BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — There’s no hiding it. Monday’s Round of 32 game for Indiana women’s basketball holds a little more weight than an already intense NCAA Tournament game. It’s a sense at potential redemption for most of the roster that was shocked last year in this game as a one-seed.
While it’s another storyline that is on the radar, it’s not the storyline. With a win, it’s a chance to reach the third Sweet 16 in four years for this program.
“We try not to think much about last year, but I think it’s always in the back of our mind,” Indiana women’s basketball senior wing Sydney Parrish said. “This is a new team, a new season. We have a lot of returners, but still can’t compare ourselves to the team we were last year.”
This is the third straight season that Indiana has hosted NCAA Tournament games inside of Assembly Hall. Expectations have been high during and since the Elite Eight appearance in 2021. With some parts of the roster being new since that year, there are still multiple players who come into this matchup with the accomplishments of the past three years.
Despite all that comes with an Elite Eight and Sweet 16 appearance, a Big Ten regular season title and a one-seed from a season ago, Indiana women’s basketball is still craving more.
“Yeah, well we don’t look backwards. Only look forward to what’s ahead of us,” Indiana women’s basketball head coach Teri Moren said. “So we feel really good about being where we are right now, great about being at home and able to host once again.
“So we’ve only looked forward. We don’t tend to look backwards. At least I don’t. We’re in a great position to be at home and play in front of our home crowd, and understand that we have — there is a task at hand. Business to take care of.”
While not looking backwards is always easier said than done, having an experienced and veteran roster that has been through the ups-and-downs of the NCAA Tournament is a variable that can’t be measured.
Whether they are outside expectations, or internally, distractions will always be at their highest at this point in the season. Indiana knows it and is ready for it.
“Yeah, we talk about distractions a lot,” Moren said. “We talked about it going into this week. We are trying to keep them as a minimum and understand that we — you know, it’s a privilege to be in this tournament. In order to advance you have to — every game has to come one at a time. But there has to be a certain level of focus, too, whether you have just the blinders on and just that laser focus that we’ve had.
” … And so I think there is — when you have leaders like Mackenzie, leaders likes Chloe and Syd, there is a seriousness about this group right now. Just listening to them, whether it’s before we start, whether it’s after we get done with a certain drill and we know we’re going to talk about — as I call it, we’re going to talk about them; they know who the opponent is. Just the chatter that goes on with dial in, focus in. You know, that’s the kind of conversations they’re having. They were very serious today in our walk-through. We didn’t go 100%. And so I think there has been a great focus about this group and a seriousness about that group with how they prepared for Fairfield and certainly how we’re preparing right now for Oklahoma.”
One of those outside distractions comes with this finally being the last game inside of Assembly Hall for Mackenzie Holmes and Sara Scalia. It’s not too often you get two ‘senior nights’ and that comes with the phrase that Moren has used extensively talking about postseason play — ‘entitled to nothing’.
“I haven’t really thought about that,” Moren added. “Again, we’ve been so task oriented on what we have to do starting yesterday. Again, I think we’re all just — and I’ve said it — we’re working off just being grateful right now that we’re playing, but understanding that we’re entitled to nothing. Just because it’s Mackenzie and Sara’s last game and Arielle’s last game, that doesn’t entitle us to wanting the script to be that they won their last game here in Assembly Hall.
“We were not entitled to that. We understand we have to work for that, we have to earn it. So that’s really been our focus. We haven’t got caught up in the feelings of it being their last game.”
‘Entitled to nothing’ is exactly the script they want to flip from what may have been the case a season ago in its loss to Miami. This time around, Oklahoma comes in as back-to-back Big 12 regular season champs and have won in big time environments this season already. This will be no different for them.
“You know, we’ve had a couple different crowds, but it’s been an interesting journey for us this year in the Big 12 I think obviously the Big 12 is such — I mean, we were 7-0 in the first round. It was really important for us to do. Now, we’ve also faced a little hostility going from the Big 12 to the SEC, so we’ve had a lot of the student sections show up and a lot of people show up and like to cheer against us,” Oklahoma coach Jennie Baranczyk said. “From that standpoint you’re as prepared as you can be. Again, there is more to it than the crowd. I know the crowd is huge and like we’ve said, we want to be able to play in front of crowds.”
This time of year there are no off nights. There is no ‘going through the motions’.
So while Oklahoma is coming in extremely confident and battle-tested, so is Indiana. And, despite what anyone on the roster or staff says, there is a bit of redemption on their minds.
“I think when your team feels confident, right, that there won’t be any surprises in their preparation I think it gives them, not just confidence, but I think it puts them sort of at ease also. I think so. I think any time you fall short on a goal — I mean, I think you’ve heard Mackenzie and I think Syd talk a little bit about having a chip. I think that all can be good to an extent,” Moren said. “I go back to the fact that we’re prepared for this moment. We would love to win all of them, but we know that that’s probably not going to happen during the duration of the season.
“But I think all of our times we’ve come up short on our schedule has taught us a lesson that we can take into this tournament but also having this tournament experience we understand how important the start is.”
So, as Indiana takes the floor against Oklahoma tonight at 6:30 pm, they’ll still be playing with a ‘chip on their shoulder’, no matter how much they try to avoid it. This time, it’s about how they manage their emotions and allow those feelings to make a positive impact.
“Having that chip on our shoulder and realizing we’re not the same team we were last year,” Chloe Moore-McNeil said.
“Like I said, it’s still going to be in the back of our mind,” Parrish added. “Still have the chip on our shoulder and never want to feel like we did after our lost last year. Keep the main thing the main thing. Just survive and advance. Get to the next game. That’s what we’re focused on.”
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