BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The new West Coast teams in the Big Ten Conference are largely a mystery to casual fans who follow Big Ten teams. For fans largely based in the Midwest core of the conference, there’s never been much reason to pay attention to the former Pac-12 schools apart from NCAA Tournament time.

However, all four of the new Big Ten members – Oregon, Southern California, UCLA and Washington – have had their moments in both men’s and women’s basketball. They will make their impact felt in 2024-25, especially on the women’s side, as USC and UCLA are expected to be Top 5 teams.

Indiana women’s basketball player Sydney Parrish knows as well as anyone how rough it can be to try to conquer the former Pac-12 schools.

Parrish transferred to Indiana from Oregon after the 2022 season. After she graduated from Hamilton Southeastern, Parrish played for the Ducks from 2020-22. She started all 32 games she played in her final season in Eugene. She averaged 8.5 points in her final season with the Ducks in 2022.

Parrish has kept tabs on her former and now-current league foes.

She said the challenge for Indiana isn’t necessarily going to be the long travel to the west – Indiana plays at Oregon (Jan. 24) and Washington (Jan. 27) in the middle of the Big Ten schedule – but the quality the Hoosiers will confront.

And along with that? Parrish thinks the teams out west are bigger.

“It’s a lot different than normal Big 10 teams where your post player is 6-3,” Parrish noted during Indiana’s Basketball Media Day in September.

Parrish cited Indiana’s experience playing against Stanford in the regular season and against South Carolina in the NCAA Tournament. The Hoosiers didn’t handle the size those teams had. Stanford blew Indiana out 96-64 in Palo Alto, Calif., in the second game of the 2023-24 season. Eventual national champion Gamecocks were up 22 on the Hoosiers in the NCAA Tournament before Indiana found its shooting touch to nearly roar back before losing, 79-75.

“We’re going to go up against girls that are 6-7, 6-8, and we have to know how to play against those,” Parrish said. “We played against South Carolina last year, Stanford last year, who had players that tall. So just learning from those mistakes that we made in some of those games and trying to capitalize in the games going into this year (is important).”

Among the tall players Indiana will face is 6-8 Oregon center Phillipina Kyei and 6-7 UCLA standout center Lauren Betts.

Playing the West Coast schools is just one thing Parrish is looking forward to this season. The versatile 6-2 forward has been part of Indiana’s scoring since her arrival, but without a dominant scorer like Mackenzie Holmes, the wealth should be spread around this season.

As part of that, Indiana coach Teri Moren has said that Indiana will play five-out this season. That’s something that should play right to Parrish’s skill set. She can both shoot (40% 3-point shooter) and drive the rim.

“We knew the time would come where Sara (Scalia) and Mac wouldn’t be here anymore, so I think we’ve taken that on, head on,” Parrish said.

“Players like me, Chloe (Moore-McNeil), Yarden (Garzon) have to step up a little more this year. But also some of our players that didn’t play a lot last year. Lenee (Beaumont), Shay (Ciezki) coming in, and Karoline (Striplin) coming in, and Lilly (Meister). I think everyone knows they need to step up a little more and carry a little bit more of that load,” Parrish added.

Parrish thinks playing five-out will create a wrinkle no one has seen in Meister’ game.

“I think she shot one three last season? But in practice she has (shown) she has the potential to be great against teams like UCLA, USC and Oregon, who have girls who are 6-7 and 6-8 out there. It’s great to see her grow on the court,” Parrish said.

Parrish’s own offseason priority was to shoot off the dribble. She thinks she’ll have the ball in her hands more this season.

“It’s not going to be just catch-and-shoot. Then just trying to finish around the rim. Sometimes I have matchups where smaller guards are on me, so I want to take advantage of those situations,” Parrish said.

Parrish also noted that Indiana has an advantage in that core players like herself, Garzon and Moore-McNeil have played together for so long. For that matter, Meister, Lexus Bargesser and Henna Sandvik have been along for the whole ride with Parrish.

“It’s amazing, especially with the transfer portal right now, there’s not a lot of teams who have three starters that have been together for three years,” Parrish said. “So I think we’re going to have that advantage going against a lot of these new teams that have their starting five that are all transfers.”