Indiana Women's Coach Teri Moren Doesn’t Hold Back Criticism After Maryland Loss

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana women’s basketball coach Teri Moren was at a loss on Thursday.

One week after Indiana had controlled the game in a 71-61 victory over then-No. 8 Ohio State, the Hoosiers were second-best in a 74-60 loss to No. 19 Maryland.

It came on the heels of a 73-65 loss at then-No. 22 Michigan State Sunday. Moren did not have any specific answers for the up and down nature of the Hoosiers.

“What is it that we're missing here? Trust me when I tell I tell you, I wish I could come in here with better answers to a lot of your guys' same questions of why we do the things we do sometimes,” Moren said in her postgame comments.

It continued a pattern for the Hoosiers, who dropped to 17-11 and 9-8 in the Big Ten with the loss to the Terrapins. Occasional signs of quality play interspersed with inconsistency and disappointing performances.

Since Big Ten play resumed for good in early January, Indiana has been hard to peg. There has been one three-game winning and losing streak, but the rest of the results are mixed seemingly by the game.

Moren called her team out for lack of focus.

“It's focus, that's what's missing. We're not a very focused team. I think when we're really focused, hyper focused, like we were against Ohio State, I think we know what we're capable of,” Moren said. “Didn't feel like against Michigan State we were focused on the game plan, what we had to take away in order to put ourselves in a position to win the game.”

Moren said it’s not for lack of reinforcement.

“Trust me, they see it every day, they hear it every day - why it's not resonating, to me, it's focus, it's consistency. It's probably those two things, focus in being consistent, night in and night out,” Moren said.

Moren wasn’t done. On a night where Maryland’s physical defense sent the Hoosiers into a shell at times, Moren thought of the time when the Hoosiers were the physical program.

“This league is physical, right? We have to embrace that. That's just part of it. It's part of being at this level. It's part of being in the Big Ten,” Moren said. “There's a lot of teams, Maryland, Michigan State, you know, the USCs, the UCLAs, they're all physical. We can't run away from that. We can't. We have to embrace it.”

“At one point we were a really physical team. And I don't know why that is. I don't feel like we're as physical as some other teams, but I know we need to be,” Moren continued.

Moren doesn’t feel the message of urgency and of fighting through adversity has sunk in.

“We're always as coaches trying to figure out, 'Okay, what other angle can we come that they'll maybe they get the message.' You coach them up. You love them up. You're encouraging. You still coach them hard, but you realize that they need confidence,” Moren said.

Confidence, yes, but there has to be accountability too.

“We've really we walked a fine line with the group all year of not wanting them to lose their confidence, but also still having to coach them hard,” said Moren, emphasizing the word “hard”.

Moren did not hesitate to call out veteran leadership, even on Senior Night, when departing Hoosiers Chloe Moore-McNeil, Sydney Parrish and Karoline Striplin played their final home games.

“I've always said this that a player-led team is so much better than a coach-led team. Chloe has to look at herself, and Syd (Parrish), and Strip (Karoline Striplin), those seniors - especially Chloe, who's been here the longest and Syd who we depend on because she's so vocal, right?” Moren said.

“Ask themselves if they're doing enough right inside of that locker room to help their team. Because if they're not, then they need to. But trust me when I tell you they've heard that message also,” Moren continued.

How did the players take to this? It’s never easy to absorb public criticism.

“(Moren) obviously has a different perspective, because she gets to sit on the sidelines and kind of watch and see everything,” said Moore-McNeil with a sigh. “Maryland hit some tough shots. They really hit some great open shots as well. And we kind of gave them those things. I mean, yeah, we didn't get to execute the game plan very well.”

For Indiana, the short term damage of the loss is that the Hoosiers might have to take the long route in the Big Ten Tournament next week at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

It’s not the likely scenario. Indiana finishes at Purdue on Sunday, which is 3-14 in conference play, but if the Hoosiers were to be upset by the Boilermakers, they would slip into a scenario where they would have to win five games in five days in the tournament.

The long term worry is that the Hoosiers won’t be able to achieve the consistency, focus and toughness needed to sustain a meaningful postseason run.

The players still believe that the Hoosiers will come good in the end.

“Obviously, we've been very inconsistent going at each game, but I will say in terms of clicking, I know we didn't come out with a win tonight, like I said, but I have faith in us to click at the right time,” Parrish said.

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