Lilly Meister Is Third Indiana Women’s Basketball Player To Enter Transfer Portal

The exodus from the Indiana women’s basketball team continued on Tuesday as a third member of the team entered the transfer portal.

Post player Lilly Meister entered the portal. On3Sports.com reported her entry into the portal on Tuesday evening.

Meister joined Indiana teammates Julianna LaMendola and Lexus Bargesser in the portal. Their intentions were also announced or reported on Tuesday.

Like Bargesser, Meister played for three seasons with the Hoosiers. A Rochester, Minn., native, Meister played 96 games over her Indiana career, starting 18 of them.

She averaged 4.3 points and 2.8 rebounds. She made 58.4% of her field goal attempts.

Meister was the understudy to program great Mackenzie Holmes during her first two seasons. She took on increased importance in the postseason in both 2023 and 2024 when Holmes suffered injuries late in those seasons.

With Holmes exhausting her eligibility after the 2024 season, Meister was the heir apparent to play in the post. Indiana also recruited Karoline Striplin out of Tennessee to play the position.

Meister started the first 17 games of the season, but her production fell off once Big Ten play began. She scored 20 points in a game against Wisconsin on Dec. 28, but wouldn’t reach double-figure scoring again for the rest of the regular season. Striplin assumed the starting role, and Meister’s minutes dropped into single digits late in the regular season.

Meister had a one-game revival in the NCAA Tournament. She was 5 of 5 from the field in Indiana’s 76-68 win over Utah in the first round of the tournament at South Carolina. She scored eight of her 11 points in the first half to help the Hoosiers get the upper hand against the Utes.

“When Lilly is confident, Lilly is a really good basketball player, and I think throughout the season she kind of lost that throughout,” Moren said after the game. “One thing I know about her teammates is they've continued to pour (confidence) into her and encourage her and give her good juice as we call it.”

With Meister’s departure and Striplin’s eligibility exhausted, the only post players left on the roster are 6-foot-4 Faith Wiseman, 6-foot-3 Sydney Fenn and 6-2 forward Sharnecce Currie-Jelks. None have played regular minutes for the Hoosiers.

Indiana coach Teri Moren expressed a desire to get bigger and more athletic to contend with the new teams that have entered the Big Ten. Certainly, Indiana will have to work the transfer portal to get that accomplished.