Best Indiana Women’s Basketball Players Of The 2020s So Far: No. 14 Lilly Meister

When it came to assessing the top 16 women’s basketball players of the 2020s so far, a classic question came up toward the lower reaches of the top 16.

Do you reward time spent with a program? Or do you reward single-season production over multi-season gradual progression?

This dynamic exists for all of the Hoosiers On SI top 16s for men’s basketball, women’s basketball and football. With the transfer portal making relationships with players less like a marriage and more like a fling, comparing long-term players to short-term ones is just part of the deal when trying to figure out who was more impactful.

In the case of women’s basketball, it came down to a direct case of two players who competed for the same position – center – in the same season. Lilly Meister vs. Karoline Striplin.

Meister had put time in as a three-year player from 2022-25. She backed up Mackenzie Holmes very well from 2022-24, before she got a chance to start during the 2024-25 season.

Striplin was with Indiana for just one season, but she ultimately won the starting role over Meister and had some dominant games in the post. For that reason, Striplin gets the nod over Meister.

However, that’s no reflection on Meister, who was an important part of the Hoosiers’ NCAA Tournament teams from 2023-25 and who played a role in Indiana’s Big Ten regular season championship in 2023.

Meister started just once in her first two seasons, but when she spelled the sometimes injury-slowed Holmes, she demonstrated enticing potential. If one takes her per-40-minute stats, her production level was very promising. In 2023 and 2024, her numbers projected to 14.5 points and 11.8 rebounds over a 40-minute span.

Meister started in the 2023 NCAA Tournament against Tennessee Tech with Holmes ailing as she scored seven points and had four rebounds in the 77-47 victory.

In 2024, Meister played more often, nearly doubling her minutes per game to 10.5. She once again spelled Holmes when she was hurt – playing 22 minutes in a Big Ten Tournament game against Michigan in which she was fighting injury.

With Holmes having exhausted her eligibility after 2024, Meister inherited the starting job. She started by averaging 11.8 points in her first 13 games, but then she fell off. She only reached 11 points one more time for the rest of the season and Striplin took over as the starting post player in mid-January.

Meister went into the transfer portal after the 2025 season and landed at Kansas. She averaged 4.3 points and 2.8 rebounds during her career. Among eligible players for the best of the 2020s series, she ranked 12th in career starts and she was 13th or 14th in all other categories.

Previous women's basketball top 16 players of the 2020s

No. 15 - Kiandra Browne
No. 16 - Julianna LaMendola