VIDEO: What Teri Moren Said at Indiana Basketball Media Day

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — On Thursday, Indiana hosted its first Indiana Basketball Media Day at Simon Skjodt Meeting Corridor. Each the men and women’s groups had been in attendance and spoke on the podium and individually with the media.

Learn ladies’s head coach Teri Moren’s full transcript beneath, or simply watch the hooked up press convention to get a good suggestion on her expectations for the 2022-23 season.

—On transfers…

MOREN: Nicely, I feel you hit it on the pinnacle. I feel for us it is all the time been about our wants. I look again at when Tyra Buss and Amanda Cahill had been right here, and we knew that their commencement was approaching, and so we needed to fill these with two transfers, Brenna Sensible and Ali Patberg.

I feel we simply forecast with commencement with our wants that we’ve. However we’ve — we have had lots of success with transfers.

I feel the important thing with all that’s that the children that do determine to switch, they need to switch to a spot the place they’ll play and they’ll have an effect and a major place on the crew.

We’re not thinking about turning into a program that has all transfers. I feel we really feel like we’ve to have a mix of nonetheless the four-year highschool child, which we’ve a number of of these.

However I feel one factor that we’ve seen with the transfers is that it provides you speedy expertise, faculty expertise, which is all the time good, particularly if you’re attempting to construct off of but additionally maintain the extent of success that we have had.

You need to have, I feel, a mix of the 2, however the expertise definitely issues. 

—On utilizing the bench extra…

MOREN: I definitely hope so. As I discussed in my earlier assertion, yeah, I feel we’ve some fascinating items. I feel we’ve lots of actually good expertise.

Any time that we’ve 4 freshmen, the important thing with that’s simply the expertise piece, however the one method you get expertise is by taking part in; I notice that. However I do suppose that there’s going to be a second the place you will most likely see us use our depth greater than we did a yr in the past. We’re enthusiastic about that.

We have all the time been a program that is wished to have the ability to have lots of items, completely different form of items on the ground. 

Final yr did not lend itself to that. However I feel that with the mix of the 4 freshmen but additionally the transfers that we’ve, you are going to see — I’ll say this. 

One of many issues about Nikki and Ali and even Aleksa. We discuss this, they had been workhorses. You might put them on the market for lots of minutes. And I do not know that — definitely you will have Mackenzie. Grace is a workhorse. However I feel we welcome the thought of with the ability to have depth, and we’re enthusiastic about it. 

—On expectations with a crew of many new faces…

MOREN: That is an awesome query. You realize, and here is the factor that we have tried to not do, is from day one with this group, is play the comparability sport. We’re not the crew from final yr, however we do have some fascinating items. We now have some expertise that we’re enthusiastic about.

I feel it is a part of the recruiting course of. Actually with our freshmen, they perceive. They’ve watched us, the extent of success that we have had.

However I feel with including Syd and Sarah and Alyssa, they’re vets. They’re skilled. They perceive the expectation. They perceive the extent of success we have loved.

So I feel greater than something, it is within the recruiting course of that we speak concerning the expectations, the requirements. It is one factor to climb. It is one other factor to maintain.

We’re fairly clear on that within the recruiting course of, what our expectations are, and the way we need to proceed to construct off the success, however there’s nonetheless extra that we need to accomplish. We now have objectives that we’ve but to perform, proper, like successful the Massive Ten championship.

These are the issues, although, that the expectations will likely be excessive, however these are the issues that can preserve us hungry and can preserve that invisible chip that we have all the time performed with that we’ve not — although we’ve the objectives, we’ve not achieved the objectives fairly but. 

—On Chloe Moore-McNeil’s improvement…

MOREN: Chloe had an awesome summer season. She had a improbable summer season. The expectations for her a yr in the past had been huge for her to return off of our bench and be a scoring energy for us, but additionally be an awesome defender, which she was for us.

The expectations, I feel Chloe has them for herself, that she desires to return in and do what she will be able to do to assist her crew.

However I feel, once more, primarily based on what she was ready to do that summer season, she’s come again, she’s stronger, she’s taking pictures extra persistently exterior the arc.

