BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 4, 2022

Teri Moren

Mackenzie Holmes

Grace Berger

Indiana Hoosiers

Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Postgame Press Conference

Indiana - 62, Maryland - 51

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach.

TERI MOREN: Well, it's a fantastic win for our program today. We have so much respect for Maryland and what they have done in the Big Ten for some time. So we knew that we were up against a great basketball team and we knew that we had to bring it for 40 minutes and I thought our kids defensively showed up in a big kind of way.

Our goal going into the game was to be as disruptive as we could, especially with Reese. We were going to blitz her as much as we could. Just be active. We weren't going to leave Benzan because of her ability to shoot it so well.

But I'm just so proud of these guys in executing the game plan, sticking to it. It seemed like the third quarter we sputtered a little bit but we didn't relinquish the lead. And then I thought we just made enough plays and found a way to win. And so just really, really proud of my group.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. MacKenzie, I thought one of the earliest parts of the game changed when Indiana got the ball to you in the paint and you did something with it over your right shoulder or over your left shoulder. Talk about how wide open you were sometimes under the basket and how you worked to get that.

MACKENZIE HOLMES: Yeah. We knew that going into the game that if we got the ball moving there were going to be holes in their defense and it was just a matter of being, timing of my post ups and knowing where those holes were going to be. And I think that the girls did a great job of finding me and timing up those post ups, for sure.

Q. I know you all knew the stakes coming into this and how big this was as far as hosting and getting Top-4 seed. Where does this win rank for you all?

GRACE BERGER: Yeah. That, we obviously knew that coming in that we had to win a couple games in the Big Ten tournament to kind of solidify our spot.

But for me it's a big win, but at the end of the day it's just the quarter finals. We still have two more games. Our goal is to win the Big Ten Championship and then we'll worry about the NCAA Tournament.

So it's always good to beat a really, really good Maryland team, but we still have work to do.

MACKENZIE HOLMES: Yeah. Just kind of piggybacking off of what Grace said. We knew the stakes coming in, but going into this game, it's just one step closer to the Big Ten Championship, which is obviously the goal and what we're striving for. And just Coach was saying in the locker room having that championship mentality every single game is going to get us far.

TERI MOREN: No. I think that they answered that question in a beautiful kind of way. So, yeah, we still have a lot of work to do, but we knew that coming into this tournament and we have our sights are set on a Big Ten Championship.

Q. MacKenzie, coming back from the injury, what has that process been like to get back today?

MACKENZIE HOLMES: Yeah. I mean, it's been a struggle, for sure, and I think that we all know that and we could see that and there's a lot behind the scenes that that was a struggle as well. And I think it's just the trust that my teammates and my coaches have in me is huge for me. There's been a lot of frustrations on my end and on their end too and I think it's just staying with it and staying the course and just knowing that each game is going to be better and better.

Q. Can you amplify a little bit on that? How do you feel right now? It's been a long time since anybody talked to you about this. And are you, how much closer to being a hundred percent are you now?

MACKENZIE HOLMES: I mean, I'm just going to keep working hard, doing what I need to do for my team. I'm not really focused on my knee or myself. I'm trying to just shift my focus on winning a Big Ten Championship and doing whatever it takes.

And I'm trying not to put a number on the percentage of how good I'm feeling, just knowing that, just keep doing what I'm doing and the rest will take care of itself.

Q. Yeah, for both the players, just getting the 50/50 balls early, how big was that to establish that from the get-go beginning of the first quarter?

GRACE BERGER: I think it was huge, especially because in the past playing Maryland, definitely last week and then in years past, they have kind of come out more aggressive from the beginning and we found ourself dug in a hole, digging out of a hole the rest of the game.

So I think just to get the 50/50 balls and control what you can control and be the team that really threw the first punch, I think that's really what carried us today.

Q. Grace, last time we spoke about Nicole Cardano-Hillary was about her defense. She told me how she keeps things light on game plan days (no microphone) but she keeps things light. In an atmosphere like this, how important is it to have someone like that that can ease things up when you're in an intense environment like this?

GRACE BERGER: Yeah. Coach always loves her (laughing) in the locker room right before games. But she definitely at halftime when we're not on the floor before the game, it can definitely lighten the mood. It is kind of an intense environment, a stressful environment, so I think it's really good to have someone like Nicki in the locker room that can really just put everyone at ease.

But like you said, once she gets on the court she's the most competitive person out there. So she keeps us at ease in the in the locker room but as soon as she gets on the floor that completely changes.

Q. Coach, for you, defensively today it was just one of your best efforts. I saw a lot of different changes in the beginning. One point even, early in the game even saw Grace on Angel down in the post. Talk about the aggressive defensive play that showed up today on your side and specifically that of Aleksa Gulbe?

TERI MOREN: Well, we knew again that we were going to have to be extra special on that side of the ball. And so our mentality was, one, to be aggressive; two, to take some calculated risk in terms of blitzing and trying to get in gaps and just trying to be active with our hands.

