Women's Basketball Coach Teri Moren Comments On Indiana's Black Jerseys

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Indiana identifies cream and crimson as its official school colors, but few Indiana teams have strictly worn those colors over the years.

Football tried it in the 1983 season to the jeers of many fans. Either cream or various shades of red have been tried in various uniform combinations in several sports. But for the most part, Indiana has rolled with something close to crimson and white as its favored color combination.

Apparel companies and fans alike have jumped on board the alternate uniform wave that began in the 2000s. All Indiana sports have been more liberal in their use of alternate uniform designs.

The latest example are black basketball jerseys worn by the men’s and women’s basketball teams for the 2025 season.

The women wore them at Battle 4 Atlantis against Baylor (a top 25 win for the Hoosiers), in the Big Ten Tournament against Oregon and in the NCAA Tournament against Utah. Indiana won all of those games.

Due to a shipping delay, the men had to wait to wear them until March. They wore the black jerseys against Washington and Oregon in their final regular season road trip of the season.

Indiana women’s basketball coach Teri Moren was asked about the black jerseys during her pre-South Carolina press conference on Saturday.

She noted that the players have a large role in deciding which jersey to wear. She cited the generation gap between herself and her players.

“There are some things that you just – like their music selection, right? I'm old. I don't care about what they like to listen to. I want to listen to hard 80s and some different types of genres of music. They want to listen to rap. That's cool,” Moren said.

“They love the black jerseys. If they want (to) play in the black jerseys, we'll play in the black jerseys. I think they look sharp,” Moren said.

Indiana basketball is steeped in long-held traditions. The candy-striped warm-ups and the lack of surnames on the back of Indiana jerseys are big traditions that Indiana fans hold dear. The crimson road uniforms are among the sharpest in college basketball.

However, the black jerseys have been mostly met with praise by Indiana fans. They feature a script Indiana in white across the black jerseys. The piping features two thin crimson stripes with white in the middle. It’s a clean look that isn’t too busy.

Moren wants to be respectful of Indiana’s traditions while also acknowledging that the program has to stay relevant to the times.

“I laugh at sometimes our fan base. They get so … ‘this is the tradition of Indiana.’ They like their red and white. But I think times have changed. We have to change with the times,” Moren noted. “So our kids love playing in the black jerseys and if they feel good in them, we're going to play in them.”

It’s uncertain whether Indiana will wear them against South Carolina in their 3 p.m. ET matchup on Sunday. The Gamecocks have black and maroon as their primary colors.

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