NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - TENNESSEE TECH VS INDIANA

March 17, 2023

Teri Moren

Sydney Parrish

Chloe Moore-McNeil

Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall

Indiana Hoosiers

Media Conference

Q. I'm writing a story about your coach and her dad. I'm wondering if you guys can share what it's like having Teri's family around practices and games and especially if you can speak to what your relationship has been like with Dick these past few years.

CHLOE MOORE-MCNEIL: Yeah, I was going to say, over the years I think the relationship with Coach Moren and her father has brought joy to the entire team. Seeing him always brightens our day.

SYDNEY PARRISH: Being here for only the last year now, I've just really noticed the connection that Coach Moren has with her family. And specifically her father and just the joy it brings to her and our entire program when she gets to see her dad after the games, and always takes time to make sure her sister and her family are doing okay afterwards. And it shows what kind of coach she is and how personable she is to her family, and she wants to grow this program to be a family-like environment, as well.

Q. Sydney, this season feels like it's been going on for a while. Are you glad to finally be here with this as a goal that you had so many months ago?

SYDNEY PARRISH: Yeah, it's been a big goal of ours since last June when everyone kind of decided to come on campus and start working out. It's been a long time coming, but we've grown from the moment all of us transfers and freshmen stepped on campus, and we got the respect from the girls that were on the team last year. And it's just been a really great year of building chemistry on and off the court.

And it's just kind of translated on the court, and it's been a really fun year so far, and we're ready to wrap it up with a good March.

Q. Chloe, I want you to talk a little bit about what the three-point shooting has done, what it's changed about this offense. I think Lisa Bluder talked about that's a big difference this year. For Sydney, you came here from the West Coast. I'm curious how you've seen the Big Ten evolve and what they've become this year.

CHLOE MOORE-MCNEIL: So we've brought in a great freshman class and some awesome transfers. Last year I feel like we had a great defensive-minded team, and we have that this year, as well. But I think the difference in last year and this year is the three-point. People that we've brought into this program have taken us to an entire different level, so I'm really grateful to be a part of it.

SYDNEY PARRISH: Yeah, coming from the Pac-12 and a different kind of style of play out there and coming to the Big Ten, it's a big difference. But I think it kind of showed -- opened my eyes to see another conference and how it's played.

The Big Ten is the best -- I personally think the best conference in the nation. And it's just crazy to see from top to bottom the talent level through each team, and it's just been really fun to play in the Big Ten.

I'm excited to see not just us but the other Big Ten teams compete in the tournament this year.

Q. I was kind of curious, the opportunity you get every game to play or try to defend the toughest offensive player, how much do you embrace that? Do you ever think, let Sydney try it this time or something like that?

SYDNEY PARRISH: I don't think she thinks that.

Q. How do you embrace that challenge game after game?

CHLOE MOORE-MCNEIL: Yeah, it's for sure a challenge guarding such different dynamic great players. I respect all of them. But like you said, I really embrace that role because it's such fun to just be able to take on that role and say, hey, I get to try to guard the best players in the country.

Q. With Sydney coming in this year and Chloe having been here before, you guys have spent most of the season as one of the best teams in the country. How have you managed those expectations and kind of being in the spotlight the whole year and staying so consistent through having those expectations on you?

SYDNEY PARRISH: Yeah, I'd say this week really -- we haven't played in over a week now, and I've spent this time really reflecting on the year. I think it's kind of been crazy. We see these WNBA players and these famous celebrities coming out with their brackets, and some of them you see us going to the Final Four or the championship game. And I'm just sitting there like wow, this is reality.

I think that because throughout the season we've just kind of -- our motto was always one game at a time. Looking back, we've only lost three games this year only by under, I think, it's 10 points total. Just to know that we have that spotlight on us right now, that we have the potential to make a run in this tournament is very exciting.

And I think that we still just need to take it one game at a time because it's six games, so one game at a time, and we can make a run.