Certainly there's some rotations. You know, anytime you're trying to do that there's going to be some rotations in place and your kids have to react to that.

So, again, I thought they followed the game plan to a T in terms of how, and we wanted to execute on that side. Obviously Grace was terrific. And then Lex just showed up in a big kind of way, I thought, especially going down the stretch with some big boards and just really showed a lot of resilience. She was relentless. We talk about Maryland being relentless on the glass. I thought Aleksa Gulbe was relentless today as well, and really proud of her toughness, but not surprised.

Q. I heard both of you as well as coach say that you hang your hats on the defense. How important is it to have that defensive mindset in a league where a lot of times teams focus on the flashy offense?

GRACE BERGER: I mean, I feel like maybe these past couple games (no microphone) relying on our defense maybe failed us a little bit because obviously we weren't great on the offensive end, but we can always always hang our hat on the defensive end.

And that wasn't always the case. So it was a big emphasis coming back into this post-season to really hold teams, whether we shoot good or not, we always have a chance to win if we can keep that defensive intensity.

Q. Wanted to ask about your defense on the three-point mark. What did you feel?

TERI MOREN: It was really good today, right? (Laughing).

Q. Yeah.

TERI MOREN: 0-12. We were spectacular.

Q. Did you feel like they were passing up open shots or did you feel like you guys just closed out really well?

TERI MOREN: I think we did a great job. We were trying to, again, you know, Bibby I think got a few off that, and she's a terrific shooter from beyond the arc as well, but they didn't go down.

But I thought we were really making the effort and recognizing that we always, we always talk to our kids about not getting sucked in and understanding that we got to protect the arc, especially against a team like Maryland.

So I thought, again, to hold Benzan 0-5. She's the one that you can, she gets loose, can really hurt you because she's such a great shooter in terms of percentages. And so I thought really, really pleased with how we did that today.

Q. There was a lot of talk earlier in this season that maybe you guys weren't as deep as you needed. But I specifically noticed with Chloe here over the last few weeks of games that she's really emerged and really developed mid-season. What do you guys think about that?

MACKENZIE HOLMES: She's been great. She's been huge for us down the stretch, and I think every game you can just see her confidence growing. And we have all the confidence in the world in Chloe and I think she just needed to have that in herself and just watching her do what she does on the court, her length, her ability to drive in the lane, but also her ability to shoot and defend has just helped us so much and it's really been great to see her confidence grow.

Q. To the extent that you're kind of willing to share, what was the official injury? What was that rehab process to get back to just being back on the court?

MACKENZIE HOLMES: I don't think I want to really share that right now, but it was a tough one.

Q. Last week you had a really frustrating loss to the same team and you've had tight battles with them all season. So I guess knowing that, how good did this feel, and what was the scene like in the locker room?

GRACE BERGER: It was definitely a great opportunity. It's not a lot of times you get to turn around and play the team that beat you just a week later. So it was something we were really excited about obviously. And we were excited in the locker room, but like I said earlier, we have to move on to the next game because we still have two more games.

THE MODERATOR: Players, you are dismissed. Thank you. Questions for coach.

Q. I know everyone has talked to you about this game but let's talk about bigger picture here. I think this, personally, that this is the best day in the Big Ten tournament because we got eight deep basketball teams here. Talk about the depth and these eight teams and how important that is for the Big Ten right now.

TERI MOREN: Right. Great question, and appreciate it because this is an opportunity for me to, once again, just talk about how great this league is. And I feel like we are still fighting from a national perspective to get the respect that this league deserves.

You know, it was so good from top to bottom and you look at some of these other leagues and, again, and there's a lot of good ones. But from top to bottom, if you look at our top seven, eight, nine, I mean, really, really great teams, with great coaches, great players and, night-in and night-out, and I think we would all agree that it's one of the toughest leagues because whether we're doing doubles or we're only playing singles with each other we just continue to beat up on each other.

And I'm so excited that we finally, this is a special year for the Big Ten in terms of the talent level, the teams that are obviously in the top 25, the teams that hopefully we'll have the opportunity to host.

Yeah, again, I really feel like that the team here in the Big Ten and I don't know who it is, that could easily win a Final Four. And, again, I love the fact that nationally, I think, we are getting some recognition. It's not near where we need it to be, but winning hopefully will solve a lot of those issues.

But it's a great league and I know that we're so grateful to be a part of it. But by far in my eight years that I've been here this is top to bottom the most competitive it's ever been.

Q. Maryland was in here, very complimentary towards you, your team, their players were. Why don't you talk about them a little bit. And the second question is: Two big games on Saturday. Hoosier Nation?

TERI MOREN: Sure, well, first question. You know, Maryland has always been the bar. They have always been the bar. And I think that's for everybody in this league. And if they tell you they're not, then I think they're lying.

And, Brenda, you know, she's a Hall of Famer at some point. She's won almost 80 percent of her games as a coach over there on the sidelines, and year in and year out she recruits at a high level and has terrific players in her program, and they just continue to raise the bar for the rest of us.

