What Teri Moren Said After Hoosiers Cruised to NCAA Tournament First Round Win
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana women's basketball head coach Teri Moren addressed the media following the Hoosiers' 77-47 win over Tennessee Tech in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Read her full transcript, or just watch the attached video of the entire press conference.
Opening statement...
TERI MOREN: Thank you. First of all, just want to give a shoutout to our crowd today. Again, another tremendous just showing from Hoosier Nation. That's what a women's basketball game should look like. You know, our fans continue to show up for us in a big way, so we're grateful that they were here this afternoon.
You know, very good win against a very good team in Tennessee Tech. Kim has done a tremendous job with her program, with her team. You know, we obviously went into this game with a tremendous amount of respect for them after watching them the other night, not on film, but got to watch them up close.
Was caught by their ability to knock down threes, something we were concerned about, and I thought our kids -- it took us a good quarter to sort of the get our legs under us, which I anticipated just because we've had about 11, 12 days off. Took us a little bit to get going there, but I thought there was a media timeout where Grace Berger and Chloe really challenged their teammates to do a much better job protecting the three-point line.
Once we got going defensively, really things started to open up for us offensively. And so on an afternoon where we didn't have Mackenzie Holmes, I thought Lilly came in and did a great job for us, just as AG did.
So it was great to see everybody contribute in some way. I will say this and then I'll be quiet. I thought Grace Berger came out with just a different level of urgency today, and we need her to do that. We need her to do that the remainder of the tournament.
She's our leader, and as Grace goes, we go. But I thought there was a determination. I thought there was a moxie that she had this afternoon from the beginning, which was great to see. We're going to need her to continue to approach every game like that.
On Mackenzie Holmes's status...
MOREN: Limited throughout the week, to answer your first question. Available if needed. And then very optimistic. Feel really good about her Monday.
On Lilly Meister and Alyssa Geary stepping up for Holmes...
MOREN: I thought both of them did a tremendous job. We didn't need either one of them to do or be anything other than who they are. Lilly has played minutes off the bench for us and has provided us with a spark, whether it's rebounding, guarding, whether it's getting put-backs, hitting free throws. She's grown inside our program this year.
She's continued to get better defensively. That's really what we wanted her to focus on. Not replacing Mack as far as being a scoring threat. If the ball did get to her or found her she could get that offensive rebound put-back, that was going to be great.
And then AG, same thing. We didn't ask those guys or put pressure on them. Look, these guys get reps every day in our practices, just as Mack gets. So for both of them to come in today and be ready, I'm not surprised by that.
I'm not surprised by what they were able to do and provide and give us. It's March. They've got plenty of reps, and so it's -- they showed up today and we're going to continue to need them.
Mack is not going to be able to play 40 minutes. She hasn't been able to do that all year. The experience both of them got today was really good I thought.
On if shots not falling sparked fast break attempts...
MOREN: I think it's obviously who we are and who we want to be, is pushing the pace and running and, you know, we had several of those.
Then we started I thought pushing the pace harder. But, I love the shots we got. I loved -- maybe there was a few that were probably rushed a little bit. But, you know, everyone of Sara Scalia shots, we saw those go in. Yarden the same. Syd the same. It was just a matter of time before those started falling, and they will continue to fall because we just got so much confidence in these guys to shoot the ball at a high level.
On Yarden Garzon potentially playing her sister...
MOREN: Not at all. Yeah, no. She's the greatest poker player I've ever seen. I think both of them are certainly -- they got to see each other the other night at the hotel, which was special. But, you know, Yarden and, again, I've never Lior, but if she's anything like Yarden, you know, any sort of an expression of excitement is hard to kind of get out of her.
I can only imagine how special it is to be able to see your sister, though. She's obviously -- when her family is here. It's special. Unfortunately her father I think is coming next week, not this week.
But it's a special time for that family.
On if there's any extra magnitude with Saturday's win...
MOREN: Yeah, I didn't even realize that. But again, I think Kim [Rosamond], we're both just -- again our program is a little bit in a different place, but our responsibility as women in our game is to grow our game and grow our programs.
That's exactly what Kim is doing. The other thing I told her is to make sure that she and her team enjoy this moment. We get so caught up in what's next, what's next, is that you forget about -- for them, for us, many years ago we were the ones looking from the outside in.
Or wondering if we are going to get in the tournament. The last several years it's been a little bit different for us, but there is such -- it's such a special moment when you can be part of the 68 teams. It's a special place to be. Kim is going do a great job. She is. She will. With her program.
Again, it's just a matter of time before I hope that we're going to see fans in the seats like we did today inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Been able to do that in the big all year with the other teams.
