My Two Cents: Tears Flow For Indiana's Ali Patberg, and That's a Perfectly Fine Farewell

Indiana's women's basketball season ended on Saturday with a tough loss to Connecticut, and with it, the brilliant career or Hoosiers guard Ali Patberg finally came to a close. Tears flowed freely, and that's perfectly fine. The last chapter is always hard, and this certainly was a tough day for Patberg, who played great in her final game in an Indiana uniform.

Tom Brew | Mar 27, 2022

My Two Cents: Tears Flow For Indiana's Ali Patberg, and That's a Perfectly Fine Farewell /

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — The tears came before the words could. That's what finality does, and it did it to Ali Patberg, the face of Indiana women's basketball, on Saturday.

When Indiana lost to Connecticut 75-58 in the NCAA Tournament regional semifinals, it ended Patberg's brilliant college career. The Columbus, Ind., native has always been able to joke about getting to hoop it up in college for seven years thanks to redshirts and COVID years, but that didn't make Saturday any easier.

It was over. And it was hard.

Very, very hard.

The tears started flowing in the closing seconds of the game when the coach she loves, Teri Moren, took her out of the game. Patberg tried covering her head with a towel, but the tears and the red eyes were obvious from the 5-foot-11 guard, who was brilliant in her final game, scoring a team-high 16 points.

And even 20 minutes later, when Patberg, Moren and Mackenzie Holmes stepped up to the podium in the media room, those eyes were still red. And with the first question came, asking about her emotions at the end of the game, the tears started flowing again.

So, so hard.

"I'm disappointed we lost because I'm not a good loser,'' said Patberg, dabbing tears off her cheek with a towel as she choked through the words.. "This is not how I envisioned going out, but I'm just thankful that Coach Moren believed in me five years ago and gave me an opportunity to wear Hoosiers on my chest.

"I just hope that the time I had at IU, people just remember how hard I played, and I was a good teammate and worked as hard as I could. I'm thankful. It hurts right now, but I'm thankful.''

An emotional Ali Patberg meets with that media after the Indiana loss to UConn. It was the final game of her brilliant college career. (Photo by Tom Brew)

Two seats to her left, Moren was watching her star fight through the tears. It was emotional for her too, and when asked about it near the end of the press conference, Moren nearly choked up as well. No coach could be more appreciative of what Patberg has given to this program on the rise in the past five years, and she was thrilled that Patberg left it all on the floor with an outstanding performance.

"She did (play well). She really did,'' said Moren, who just finished her eighth year at Indiana and has won five NCAA Tournament games in the past two years. "As I said last week after we beat Princeton at home, to get to back to back Sweet 16s, Tyra Buss, Amanda Cahill were able to do it in '18 when we won the NIT championship on our home floor, and then you fast forward and you get a kid like Ali and Nikki (Cardano-Hillary and (Aleksa Gulbe) and (Grace Waggoner) that can say they won their last game on their home floor to do something of the magnitude that the Sweet 16 presents for us.

"It's great. I'm so happy, especially for A.P. because she's an Indiana kid through and through. She's a native, and the leader for our team. You just want that. You want all your kids to not only have success, but for her, it hits a little bit different because of just what she's meant. And again, just being that native that chose to come back and represent me and our team, it just means so much to all of us.''

Patberg was brilliant early, scoring seven quick points to get the Hoosiers rolling, and it was just a four-point game at halftime, with the Hoosiers trailing 37-33 in Bridgeport, which is just down the road from UConn's home campus. The Huskies, 11-time national champions, had a decided home-court advantage.

A 16-0 run to start the second half blew the game open, with UConn going up by 20. The Hoosiers never stopped fighting, and got the lead down to 11 at one point, but the hole was too deep to dig out of. The result was obvious down the stretch, and it was hard to swallow for all of the Hoosiers, who finished with a 24-9 record — and a ton of wonderful memories.

"Yeah, it means a lot to me (to be a part of this program),'' Patberg said. "Yeah, I can't even put it into words. Like I said, I'm just thankful that I got the opportunity to play for Coach Moren. I love everything that our team represents, I love our school.

"I know they're going to continue to get better and grow and have success, and I can't wait to see that. Just knowing that I was a small, small part of it, that means so much to me.''

Indiana guard Ali Patberg drives past a Connecticut defender on Saturday. Patberg finished with a team-high 16 points in her final college game. (USA TODAY Sports)

For Holmes, the 6-foot-3 junior from Gorham, Maine, Patberg and her older teammates have meant the world to her. She'll be back at Indiana next year — "I'm going to wear Indiana on my chest until they don't let me wear Indiana on my chest anymore. I'm going to wear that jersey as long as I possibly can,'' she said after the game — but she can't imagine going forward without Patberg, who's been like a big sister to her during her three years in Bloomington.

"I don't think I could even put that into words, and I told Ali I'm not ready to have her not be my teammate anymore,'' Holmes said. "This team is filled with 11 selfless girls who just put each other before themselves.

"Ali is going to be my sister for life, as the other seniors will be. I don't think I'm going to let myself process this for a while.''

Patberg started her career at Notre Dame, which was the state's best basketball program at the time, but after two years there and a serious knee injury, she decided to come play closer to home for Moren.

She devoted five years of her life to helping Moren grow this program, and they've won 20 games or more for seven straight seasons now.

Patberg has played a huge role in that, but now it's over. And all those tears?

Totally, OK.

"You know, she's just meant so much to this program,'' Moren said. "You can tell by her emotion that she is obviously very sad that it's over, even though she was blessed enough to have seven years of college. That's not lost on A.P. She realizes that it's a true blessing to be able to stay at Indiana and play another year.

"She's our leader, on and off the floor, and so she's going to be missed. But don't be surprised if at some point she ends up maybe back in Indiana somewhere working with women's basketball because she does have aspirations of wanting to coach this game. You never know where she might end up, but I'd love to have her as part of what we're doing inside of our program at some point in the future.''

What Patberg and company have done these past several years is make Indiana women's basketball relevant again. They drew good crowds at Assembly Hall this season, and with so many talented players that also happen to be very engaging with the fans and just flat-out good kids, they became fun to watch.

That was so obvious last weekend when the Hoosiers won their first NCAA Tournament games at home. The love fest between fans and players on Monday night was something to behold.

It was a two-street love affair for sure. It's a great group that has accomplished a lot. And for Patberg, it's all over, 144 games and 1,770 points later.

"They've just been a model of consistency for us in terms of, like I said, showing up,'' Moren said. "But what's great is that it's also about being there for one another and just wanting each other to have success.

"Our chemistry has been off the charts the last two seasons, and a lot of it has to do with not just because they're good basketball players, but because they're good kids, and they like each other, and they care about each other.''

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