IUWBB vs Minnesota - Monday, 12.29.25 @ 6:00 on B1G+

[TTT]

1 hour ago, HoosierHoopster said:

This year’s team is in rebuilding mode after the mass exodus and Moren’s and the new recruiting assistant’s recruiting bigger more athletic players. We have a top 10 incoming class and it’s not just 2. If we keep most of our current players and add that class we’ll be very good. Moren’s a very well proven excellent coach. You should have more enthusiasm but you’re really negative on Moren. That’s your call but imo you’re ignoring a lot to be so down

Speaking off topic of Minnesota game….6th or top 10 recruiting is misleading if you’re thinking IU Ladies vs already several loaded teams (and more that have caught IU Ladies and surpassed them) that continue to get top players.

So IU Ladies could end up near last place this year….and the future could be top half of big ten and proceed to maybe within top 4 or 5 teams.

It takes 5,6,7 of top players not just one or two nowadays.

 

[TTT]

4 hours ago, TheWatShot said:

I'd like to think a coach who's won 20 or more games in 10 straight seasons can figure it out, but something definitely feels off. This roster doesn't look like a whole lot of thought was put into it. In a league this tough, you simply can't have 3 straight years of poor recruiting and think it won't matter. 

 

Also, I can't shake the feeling the NIL era might be big trouble for this program. I mean, we let Maryland outbid us for a player who'd been here for 3 years and played for some of our best teams. 

When there is a close to a 30 game schedule filled with pre big ten season marshmallows winning 20 games is not that great…it does mean you have lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 games.

I am sure thought was put into roster, but recruiting battles were lost….players have to want to come.

[HoosierHoopster]

10 hours ago, TTT said:

Speaking off topic of Minnesota game….6th or top 10 recruiting is misleading if you’re thinking IU Ladies vs already several loaded teams (and more that have caught IU Ladies and surpassed them) that continue to get top players.

So IU Ladies could end up near last place this year….and the future could be top half of big ten and proceed to maybe within top 4 or 5 teams.

It takes 5,6,7 of top players not just one or two nowadays.

 

But it's really not misleading -- isn't it the best class the IU Women have ever had, and following up on the 2025 class?  Gigi Battle (#32 and frankly under-ranked), Addy Nyemcheck (#28 and another high scoring guard), Ashlinn James (#64, an attacking, athletic guard), and Zoe Jackson (a physical 6'4 post player with strong international experience, complimenting Socka).

Yes it takes consistent recruiting, and starting with the frosh brought in for 2025, and now the top 6-10 class for 2026, that is back to back strong classes. Moren and staff will need to continue to build on that, absolutely, but with the new recruiting assistant that is leading this charge, isn't there every reason at this point to expect that to continue?

[TTT]

1 hour ago, HoosierHoopster said:

But it's really not misleading -- isn't it the best class the IU Women have ever had, and following up on the 2025 class?  Gigi Battle (#32 and frankly under-ranked), Addy Nyemcheck (#28 and another high scoring guard), Ashlinn James (#64, an attacking, athletic guard), and Zoe Jackson (a physical 6'4 post player with strong international experience, complimenting Socka).

Yes it takes consistent recruiting, and starting with the frosh brought in for 2025, and now the top 6-10 class for 2026, that is back to back strong classes. Moren and staff will need to continue to build on that, absolutely, but with the new recruiting assistant that is leading this charge, isn't there every reason at this point to expect that to continue?

Reasonable expectation…..however it speaks to somewhat destabilization of program.  (Again, hearing same parallels of past football program tradition minus last couple years).  HOPE!  Additionally the future players have won 0 games thus far and it remains to be seen….some good players coming in.  How good???  And the other programs which are several to many now already have highly rated players and will also make their own additions.  Sidenote:  It seems as though T. Moren emphasizes defense….kinda trying to imitate BK and players/team are not backing it up.  However, other teams are playing good defense…..I just wonder how the very top recruits perceive this?  Another sidenote:  Besides Z which she was already an IU player has a Team USA player ever followed T. Moren to IU because she has been involved in  Team USA for a few years now.

Even in T. Moren best seasons…IU Ladies won a lot but not overpowering dominant and played pretty lean (meaning not a lot of room for injuries or inconsistent play…like there are those few teams that can just play average and win because they have depth and are just that good).