CHLOE MOORE-MCNEIL: Yeah, I definitely agree with Syd. Seeing all these famous people like Obama having us as his final game is actually incredibly crazy. But at the same time I think keeping all of the outside noise to a minimum is what has helped us be so successful, because it is March Madness and anything can happen. So we do have to take it one game at a time.

Q. I'm curious what the mood is like in the locker room since you have some players like Chloe, who you've obviously been in this situation before, Sydney, transfers and freshman like yourself have not been here especially with Indiana. What's the mood like between all of the players and all of you together?

CHLOE MOORE-MCNEIL: It's funny that you say that. We were just listening to music, dancing around with each other not too long ago. But the chemistry, and I feel like the energy already is where it needs to be in terms of being prepared and ready for our opponent.

SYDNEY PARRISH: Yeah, we're really excited to start playing games again. Like you said, it's been a long week, almost week and a half since we've played. I think we're just ready to get back on the floor. We've had a great week and a half of practicing and just getting prepared. I think that we're really ready to play.

Q. You kind of talked about it a little bit, but talk a little bit more about the balance that this team really has. Obviously you have Grace and Mackenzie who are both big names, but your whole team really contributes and you guys have all stepped up this season. Talk about how that balance is really hopefully going to be one of your keys to success, and maybe if you see another key to success, what is that?

SYDNEY PARRISH: Yeah, I mean, obviously we have Mackenzie and Grace who are all-American status. They're the best players in the country. But we have scoring also coming from other players really equally, we have equal opportunities on the court. I think it really starts on the defensive end. Sometimes you look at our team and it's like, we aren't the most athletic, fast, going to jump the highest, but we work really hard on the defensive end.

And I think it really starts with Chloe and how she's literally playing the best players in the country every single night and defending them and stopping them.

I think it roots from her, and just kind of we bounce off of her and try and help her in those gaps and try and get deflections and also it starts on the defensive rebounding side and just pushing the ball.

CHLOE MOORE-MCNEIL: Like you said, I feel like everybody contributes balanced in a way, but everybody contributes something different every given night. I feel like I'm on the floor with great players at all times. You can't really focus in on one person because you have the Sydney Parrishes and the Mackenzie Holmeses, Grace Bergers, everybody.

Q. For both of you, the ability to go deep into the tournament depends on the quality of the backcourt, and it seems like you guys have a very strong backcourt. Can you both address that?

CHLOE MOORE-MCNEIL: Yeah, we do have a great backcourt and front court, as well. I mean, we're just looking to make a tournament run.

SYDNEY PARRISH: I think it definitely helps with our size in the backcourt. I mean, we start really tall players, and I think that's going to help us make a run through the tournament. Mostly just staying out of foul trouble, I think, will definitely help us make a run, as well.

TERI MOREN: Good morning. It's the best time of the year for all of us that love this game so much. It's been a long 10, 11 days for us after the Big Ten Tournament, but it's been a good 10 or 11 days for us just to kind of catch our breath, get some rest both mentally and physically.

We are beyond excited to get out there today, but even more so for the 11:30 tip time tomorrow against a really good Tennessee Tech team that played extremely well last night. Kim and her staff are doing a great job, and so it was fun to watch both teams, Monmouth and Tennessee Tech, compete last night.

Q. Coach, you got to Indiana not long after Cook Hall opened and the facilities upgrade since then to Assembly Hall. Of course, your locker room there with a donation from Sandy Eskenazi. How much did those upgrades, which seemed to put the women's program on equal footing with the men's, influence your decision to go to Indiana and stay there?

TERI MOREN: Well, this is the first season that we've been in our new locker room. And so it's been something that we've wanted for some time, and it just so happened that Sandy Eskenazi stepped up, amongst other donors, and wanted to provide us with a space for our players during the game.

And also from a recruiting standpoint, when we are recruiting against some of the best teams in the country, facilities do matter. It's a space where our kids -- obviously, we're very proud of it. It doesn't happen without the help of a lot of people, including our people here at Indiana, that have to track down those that want to support women's basketball in this kind of a way.

