Everything Indiana Coach Teri Moren Said After 95-27 Exhibition Win Over Maryville

Indiana women's basketball coach Teri Moren spoke to the media after the Hoosiers earned an easy exhibition victory at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Indiana Head Coach Teri Moren during the Indiana versus Maryville women's basketball game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana coach Teri Moren spoke to the media after the Hoosiers dismantled Maryville 95-27 in an exhibition game on Wednesday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Here's everything Moren had to say:

Opening statement ...

Teri Moren: It's great to be back in the Hall. Our kids were super excited just about the opportunity. This Maryville team was a team that played the other night against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and won by 21 and so as I said to him today at shoot around, I don't want to treat it like an exhibition game. I want to treat it like it means something. I thought their focus, we got to a fast start. I love the pace. Some of those early threes weren't going in like we would have liked them too.

But I thought there were some really good things that we did. You know, our assists were high, 21, too many turnovers and our goal was to stay under 10 tonight. We knew we had an advantage from a rebounding perspective. Really wanted to share the ball. I thought we did a good job of that with and just our balance.

You guys got to see some different pieces out there tonight. I thought Shay was really good. Played a lot of minutes for us. We're a little bit short right now with some guards that are out, guards that will be back, but just guards that are out right now with some some issues that they're dealing with. But I'm really proud of all of them and I think you got a snapshot of a little bit except for not seeing (Lenee Beaumont) out there and Lexi Bargesser tonight. But I thought Chloe was great, you know, from the beginning, just leaving us like we expect her to. Good way to start. A lot of things we're going to watch on film that we got to clean up, but we're just excited to be back on the floor.

On injuries for several players ...

Moren: Syd is, I mean, she probably could have gone back in. We just held her out for precautionary and she tweaked your ankle, so she's dealing with that right now. Lexi Bargesser is dealing with a foot injury right now, but she will be back. Timeline ... not quite sure. (Beaumont) is dealing with a little bit of a nagging knee that happened towards the end of the summer, but again, expected to be back just precautionary for her as well, just load management, if you will with Beau. Sydney Fenn is a kid that's not going to compete this year. She's had surgery on her knee that was already pre-existed before she got to Indiana. She just was playing in a lot of pain, her training in a lot of pain, and she and her parents decided to get surgery so she will not not be participating this season.

On Lilly Meister and her confidence ...

Moren: Nine for 11 (from the field) should give her a lot of confidence, right? She was very steady for us. I think that's the biggest question is, how are we going to replace Mackenzie Holmes? And the answer to that is, you're not going to replace McKenzie Holmes. You're going to have to have players like Lilly Meister. You know, (Karoline Striplin) has been really good. I don't think her two for seven tonight is not indicative of the way Karolin Striplin has been practicing for us. I mean, she has been really, really been good. And so feel really confident with both Lilly and Karoline. Faith (Wiseman) is going to come along. You know, Sharnecce (Currie-Jelks) took a whole season off last year. You know those two kids are going to play spot minutes for us. Really pleased with Lilly's confidence and it's shown in practice. I will say that that Strip has shown great confidence and great play in practice. So excited about both of those guys filling that role in the low post for us.

On Yarden Garzon playing a little bit of point guard ...

Moren: We put the ball in her hands a lot in that South Carolina game a year ago, the NCAA tournament. The thing about Yarden, and I've said this, she's a fun kid in the respect that she can really play one through five because of her size, her passing, her ability to shoot it. Between Shay and Chloe and Yarden and they were going have to give us some minutes tonight at the point guard position. Yarden kind of likes that. She loves the ball in her hands. We ran a little bit of our five out tonight, but we like to stick her in that pinch too, and let her be our decision maker, which means she's playing a five offensively, but not a five defensively. It's fun to have a kid like her that's so diverse and who can be versatile.

On Julianna LaMendola ...

Moren: She is a very motivated young lady. She and Beau both have had great summers. After the end of last season both had great end of the year meetings. They want to do more. They want to help more. They want to play more. The thing about Jules is even though Jules is a stretch four and Syd's backup, we do feel like we can move her around a little bit. Maybe not as versatile as Yarden. But you can play her at that other off guard spot, which you got to see a little bit tonight. As the games go on and there's more minutes that they're playing, they're going to get more comfortable in their roles. But Jules is a competitor, and she wants to do whatever she can to help her team. She's so coachable, She realizes when she makes mistakes. Her biggest growth this year will be the next play. Putting the play - maybe whether she turned it over or whether she missed that shot - putting that in the rear view mirror. And moving on to what the next play is going to look like for her.

On Indiana's defensive goals ...

Moren: I was going to give them another goal at halftime and I forgot because there were so many other things you were trying to clean up. Our goal for the season, and you guys know this, it's 65 on our goal board down in there in the film room. But every opponent, I give them a defensive goal based on the amount of points that they're scoring. I only went off of their last game and that was against Edwardsville. I think they had 81 so I kept our goal at 65 or under 65 was our defensive goal.

I will say this, and you'll hear me talk about this a lot moving forward, one of the other goals that we have defensively for this group is we call them kills. Kills for us are three stops in a row and we have 12 kills tonight. We want anywhere from five to seven kills in the game. And so we exceeded that with 12 tonight, but that'll be a new goal for us. Will probably be nights that I walk in here. Maybe we didn't get our kills goal. We're always looking for ways to not just motivate, but to give them in-game goals that they're focused on, whether it's offensive side of the ball or the defensive side of the ball. But that's a new defensive goal for us this season is to get more kills. Some people call them turkeys. We call them kills.

A couple of scoring droughts ...

Moren: I think we were just trying to get some of the cobwebs out to be honest with you. We were playing fast. I thought that one of the adjustments we wanted to make in the second half is, I thought we were a little maybe too greedy individually. We took some bad shots. I think we made some bad choices or bad decisions offensively on what a good shot is. Typically for us, I think we were trying to be, at times, maybe too cute? And we're not a we're not a cute team like that. We got to work together. We got to move the ball. We're a disciplined team offensively that wants to play clean and pretty. So that was the goal in the second half. I think our turnovers were lower. We only had three in the second half. We had eight in the first half. And so some of that's just getting back on the floor for the first time.

On Shay Ciezki ...

Moren: Shay's a dog. I mean, she's a fighter, she's a competitor. She's loud with her voice.
She can shoot it. She can facilitate it. I thought she tried to become more of a facilitator in the second half, which I liked. She's durable, you can play a lot of minutes. She's coming off of an ankle sprain also so she's tough. She's another one of those tough kind of like-minded, Chloe Moore-McNeil kind of kids that I love. Great teammate, coachable, versatile, gets after you defensively. We've seen all of those things. And it's been seamless, her transition to Indiana from Penn State. Just like Strips' transition from Tennessee has been seamless. Those two kids, I feel like they've been here the whole time.

On how happy Moren is that Meister waited for her moment and is getting it ...

Moren: I love those kids. Those are the stories that I love. We're in a different kind of day with athletics. When you don't get the playing time that you want or you think you deserve. Those kinds of kids that just wait and keep working and get great reps. These are the moments where you're really, really proud of those kinds of kids. She deserves this moment to have a night where she can shine and she can show. The question mark is who's going to replace our five in Mackenzie Holmes. She just needs to stay steady for us. I don't want her to feel like she has to be anybody but Lilly.

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