So it's an exciting time to be part of women's basketball, and if you're a fan and showing up for us, we're certainly grateful.
On being down and then getting a comfortable lead...
MOREN: Again, we're perfectionists over there as a staff, so we want to watch good basketball. I was not happy, especially in to the third. I thought we took some -- made some bad decisions, some shot selections that were not good inside of our offense.
And so you try to as a coach -- I think we -- and as a staff, you don't look at the scoreboard so much. It's are we getting better in every possession? And so that's the pressure we put on them, right? No matter what the score looks like, we're still going to want to play good basketball, good, solid, sound basketball.
Going to want to take care of the ball. We're going to want to get the shot we want to get. And so that's the discipline of our program, what we expect from our players, no matter what the score is. We tend not to look at that so much, especially when you have a lead because it's always about can we get better inside of our motion? Our other action? Can we show patience in the shot clock? Can we get to under 12 and get a good shot as the clock is winding down?
And so those are the challenges that we present in those timeouts. Let's not worry about the score right now. Let's worry about us improving and getting better inside of the next possession, both offensively and defensively.
On Chloe Moore-McNeil...
MOREN: I talked about Grace a little bit, but nobody was madder -- as we say in Southern Indiana, madder than hornet than Chloe was at us giving up measured threes in that first quarter. She was mad.
And so she really challenged her team to step up to the challenge of getting our hands up, making it more difficult, making them shoot twos.
So she's just been so great all year. We've depended on her and she's been dependable for us. Sometimes, you're, right, her stats don't show just how important she is to our team.
But anybody that's in our locker room that's a part of our program understands just how special and how important she's been for us all year and how important and special she'll be down the stretch here in March.
On Lilly Meister...
MOREN: Just that. She talked about different roles a little bit, and I don't know if this is the first time at the presser, she's really a smart, well-thought out young lady.
But she has just continued to get better. I think any time you have roles like we ask, whether it's AG or Lilly, even Sara now coming off the bench. Lexi. You know, their roles are different than they had a year ago in high school or their other institutions.
The only thing we ask them to do is be open to whatever role we give them. There will be sacrifices that have to be made, but continue to come in and not just respect the process, but embrace the process of getting better.
That's what she's continued to do. You know, all of them have. Lexi, Lilly, Sara. Their game will speak for itself, but it's because of all the work they do behind the scenes sure work you all don't get to see.
But we get to see it every day. That's where your confidence comes from, is -- I'm not surprised by Lilly. Even though she looked a little bit nervous up here, she was ready for this moment. It's because of the work that she does.
On assists...
MOREN: Right. Well, it's been a statistic that we've been really -- I've been really proud of. You know, just because you look down, you have 18 assists, 29 mades, you know, again, a lot of the people have taken this on, but we've always called it sharing the sugar around here.
This is a team that's unselfish, balanced, realizing it could be Grace's night, Mack's night, Syd's night. Just as long as we get the win at the end of the day of the night.
This is a team that will share the ball and that's been the beauty of them and why we've been able to score the way we have been.
Because we will give you a good shot for a great shot that's a testament to those kids and their discipline and unselfishness.
On the pressure of being a one-seed...
MOREN: Again, the one thing we have had all year is the experience of having a target on our back, right? And we've managed to -- I think knowing that we're the hunted we've handled ourselves knowing that.
With that comes you're going to get everybody's best shot. Our kids realize that. This is a veteran group, experienced group. They are watching basketball just like we all are right now. They're seeing upsets in men's basketball. I don't know of there has been any in women's basketball yet.
This is a group that's certainly up for the task of being able to handle the next opponent. Just realizing that, again, we're going to continue to get everybody's best. We just got to be able to exceed the energy of these teams and make sure that we're playing the right way and doing things that we do both offensively and defensively to put ourselves in a position to be successful.
We don't need to be anybody else other than the women's basketball here at Indiana that has certainly won a lot of the games this year.
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- HOOSIERS CRUISE PAST TENNESSEE TECH In the absence of Indiana starting forward Mackenzie Holmes, guard Sydney Parrish led the one-seeded Hoosiers to a 77-47 victory over 16-seed Tennessee Tech in the first round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament in Bloomington. CLICK HERE
- MACKENZIE HOLMES WILL NOT START IN NCAA FIRST ROUND Indiana women's basketball forward Mackenzie Holmes will not start in Saturday's NCAA Tournament first round matchup versus Tennessee Tech due to knee soreness. CLICK HERE
- HOW TO WATCH TENNESSEE TECH VS. INDIANA The one-seeded Indiana women's basketball team will face the 16-seed Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Saturday. Here's how to watch and the match details. CLICK HERE
