Indiana Coach Teri Moren Has Given Program Legend Ali Patberg More Responsibility

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana women’s basketball fans best know Ali Patberg as one of the best players in program history.

Patberg played at Indiana from 2018-22 and is one of the best passers and shooters ever for the Hoosiers. She is fourth on the all-time assist list with 528 and 11th in scoring with 1,752 points. She is also in the top 10 in 3-point shooting with a 34.9% career average.

Patberg officially joined head coach Teri Moren’s staff prior to the 2023-24 season, though she was a team and recruitment director during the 2022-23 season. Having put her time in, Patberg is getting more responsibility.

Moren talked about Patberg during her Inside Indiana radio show on Monday. Moren’s comments were rooted in Shay Ciezki’s expanded role as a ball-handler for the Hoosiers.

“Ali Patberg had a lot to do with it. She's been installing a lot of it,” Moren told host Austin Render. “I've kind of shifted and given her some play calling responsibilities, which has been sort of fun for me.”

Moren mentioned that part of the reason she has given Patberg a bigger role was a trip she and Patberg made to watch practice conducted by another coach.

Not just any coach, but Purdue men’s basketball coach Matt Painter.

“One of the things that she and I did over the summer was we went up north and visited that other school up there,” said Moren, referring to Purdue, which is not only Painter’s school, but Moren’s alma mater.

“We wanted to go visit Matt Painter’s practice, and we got a lot of really great ideas,” Moren noted. “His play calling duties are given to one of his former point guards. And so it was something that I really wanted to look into, and I trust Ali.”

Moren is most likely referring to P.J. Thompson, Purdue’s director of player development and a former Boilermakers point guard.

Moren appreciates Patberg’s dedication to the Hoosiers and to learning the sport of basketball from a coach’s point of view.

“Very early (in the season), especially when we're struggling a little bit, she really took a deep dive into how can we get more action out of some of the things we wanted to run,” Moren noted.

Indiana started the season with a 1-2 record, including losses to Harvard and Butler. After the loss at Hinkle Fieldhouse to the Bulldogs on Nov. 13, the next opponent for the Hoosiers was No. 24 Stanford.

Nothing the Hoosiers had done in the season to that point inspired much confidence that the Cardinal could be vanquished, but Patberg had the scouting assignment for that game and Indiana won, 79-66.

Since then, Indiana is 11-2 and has made sure its early struggles are a thing of the past.

“Ali knows how we want to play and so there's a great amount of trust and being able to give some of that responsibility to her, but she's so passionate about it,” Moren said.

Moren also noted that she got some advice from a former assistant coach – Glenn Box – who was on the Indiana staff from 2016-23 before he took the head coaching job at Miami of Ohio.

Moren got a call from Box after the loss against Butler.

“It took him to kind of evaluate from Miami of Ohio, to sit to call me and say, ‘You got to get back to how you used to play.’ That was really critical for all of us,” Moren said.

Where it relates to Patberg is in her coaching of Ciezki and how Indiana wanted to get the Penn State transfer to get downhill more often toward the rim.

“You have to take a hard look and evaluate yourself. I'm probably the one that has kind of held this group back (in November) and I didn't want to do that,” Moren said. “So we kind of changed a few things, and here we are playing fast and playing in space and with more pace.”

Ciezki has been instrumental in Indiana’s 3-1 record since Big Ten play resumed for good on Dec. 28. She’s averaged 12.8 points and 2.5 assists in those four games.

Patberg’s influence has certainly helped Ciezki and the rest of the Hoosiers put themselves near the top of the Big Ten standings again.

“Nobody is more passionate about this game than Ali Patberg,” Moren said. “She's going to be a terrific head coach at some point.”

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