnecce, they already understood the work piece, but just the time that you can spend together and getting to know one another. There's not just a real camaraderie, but just a chemistry. This is a group that really enjoys being around each other."
This is an Indiana team that has a Grace Berger-sized whole to fill. Beaumont and LaMendola look like two perfect pieces to fill in that gap.
Moren also singled out Currie-Jelks, who Moren wants to play a big role on this Indiana team behind Mackenzie Holmes. Moren cited Holmes' injury troubles down the stretch of the last couple of seasons as a big factor in the decision to bring in Currie-Jelks from the transfer portal.
"Mack has battled some injuries down the stretch, and so I'm not going to call it load management, but I will say that we're going to have to try to protect Mack as well as we can," Moren said. "This is a long season, and a lot of those reps are going to be going to Sharnecce."
Moren later added that she is "excited" to coach someone with such "tremendous" potential in Currie-Jelks.
All three Indiana newcomers could be in store for important minutes next season.
Indiana's Big Ten schedule looks to be a tough one
On Thursday Indiana women's basketball's full 2023-24 schedule was released. Initially, it looks like the Hoosiers will have a tough, but not impossible, journey to repeat as Big Ten champions.
For starters, two of the five teams Indiana has to play home and away this upcoming season made it to the Elite Eight last season. One of those teams was Maryland and the other was one of the four teams that beat the Hoosiers a season ago and the NCAA runner-ups, the Iowa Hawkeyes. On top of that, Indiana has to play home and away against Illinois. The Illini challenged the Hoosiers in Bloomington last season and were even ranked inside the top-25 at one point a year ago.
As for as Indiana's single-game opponents are concerned, it doesn't get much easier. Indiana has to play Ohio State -- the team that knocked the Hoosiers out of the Big Ten tournament -- in Columbus on Feb. 4. Indiana will also take road trips to Nebraska, Rutgers and Wisconsin next season. Indiana does get Michigan State at home, the Spartans beat the Hoosiers in East Lansing a season ago.
The Big Ten is one of the toughest conferences in the country and if the Hoosiers want a shot a back-to-back Big Ten titles, they're going to have to earn it.
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