We're extremely pleased with how it turned out, and we're very fortunate and also blessed with the space that we do have.

Q. Women's basketball for quite a long time at Indiana has really been overshadowed by men's basketball. Do you feel like you're on more equal footing now in terms of facilities? I know one of the emphases on Cook Hall was that the facilities be equal for men and women.

TERI MOREN: Yeah, no doubt. When the Cook family -- and this was long before I was here at Indiana -- decided to build Cook Hall, you're exactly right, they wanted to make it identical in terms of the space. So what the suite looks like on the men's side mirrors what we have on our side. We don't share a practice facility court, per se; we have our own; the men have their own.

Certainly when you work as closely as we do with our men's staff, you learn to share that facility because it's so great, and it's utilized by both programs.

But when we arrived here nine years ago, one of the goals was -- I grew up in southern Indiana, so I understand the tradition that's always been on the men's side because I grew up watching it. But one of our first goals that we had for this program was yes, there's tradition on the men's side, but we really felt confident that we could build the tradition on the women's side, as well.

Our hope now is that when people speak of Indiana basketball, it's no longer exclusive just to men's basketball. And they're talking about, you know, yes, men's basketball, they have the banners, but there's also a women's basketball team that is quite talented and skilled and has been able to sustain success over the last four to five years.

I don't really get caught up in the comparables of the two. I think when you're at an institution like Indiana, you have to be a fan for all your sports, whether it's football, whether it's men's basketball. Because let's be honest, if they do well, then the institution, all the athletic department does well. I keep that in perspective as much as I can.

But we just try to do what we do. And we're a part of a great athletic department here, and we're certainly proud of what we've been able to accomplish. But we want our own banner. We want a banner that stands up in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall that's just for women's basketball.

Q. I'm curious, I've got two questions, I'll put a pause in between them. The first one is you mentioned that, I believe, you've only played three games since February 19th. I'm curious from a coaching standpoint, what do you do to try and prevent the team from getting stale over that? I don't know if you've ever been through that kind of a stretch.

TERI MOREN: Well, I think one of the things that happens is yes, the three games, but two of them have been losses for us. So it's given us great motivation to get back and practice and certainly figure out some of those things that we didn't do well enough, why we lost the game.

You try to shore up all of those things, but also it's been a great time for us to rest. The Big Ten has been incredible this season, top to bottom. We had doubles with everybody that's in the field this year, this particular year, and so we had an incredibly difficult conference season.

It's been -- I don't know if it's a silver lining, but I think it's been good for us to be able to have some extra time off because of the schedule we've played.

But you know, you get inside a practice, there's plenty of things, trust me, that we can -- there's no ceiling for this team, that we can improve on. And we've tried to pick something, whether it's two or three things, in practice.

We also have a tremendous practice squad that's super competitive. This is the best practice squad we've had, so they've made it not just entertaining but also very competitive for our kids in practice.

Q. You've been around this program now for a while. You've watched the Big Ten. Why do you think that the Big Ten took the jump that it did this year?

TERI MOREN: Well, I think, again, as much as we hated COVID, it did give us an extra year for some of these top talented kids, including us. Grace Berger obviously being able to come back and have her COVID year, and I think you see that on almost all of the Big Ten teams, where they were seniors but they got that extra year, so they came back.

Look, this is a conference that is so talented, not only in players but in the coaches and their coaching staffs. It's been incredible. Really fortunate and appreciate the opportunity to be a part of it.

But I attribute that to the COVID. But there is talent, there is talent in this league. We're going to see some of these kids, I'm hoping, including Grace Berger, that's going to be playing at the next level this summer and representing this league.

It's been a grueling Big Ten season for us, but I would suspect that we can all sit up here as head coaches and unequivocally say that the Big Ten season has prepared us for March because of how difficult it's been.

Q. I know you just found out last night, but Tennessee Tech, they're winners of eight straight, they're coming off an OVC tournament championship, playing arguably their best basketball. How do you coach a team that's kind of going into March with, again, just some of their best basketball?