However I feel she’s excited for her junior yr, with out query, and I am excited for her, as a result of a child like Chloe who’s hung out on the bench and has been in each apply simply attempting to get somewhat bit higher, somewhat bit higher every single day, after which now she’s to some extent the place she has that chance in entrance of her to not solely begin however play huge minutes for us. 

—On Title IX…

MOREN: Nicely, it is modified, as you talked about. I may go into most likely larger element. Simply taking part in for any individual like Lin Dunn, who was my faculty coach, and listening to a few of her tales, after which quick forwarding to the place we at the moment are and every part that has modified after which continues to alter.

The needle continues to be shortly transferring for our feminine athletes, and in lots of actually nice methods. I feel what I’ve all the time stated with reference to Title IX is — I feel I communicate for all feminine athletes, is that there ought to be — if you discuss sports activities universally, there ought to be no feminine/male sports activities. We’re all athletes. I feel the one factor we’ve simply wished and we’re nonetheless craving for is that everyone sees us as that, simply an athlete, not a feminine athlete, not a male athlete, simply an athlete.

However we’ve benefitted. I feel we’ll proceed to learn. Issues will proceed to alter with time.

Perhaps they don’t seem to be altering as shortly as a few of us females would love, however I do suppose that there was nice change, even from two years in the past with the Last 4, as we did see within the NCAA Match. They’re going to proceed to alter.

I am hopeful — I do not know if I will be teaching on the time, however there’s going to be extra modifications which might be going to occur in our sport, not simply ladies’s basketball, however I feel for feminine — we’ve extra publicity than we have ever had, not simply in ladies’s basketball however soccer and all the opposite ladies’s sports activities which might be on the market.

It isn’t that we’re knocking on the door anymore. I feel we have damaged by means of the door. However definitely extra publicity to ladies in sport is one thing that we have wished for a while, and I feel it’s going to proceed to enhance.

We’re simply excited now which you could activate the TV and watch a ladies’s basketball sport. You may activate the TV and watch a ladies’s soccer sport. For the longest time, even rising up as a younger athlete, I did not have that chance to see ladies’s basketball on TV.

Now we’ve that chance.

We have made nice strides. There isn’t any query. However we’ll proceed to, I feel, push the envelope. 

—On Grace Berger’s return…

MOREN: I do not know that her function has modified. She’s been such a major a part of why we have had the success we have had. Clearly for her to return again was a extremely huge deal, although if you realize Grace, there was little or no fanfare when she determined to make that call.

As a matter of reality, I am not even — she did not even inform me. I feel she wanted to point out up for one thing for Megan, and I feel Megan stated, ‘does this imply you are going to return?’ And she or he’s like, ‘oh, yeah. I am coming again.’ So she’s like, ‘effectively, does Coach know?’ She’s like, ‘I do not know if I’ve informed Coach or not, however you may inform her.’

That is typical Grace Berger when it comes to simply how humble she is, what a competitor she is, how a lot she loves Indiana. I feel that is what it actually signifies is her love for this place and the love that she has, I feel, for her teammates.

If anyone continues to remind me that we nonetheless have lots of objectives that we’ve not completed but, it is Grace. In case you ask Grace, we’ve not finished a lot, and I like that. I like that about her due to her competitiveness and the spirit she has.

She clearly has left a mark, however I feel she has her sights set on nonetheless successful a championship right here. 

—On what constructing IU basketball means to Moren…

MOREN: Nicely, I feel it means, once more — it is onerous to imagine that I am going into my tenth season right here, first. It simply jogs my memory of once we arrived right here 9 years in the past that what we got down to do was — and I’ve stated this in essentially the most respectful form of method, the custom has all the time been on the lads’s aspect of it.

So what we got down to do once we arrived right here was we wished to construct our personal custom of successful and filling this place up with not simply ladies’s basketball followers however basketball followers. I feel we have been capable of accomplish that.

I feel it began out as followers that simply wished to return watch the ladies’s sport, after which due to the success that we have had, it form of has trickled by means of the Bloomington neighborhood and Indianapolis neighborhood that, oh, not solely have they got an awesome males’s program, in addition they have this nice ladies’s program, and let’s go test them out.

Now you have seen the rise in our fan base, the joy that definitely is right here in Bloomington for ladies’s basketball.

