Indiana women’s basketball secures 4-seed in NCAA Tournament

The Indiana women’s basketball program heard its name called on Sunday during the NCAA Tournament selection show as it secured a 4-seed in the Albany region in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

Indiana will face 13-seeded Fairfield in the first round. If it wins, it will play the winner of the 5-seed Oklahoma and 12-seed Florida Gulf Coast matchup.

South Carolina is the 1-seed in the region and the top overall seed in the bracket.

Because of its seeding, Indiana women’s basketball will be a host for the first two rounds of its part of the bracket. The top-16 teams receive hosting ability. This is the third-straight season that Indiana will host.

Hosting tournament games was a major priority and goal for Indiana this year, among other aspirations. Indiana finished a total attendance or 150,567 fans this season which was fifth in the entire nation. Only one Big Ten ranked higher and that was Iowa.

“We want to be able to host for our fans,” Indiana women’s basketball head coach Teri Moren said last week. “It’s important — they are important to us. We want to give them the opportunity to continue to support our program. They’ve done that, and we are really grateful.”

Indiana women’s basketball was 15-0 this season inside of Assembly Hall. It was also 17-1 during the regular season the year before. In the last four seasons, Indiana is 57-5 overall at home.

Indiana finished the season 24-5 overall and 15-3 in Big Ten play and enters this week after a loss to Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament in its first game.

“I think our body of work speaks for itself,” Moren emphasized. “We’re not healthy by any stretch of the means. I think that has to be part of the criteria or whatever they look at. This is not Indiana at full health right now. It’s not a healthy squad. But I do believe this, that come tournament time in two weeks we will have a much different looking, healthier basketball team.

This will be the 10th NCAA Tournament appearance for Indiana women’s basketball and its fifth-straight tournament appearance. It is coming off of a Round of 32 exit last year as a one-seed, its first time a one seed in program history.

In 2021, Indiana made it to the Elite Eight. In 2022, it was a Sweet Sixteen appearance.

Overall, Indiana is 9-9 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. Teri Moren is 8-5 all-time in five appearances.