[IUHoosierJoe]

16 hours ago, ronzo4IU said:

I’d say we’ve hit our ceiling with Terri and I think it’s time to move on as unpopular as that might be.

There are three things for certain: death, taxes, and you’re wasting time and space pining for the firing of Moren. I doubt there’s anybody here who could name more than two players in the history of the women’s program that played in it before Moren took the job, without looking it up.

[ronzo4IU]

14 hours ago, HoosierHoopster said:

This year’s team is in rebuilding mode after the mass exodus and Moren’s and the new recruiting assistant’s recruiting bigger more athletic players. We have a top 10 incoming class and it’s not just 2. If we keep most of our current players and add that class we’ll be very good. Moren’s a very well proven excellent coach. You should have more enthusiasm but you’re really negative on Moren. That’s your call but imo you’re ignoring a lot to be so down

I hope you are right!

[ronzo4IU]

24 minutes ago, IUHoosierJoe said:

There are three things for certain: death, taxes, and you’re wasting time and space pining for the firing of Moren. I doubt there’s anybody here who could name more than two players in the history of the women’s program that played in it before Moren took the job, without looking it up.

Not pining for her dismissal, I have hoped she would succeed and have supported her teams.  I just have my doubts she can get her teams to be title contenders. TTT summed it up above.  There is some kind of disconnect somewhere and I thought this was a place to talk about such things..:)

[TTT]

Critiquing IU Ladies basketball program doesn’t mean WANTING TO LOSE T. MOREN AT ALL.  Just opinion/s and some valid…. One of the charming character traits is her ability to take good but somewhat underdog high character players and build the program all the way to a regular season big ten championship team and one of the four number one seeds in the March Madness tournament.

[IUHoosierJoe]

27 minutes ago, ronzo4IU said:

Not pining for her dismissal, I have hoped she would succeed and have supported her teams.  I just have my doubts she can get her teams to be title contenders. TTT summed it up above.  There is some kind of disconnect somewhere and I thought this was a place to talk about such things..:)

What does “I’d say we’ve hit our ceiling with Teri and I think it’s time to move on” mean if not pining for her dismissal?

[Aaron]

Its simple. Recruiting is as strong as your coaches. Glenn Box was a great recruiter who got us all those top players like Holmes and Berger. Sayavongchanh was awful and was fired for not doing her job recruiting and now they brought in the right guy who can do the role well again, hence the top recruits again.

This is not program instability. This is losing an elite employee to a promotion in Box who got a head coaching job and then making a bad hire to replace him which had to be corrected a couple years later. This is a normal thing that happens in successful programs across the board. 

If Tom Allen had been willing to fire Darren Hiller he may still be here and having 6-8 win success he did when DeBoer was here. People can make bad hires, but its whether you get rid of them at clear signs of failure and move past personal affection (as Moren did with coach Sy and Jeff Mercer did with Dustin Glant) that defines if you are a good coach.

Allen made a problematic hire that he doubled down on and killed program and got himself fired as a result. Mercer and Moren made problematic assistant hires that hurt program and then made them move on when it clearly wasn't working. That's the strength of a good leader Allen lacked in same scenario.

[ronzo4IU]

1 hour ago, IUHoosierJoe said:

What does “I’d say we’ve hit our ceiling with Teri and I think it’s time to move on” mean if not pining for her dismissal?

It means that I think we are trending downward after having the stands full and a full head of steam only to go backwards, have a mass exodus of players, scrambling to field a halfway descent roster because of not utilizing NIL (supposedly) Not winning recruiting battles for top tier talent (for the most part) I know 28/30ish is better than we've done before but I doubt will still be enough to get to the upper tier of the Big IMO.  So, from my view I see us being average to good and possibly a really good season here and there in the future but not great.  Not to mention losing home games in the tourney like in the first round at home to Miami and under performing with really good teams in the past.  

[TTT]

36 minutes ago, Aaron said:

Its simple. Recruiting is as strong as your coaches. Glenn Box was a great recruiter who got us all those top players like Holmes and Berger. Sayavongchanh was awful and was fired for not doing her job recruiting and now they brought in the right guy who can do the role well again, hence the top recruits again.

