Indiana Women's Basketball to Take on Michigan State in Big Ten Tournament

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — After No. 9 Indiana defeated Purdue last Saturday to win its ninth-straight game and close the regular season with a program record 16th conference win, head coach Teri Moren said it will be good to catch their breath a little bit.

Indiana, who is the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, received a double-bye and will play its first game on Thursday night in Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

The Hoosiers' opponent will be Michigan State, who defeated Penn State on Wednesday night 75-66.

Indiana defeated Michigan State by 12 earlier this season, but it was a tight game throughout the first three quarters before Indiana pulled away in the fourth.

This is a Spartan team that has some talent on it and was once ranked in the Associated Press top 25 earlier this season.

As for Indiana, the Hoosiers took Sunday and Monday off before practicing Tuesday and Wednesday, and drove up to Indianapolis on Wednesday afternoon.

Moren thought the team accomplished what she wanted them to, catching their breath over the past couple of days to get recharged and refocused for the conference tournament.

"I think they were grateful to just more than anything rest their minds," Moren said. "It takes an emotional toll on these kids, so I thought that the two days were well-deserved, and they were very much needed. You could tell yesterday they seemed refreshed and ready to start our prep for this week."

Indiana guard Grace Berger agreed that it was huge for the team to be able to take a couple days off before the Big Ten Tournament, especially because Indiana isn't heading to Indy to play just one game, the Hoosiers are looking to play three-straight days.

"We refreshed our minds, we refreshed our bodies going into this week," Berger said. "Playing three days in a row against great competition is going to be hard regardless of how much rest you get before it, but I think we're ready for it now."

This Thursday, March 11, will also mark the one-year anniversary of when the NBA was shut down due to COVID-19, and then all other sports, including college basketball, followed suit.

Although Indiana was able to complete its conference tournament last year because it took place a week earlier, the Hoosiers still had the opportunity to compete in the NCAA Tournament taken away.

This anniversary serves as just another reminder to the way Indiana has felt about this whole season.

"It's definitely motivation because we were so excited to have the chance that we never got last year to make a run," Berger said. "I think that's just kind of been building up since this time last year through the offseason.

"So we're just really grateful to get the chance to do what we didn't get to do last year, and we're just never taking a moment for granted again. We're super excited to finally get a chance to show what we can do in the postseason."

Indiana's game against Michigan State will take place at 6:30 p.m. ET on FS2.

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