What Teri Moren Said After Indiana's NCAA Tournament Win Against Utah

Indiana women's basketball coach Teri Moren spoke to the media after the Hoosiers defeated Utah 76-68 in the NCAA Tournament on Friday.

Todd Golden | Mar 21, 2025

Indiana Hoosiers head coach Teri Moren directs her team against the Utah Utes in the first half at Colonial Life Arena. / Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

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COLUMBIA, S.C. - For the seventh time, Indiana women's basketball coach Teri Moren navigated a path to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Indiana defeated Utah 76-68 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Colonial Life Arena in the Columbia sub-regional.

Moren has never failed to make the second round of the NCAA Tournament when Indiana has qualified under her watch.

Moren spoke to the media after the victory. Here's everything she had to say on Friday.

Opening statement ...

Teri Moren: First of all, I'm so proud to represent these guys. Really proud of them, how hard they played.

First of all, I want to congratulate Utah. What a great team. They are - they pose so many challenges for you defensively. They have a bunch of experience and veteran players, and they're very, very impressive. They're impressive, and they are hard to prepare for. And we absolutely knew that this was going to be a dogfight, and just really proud of our team, how they fought defensively today.

You know, pleased with - you know, all the kids that got in and played minutes for us, because you can look at all the kids that five of them were in double-digit scoring, but then I think about Henna (Sandvik) coming in, and we're down a four player, and we can move her around and we can move Yarden around. And then Lilly Mesiter coming in, and she and Strip (Karoline Striplin) did such a great job of being there for one another. When Strip went out, Lilly impacted the game; and then when Lilly went out, Strip did the same.

So really happy with our guard play. I thought Chloe (Moore-McNeil) and Shay (Ciezki) and Yarden (Garzon) were, once again, terrific in being able able to help us play fast and play organized.

Syd Parrish finally found her shot there in the second half as well for us. And so a lot of different people, Lexi Bargesser came in, gave us great minutes, again, defensively.

So it takes everybody, and our group knows that. But I thought transition defense we were superb today. We were really worried about them in transition. Didn't want to give up any open threes. Didn't feel like we did that.

A lot of good things. Some of these things never show up in here (Moren held up a stat sheet). Our heart and our effort and our toughness won us this game today. So just, again, really proud of our staff, really proud of our players.

On confidence winning away from Bloomington ...

Moren: I think tournament play for this group, and I think Chloe didn't talk about it probably as much as she should have in terms of we understand that if we don't come in and play well, this could be the last game. And so I think there's a different level of urgency, you know, when you're playing in the NCAA Tournament. And I think, again, there's excitement that surrounds it, too.

We have a veteran team led by Chloe, led by Syd. And so I think some of those other pieces, Yarden, Shay, Lilly, you know, the surrounding cast, they want those seniors to go out -- Strip -- in the right way. And so, yes, you might categorize this as a team that plays better in March, but I think the reason why we came out the way we did, the toughness that we showed today, the resilience, all of it, had more to do with the fact that the surrounding cast wanted Strip and Chloe and Syd to win this game.

On Shay Ciezki ...

Moren: She's fit in perfectly. That's why we recruited her. That's why we brought her to Indiana, because we felt like she's a piece that we needed, we had to have. And so I think her transition to us and playing in our system, both offensively and defensively, has really been quite seamless.

Now, she might disagree, but I do think she's become a better defender for us, but we know this about Shay. She's outstanding. The great thing about Shay is she is a multi-dimensional point guard, meaning she can play off the ball; she can play with the ball in her hands. She is shifty when the ball is in her hand, has a high IQ, but also can put a lot of pressure on you behind the arc, and that's why we brought her to Indiana, because she can do all those things for us.

On winning every year Indiana has won in the tournament ...

Moren: Well, I say this. It always goes back to the players, the players that are in your program, that are in your system, and then I've had fantastic staff. Some of them have moved on to become head coaches at other institutions.

But the standards never change, right? They always stay the same, what we're going to be about, what matters to us, and it's our job to find the kids that fit us, right? And fit our program, fit our culture. And then once we feel like it's a great fit, then there are standards that we have, and we never lower the standards, no matter who you are; from the best player to the last person on the bench that might not see time, they're held to the very same standard.

And so we talk a lot about that, and that's kind of who we've morphed into. As I always say, it's not easy to play at Indiana because of sort of the demands of the work piece, but also in our preparation and what it requires to be successful.