This is not program instability. This is losing an elite employee to a promotion in Box who got a head coaching job and then making a bad hire to replace him which had to be corrected a couple years later. This is a normal thing that happens in successful programs across the board. 

If Tom Allen had been willing to fire Darren Hiller he may still be here and having 6-8 win success he did when DeBoer was here. People can make bad hires, but its whether you get rid of them at clear signs of failure and move past personal affection (as Moren did with coach Sy and Jeff Mercer did with Dustin Glant) that defines if you are a good coach.

Allen made a problematic hire that he doubled down on and killed program and got himself fired as a result. Mercer and Moren made problematic assistant hires that hurt program and then made them move on when it clearly wasn't working. That's the strength of a good leader Allen lacked in same scenario.

Yes, program is a little shaky as losses accumulate through out this season. Two big ten games = Two blowouts and more to come, probably…..unfun.

[Claxdj01]

28 minutes ago, ronzo4IU said:

It means that I think we are trending downward after having the stands full and a full head of steam only to go backwards, have a mass exodus of players, scrambling to field a halfway descent roster because of not utilizing NIL (supposedly) Not winning recruiting battles for top tier talent (for the most part) I know 28/30ish is better than we've done before but I doubt will still be enough to get to the upper tier of the Big IMO.  So, from my view I see us being average to good and possibly a really good season here and there in the future but not great.  Not to mention losing home games in the tourney like in the first round at home to Miami and under performing with really good teams in the past.  

It is disappointing to go from a 1 seed 3 years ago to the basement of the Big Ten and a full assembly hall to empty in that amount of time. After the dumpster fire that this season will be, along with probably next season as well there isn’t going to be much to sell to potential recruits. Unless there’s some real fire power acquired in the portal this offseason I’m not sure that it will ever really recover with how deep women’s basketball is becoming and how talent deficient this Iu team has become. And next year there isn’t going to be a Shay that can least competently score.

[HoosierHoopster]

Good Lord you guys really pull that dark cloud along like linus with his blanket.

This season wasn’t going very poorly until Socka went down- it started with a strong road W. Socka is key. Yes the team isn’t deep particularly in the front court and it’s down another player with another regular player’s departure. No fun, but the dire oh woe is the program stuff is some serious overreaction based on ignoring present circumstances. Let a little sunshine through the cloud lol

[Claxdj01]

5 minutes ago, HoosierHoopster said:

Good Lord you guys really pull that dark cloud along like linus with his blanket.

This season wasn’t going very poorly until Socka went down- it started with a strong road W. Socka is key. Yes the team isn’t deep particularly in the front court and it’s down another player with another regular player’s departure. No fun, but the dire oh woe is the program stuff is some serious overreaction based on ignoring present circumstances. Let a little sunshine through the cloud lol

Where is the strong road win you speak of?

[HoosierHoopster]

29 minutes ago, Claxdj01 said:

Where is the strong road win you speak of?

Fla State

[TTT]

Lalala….even T. Moren gets jibber jabbery on her excuses sometimes…injuries: last year Beaumont was used as excuse and this year Z (who was injured year before at UCLA) is excuse…..neither player in each instance would be enough (sure when Z was playing IU Ladies were winning vs mainly marshmallows.

[TTT]

2 minutes ago, HoosierHoopster said:

Fla State

Florida State (5 wins and 9 losses) and near last place in their league without their leading scorer was difficult win for IU Ladies.  Lol.

[HoosierHoopster]

47 minutes ago, TTT said:

Florida State (5 wins and 9 losses) and near last place in their league without their leading scorer was difficult win for IU Ladies.  Lol.

When the gals went there it was a tough road W with a newly formed team. Pretty much everyone was then impressed. Now laugh at a road W with hindsight. Ok

[ronzo4IU]

1 hour ago, HoosierHoopster said:

Good Lord you guys really pull that dark cloud along like linus with his blanket.

This season wasn’t going very poorly until Socka went down- it started with a strong road W. Socka is key. Yes the team isn’t deep particularly in the front court and it’s down another player with another regular player’s departure. No fun, but the dire oh woe is the program stuff is some serious overreaction based on ignoring present circumstances. Let a little sunshine through the cloud lol

Nah, I applaud your fandom, but I was always pulling for things too get better and better but the reality is what it is I’m afraid.