We all aspire to try to change the fact that they ran this league for as long as they have. And that's the greatest compliment that can I give them because they have just been so good and so dominant.

But great program, great players, a team that has all the pieces to get to a Final Four.

Oh, the last question, Hoosier Nation, right? Great crowd, once again, today, this afternoon, and as usual I would suspect tomorrow will be even better.

Q. Kind of a follow-up on the Hoosier Nation question. You beat Maryland in front of your home crowd earlier this season. You lost to them in front of their home crowd. How much did having them impact the way you guys played today and the energy that you had?

TERI MOREN: Yeah, well we can feel it and even though this is a probably a bigger building and sometimes the noise might not be as deafening as it is in the Hall, we still can sense it, we could feel it, we could hear it and there's no doubt that they give us energy. They give us energy. I think that our kids would all say there's nothing better than playing in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall but next to it might maybe become this place.

Q. With the way the regular season ended it felt like you guys lost a little bit of steam or momentum. How much does a win like this kind of restore that?

TERI MOREN: Yeah, I think that, again, we look at everything as seasons and there was a non-conference, which is a season for us, there was a Big Ten conference, which was a season for us, there's the Big Ten tournament, that's a new season for us. So like I said it was a great opportunity after the Maryland, we take the weekend off and then regroup back in Bloomington, that was so good for us, just to be together, to be on the floor, to practice. And I just felt that coming here with this group there was a new sense of, hey, this is a new opportunity and we're in control of what we can control and play as hard as we can with the goal of being here until Sunday.

Q. Nancy Beatty announced today that she is going to be retiring.

TERI MOREN: Sure. I'm jealous. (Laughing).

Q. Are there moments that you can share with us how Nancy might have impacted you?

TERI MOREN: Well, she's first of all, here's what I would say and I'm so glad, I appreciate you bringing that up because I didn't want to forget that. Congratulations. She has had an unbelievable career. You take away perhaps what she's, her time at Illinois might not have been up to what perhaps what she would like to have had in terms of winning and building and so forth. But nonetheless she is a terrific Hall of Fame coach and the thing that I've always appreciated about Nancy is even though she's won a lot of games, she was always very curious about the Big Ten and always would go back and forth, call me, text me, and just talk about the league. And this is a coach that's been coaching way longer than I have, right? But always picking my brain, just in terms of taking over a program and so forth. And never, no ego, no ego at all. And she certainly, like I said, has coached circles around me. She's coached in big games. But that's the thing that I appreciated, her humbleness, her kindness, coming into the league and just listening and a lady that has a lot of experience, it's easy to come into a room and feel like you have all the answers, Nancy was never like that, never like that. Very humble. I'm so happy for her and wish her nothing but the best and hopefully the next text I receive from her she will be down in Florida somewhere and on the beach and having a great time. And like I said, just congratulations to her, because this is not an easy job and I think you guys would all agree with that, there's highs, there's lows, there's a lot of in between, but she's the utmost professional coach and somebody that I think highly of and I'm just grateful that I had the opportunity to meet her and get to know her and coach along in the same league with her. So thanks for the question.

Q. Two straight games the defense was really locked in. How important was that to set the tone early?

TERI MOREN: That was important. We knew that we were going to have to be disruptive, we knew that we were going to have to rebound. We did, we out rebounded Maryland today. And when we have out rebounded teams I think our record now is something like 15-0. 17-0. There you go. So we obviously know that that's going to be important as we go into tomorrow.

Q. Coach, Mackenzie Holmes played probably her best game since her injury. What can you say about her performance and just the confidence around the team seeing her play like that today?

TERI MOREN: Yeah, I think again, we, I think Mac said it the best, she's just trying to get a little bit better inside of every game as we move forward. I thought that there were moments in that, in the first half in particular where we saw her get to go with her left hand and looked really comfortable. That looked like the old Mac. But I do think that this morning she had said to me that she felt this is the best she's felt in a while, so we anticipated her coming out and having a good day. I think as we go along this performance today certainly has given her confidence. It I think it also gives her teammates confidence. So I'm, you know, I don't think anybody's more happy and excited for McKenzie than her teammates and her coaches right now.

Q. Obviously every season's different you guys have faced so much adversity injuries, COVID and now you're here with this big win over Maryland. What is so different and special about this team versus previous teams?

TERI MOREN: Oh, you know, I've had so many great teams, but the thing that's special about this team is that they always, just their resilience, their ability to bounce back. And it's such a great life lesson, when you come up short, you go through periods where it's frustrating and it's tough and it's disappointing, the ability that these guys have to bounce back and always teach me the lesson of that. I think they teach our coaches that, right? Never hang their heads, they don't, that's just not in them, that's just not how they're wired, it's just how competitive they are. And so obviously this is probably been one of my favorite teams to coach, just because of the leadership, because of the experience they have, they're funny, Nicki is the ring leader and does keep things light, which I appreciate because I have a couple that are wound tight in there, Ali Patberg, Grace Berger, so we need somebody that's in that locker room that can keep things light when need be. So thank you guys.