On Indiana's second-half shooting ...

Moren: You know, again, I trust -- we trust this group to know what a good shot is for us. It's been a long season, and so we've had a lot of reps at understanding what a good shot looks like for us. And so it's trusting that they're going to make the right play, they're going to make -- take the right shot. They know what a good shot looks like for us. They take what the defense gives them.

You know, we do a lot inside of all those timeouts trying to help them with what we see in hopes that they can get on the floor and take advantage of some of those looks that may be there that maybe they're not seeing at the time.

Again, I think it just goes back to having high IQ kids that like to play fast, like to play in space, play with freedom, but also understand what a good shot looks like for us.

On playing South Carolina and what last season's near-miss loss to the Gamecocks means for a rematch ...

Moren: You know, again, we're fresh off a big win today against an excellent Utah team, and so we're very familiar with South Carolina. We obviously -- we played them in the Sweet 16 a year ago, although a different team; so are we. Tremendous amount of respect for Dawn and Lisa and her entire staff and her players, and I've coached a few of them with USA Basketball.

So know a lot about South Carolina, and it's going to be a daunting task for us. They're an excellent team and have had a great year. But I will go back to what I said yesterday in terms of the Big Ten and how great of a conference it is and how well it's prepared us for a lot of different styles. And today, again, Utah, excellent; different style. It's going to be different style against South Carolina. And so we will lean on our -- not just our preparation, but our experience of playing in a really good league.

On stacking up against South Carolina ...

Moren: Well, you know, again, I'm going to be honest. I've watched them a little bit. I haven't really dug into them a whole lot as far as I know their pieces are a little bit different.

You know, just, again, great amount of respect for them. You know, I can tell you this from a year ago and just knowing our players. Whoever is ahead of us, we will have -- because I have a great staff, we will have a really great scouting report. We will be prepared. And then it always comes down to doing all the things. You gotta hit shots. You gotta be able to guard at a high level. You gotta be able to rebound. And then we'll see how we stack up with them.

But, you know, this team is coming off a really great win. We're going to at least enjoy it for a couple hours. We're going to go out, we're going to watch the first half, and then we'll get back to the hotel and we'll start to dig in to, I guess, South Carolina or Tennessee Tech.

On ups and downs of the season perhaps toughening the team ...

Moren: Well, I'm happy for our players, but I think what gets lost sometimes is we're a different team than we were a year ago. Right? And I think so often it's like we should just roll right into the next season and be the same team. Well, you don't roll into the next season without an All American, you know. And a kid like Sara Scalia that can shoot the ball at such a high level and you think everything is going to be the same. It's not.

And so, again, there were some up-and-downs. There were some twists and turns. But I think through it all that we gained great experience.

And I've said this before, and I know you cover us. Let's don't get lost that this is a really good conference, the Big Ten in which we play in. And so the nights that we came up short it was more than likely it was because they just played better than we did that night, because when you're talking about 12 teams that get into the tournament, right? This is a really, really great conference, and maybe there were nights that we played great and won, there were nights that maybe we didn't play as well, but at the end of the day, like I said, all of those experiences we got a lot of reps throughout it, have put us in the position to win the game, and hopefully can position us come Sunday.

On Lilly Meister's play and an update on Julianna LaMendola's health ...

Moren: Yeah. Jules has a foot injury that's going to keep her out of the tournament. But to say that -- you know, again, Chloe said it, I think we're all so happy for the way Lilly showed up today. And she was spot on. When Lilly is confident, Lilly is a really good basketball player, and I think throughout the season she kind of lost that throughout. But one thing I know about her teammates is they've continued to pour into her and pour into her and encourage her and give her good juice as we call it. And so I thought she and Strip played really well. Those two were coming in and out for each other, and every time either one of them got into the game tonight -- or this afternoon I thought they impacted it. So it was great to see.

On finishing strong ...

Moren: I think, again, it's a great dose of confidence for our players. They say it. I don't have to tell them. Like they know when our turnovers are low and our assists are high and we're guarding at a high level, we can beat anybody. And so I believe that. I think they believe that. They know that.

And, again, happy with the way they came out today, especially in the second half, because again, I want to reiterate how impressed I am with Utah and the job Coach has done, and those players, the job that they've done for Utah. So very impressed, and again, another team that has given us another good rep to prepare us for this tournament.

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