So what it means for us is I’ve managed to encompass myself with an awesome workers. Our workers has finished a improbable job, like I discussed, of getting the proper of gamers that match us, and we’re placing a product on the ground that everyone, one, appreciates, and two, actually enjoys watching.

What we got down to do, we definitely have modified the best way that individuals on the skin have all the time checked out this program.

That is what’s most enjoyable, that there is a buzz about Indiana ladies’s basketball. 

—On what must occur to advance additional than the Elite Eight…

MOREN: Nicely, I feel for us, a yr in the past we had the suitable items. We had all of the items we wanted. The one factor which you could by no means management is accidents. I feel Mackenzie Holmes, dropping her for a big a part of the season, and as soon as Mack acquired harm, she wasn’t fairly one hundred pc.

So I feel on reflection, once we look again at what may have been completely different, if Mack would have been one hundred pc more healthy, may we’ve gained a Massive Ten championship? I feel we may have.

So we’ve, as soon as once more, I feel all of the items in place. Anytime that you just’re combining — once more, we misplaced three starters from a yr in the past, and now we’ve to determine the best way to mix the seven holdovers with the seven new faces.

Do we’ve sufficient items? I feel we’ll have sufficient firepower. I feel defensively we have all the time been on the prime of this league when it comes to the grittiness and the toughness.

How our chemistry — that is the factor that has set us aside. I feel our chemistry has simply been off the charts the final two season, so it may be as much as us when it comes to how shortly we will construct relationships with each other, how shortly our chemistry might be, as soon as once more, actually, actually good.

As a result of we really feel like as a workers, we definitely have the items; now we have got to place all of it collectively. I feel a few of these issues which you could’t management are the damage bug, however we really feel actually assured that if we will keep wholesome and are available collectively comparatively shortly, we’ll have an opportunity. 

—On Sara Scalia and Yarden Garzon…

MOREN: Nicely, we all know this with Sarah. Sarah got here into the corridor final yr and caught seven threes on us, so we all know that she likes this gymnasium, and she or he’s informed me that. So we’re excited definitely about her firepower.

A yr in the past she was among the finest three-point shooters within the nation, so I feel she’s going to slot in rather well, with our potential to seek out her.

I am unsure it shocked us, however with Minnesota her function was definitely to shoot lots of pictures past the arc, however she’s been within apply and she or he’s been an awesome facilitator.

One of many issues that we had been interested by was how she can be in defending as a result of you realize that is such an enormous a part of who we’re, and she or he’s been very defender for us, and she or he’s most likely been higher than what we thought she can be, which is sweet.

Then Yarden, she’s fascinating, as a result of she’s an enormous — I suppose an enormous guard, level ahead, since you’ll see her at — you would possibly see her on the level, you would possibly see her on the stretch 4. She will play lots of completely different positions. She has a pure intuition. She’ll do stuff that we do not essentially apply. She simply is a pure basketball participant.

It has been form of enjoyable to look at her.

I feel the factor with freshmen all the time is the tempo and in addition the schedule of being a scholar right here at Indiana and in addition determining the best way to handle her time. She’s a child that likes to be within the gymnasium, as effectively, and she or he’s been improbable.

However I do suppose that she has a chance, I’ll say, to be a really, very particular participant. 

Tales associated to Indiana ladies’s basketball:

• 11 INDIANA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL GAMES SET FOR BIG TEN TV PACKAGE This season, 11 Hoosier ladies’s basketball video games will likely be broadcast as a part of the Massive Ten’s tv package deal. Try the complete TV schedule full with occasions and networks. CLICK HERE
• MEET THE PLAYERS — LILLY MEISTER Rounding out the Indiana ladies’s basketball new participant profiles is 6’3″ freshman ahead Lilly Meister from Rochester, Minn. Meister was known as as much as play varsity in seventh grade and left her highschool as one in every of two gamers to succeed in 2,000 profession factors. Welcome to Indiana! CLICK HERE
• IU WOMEN’S BASKETBALL 2022-23 SCHEDULE On Wednesday, Indiana ladies’s basketball introduced its 2022-23 schedule. Check out the complete slate. Sport and TV occasions are to be decided. CLICK HERE