TERI MOREN: Well, you don't try to be or do anything different than what we've done. Our recipe still has remained the same in terms of our practice, our preparation. The one thing that has been different, we've never been in this scenario where we were watching a play-in game and now you have only really one day to prep.

But we have all week been spreading out workloads from our staff in terms of covering all the teams we're playing.

Again, our kids weren't here last night, but they were watching on TV. Our staff was certainly here. But you're absolutely right. I mean, this is a hot team right now. They're not to be taken lightly.

In my opinion seeds are thrown out at this time of year. You just look around, watch TV, and you find out quickly whether you're watching men's basketball or women's basketball today when it starts that seeds don't matter at this time of the year. You want your team, like you just mentioned, to be playing their best basketball. It's obvious that Tennessee Tech right now is playing their best basketball.

Q. Question on Chloe, and I don't know if you've talked about her before, but the fact that she guards the toughest player for the opposing team each game, when did you notice that first ability? As a freshman did you decide she's the one going to handle that?

TERI MOREN: I think we just have watched her just get a little bit better every year. As a freshman she came in, gosh, probably she weighed maybe a buck 15. Then you put her in a program with Kevin, our strength and conditioning coach who's phenomenal, and you watch her body start to develop, and you watch her in practice compete.

That's the thing with Chloe; she just has this toughness factor that doesn't show up always in the stat sheet. You just know how competitive she is. You watch her in practice.

I do think it's something that she has really embraced. This is a team that always is looking for what each of them individually can do to help the team. Chloe understands that what we need her to do is be a great defender for us, and I think she's taken on that challenge. But she's also embraced it and has really thrived in being able to do that for us.

I would say it's a combination of certainly when we brought her here, that's one of the reasons why we recruited her. We liked her length. We liked her athleticism. But you have to do the work, and you've got to want to take on the role that your coaches give you.

She's done so much for us this season because, by the way, yeah, she has to guard the best offensive players, perimeter player, but then she has to turn around and come on the other end and run our basketball team. And when Grace Berger was out, that was something that was new to her and different. We've just watched her transform into such a steady but dependable -- gosh, she's such a dependable player to have on our team.

Q. I'm curious now that you guys have not been shy about saying that a National Championship is a real possibility for you guys, something you guys have had eyes for this year. Now that you're in this tournament, you mentioned not being able to take a team lightly. How do you keep a tunnel vision on your girls to make sure that you can't look past anybody?

TERI MOREN: Well, again, it's continuous conversation that you have with them. Look, these guys aren't -- we're old. We're a veteran team. We're an experienced team. They realize that this is a different kind of tournament. If you lose, you're done. Your season is over.

If that doesn't give you a sense of urgency, I don't know what does.

We don't try to magnify it because I don't want them -- I want them playing with joy and freedom and fun. So you try to take the pressure off of them and just remind them, let's just go out and be who we've been all year and do what we've been able to do all year without the pressure. Because that's the last thing, the very last thing that I want these guys thinking about. I want them going out and playing with total freedom and joy come tomorrow.

Q. You guys have spent most of the season as one of the top teams in the country. How have you managed those expectations? It's one thing to say things like you never arrived, but how do you get them to believe it and buy into it for three or four months?

TERI MOREN: You just remind them of who we are. We're still the blue collar team, the program that has continued to seek and search for respect. But the reason why we're here is because of what we've been able to do that nobody sees, and that's the work. That's also the sacrifices that this group has had to make as individuals.

We ask them to do that at the beginning of the year because we knew that the new guys that we brought in were all starters at their other institutions. This idea of being able to gel and the chemistry and all that coming together takes a sacrifice from all those kids. You've got to leave your ego at the door.

All of us have to do what's best for the team, and that could be coming off the bench, that could be playing 30 minutes, that could be playing four minutes.

But it's a constant reminder of the grittiness and the toughness and the blue collar attitude that we've always tried to remind them that we play with. That's been who we've been since we've been here, and I don't think that winning should change that.