NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - MIAMI (FL) VS INDIANA

March 20, 2023

Teri Moren

Yarden Garzon

Mackenzie Holmes

Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall

Indiana Hoosiers

Media Conference

Miami 70, Indiana 68

TERI MOREN: First of all, congratulations to Miami for coming in here tonight and playing extremely well. We were not surprised by how hard they played and how well they played. It's a big moment, and I'm sure Coach is excited that they stepped up and delivered them a victory over our basketball team.

I felt like it was a game of runs. They had more runs in the first half than we had, but then like we always do, we fight our way back into games. It took us a minute to get it tied up, but then it seesawed back and forth.

We ran out of time there, unfortunately, and I'm disappointed for our players. I'm disappointed for Grace Berger. I'm obviously -- in particular Grace Berger because this is the last time that we will see her on our roster.

But we're disappointed. It stings. It hurts. But it should if you're competitors and it means anything to you, the way these kids work. Like I told them, if they didn't have tears and they weren't emotional then I would wonder what all the hard work was for.

I'm so proud and grateful for these kids. I love every one of them. They give us their best every single day, and I'm so proud of them. As I said to them, when the dust settles, we're going to look back at all the memories that we made this season. It was special on so many accounts.

It hurts now, but this team will go down in history as one of the very best. For that, I'm grateful that our staff and I have had the opportunity to be around them for the last feels like five or six months.

Q. Mackenzie, what are your emotions like now? Can you process the last minutes where you had chances and everything was so tight there?

MACKENZIE HOLMES: Yeah, it's hard to put into words right now. Obviously I'm upset. My last game with Grace, and it's been a privilege to play with her these past four years, so I just hate that it has to end like this for her.

Yeah, just a lot of emotions in our locker room right now.

Q. While it hurts to go out this way, knowing that you've built what you've built, that you can come back every year and take another shot at it, I know it's bitter now, but the fact you're going to come back next year with the chance to be just as good, does that give any silver linings even if it's not right away?

MACKENZIE HOLMES: Yeah, it's hard to think about that right now. This is stinging right now, so obviously we'll take a couple days, couple weeks and process everything, and then we can think about next season.

But right now it's still too early to be thinking about that.

Q. Yarden, anything to add?

YARDEN GARZON: No.

Q. What was the biggest difference maker in this game for you guys?

MACKENZIE HOLMES: I mean, like Coach said, it was a game of runs, and in that first half we dug ourselves hole. And we got ourselves out of it, but it just came down to the last shot.

Q. Mackenzie, could you walk us through the last couple time-outs, the excitement, the seconds are ticking down, the score is so close, just some of your thoughts and something you might want to share with us?

MACKENZIE HOLMES: Yeah, I thought down the stretch there we got good looks. Not all of them fell, but we had some great plays drawn up by our coaches, but it's unfortunate they didn't go in, but we were prepared in those moments.

Q. Yarden, you have one season with Indiana under your belt. What's it like playing for this decorated Hoosiers team for you?

YARDEN GARZON: I'm grateful to be here and to play for these coaches and with these teammates, but right now, it just hurts.

Q. Did you expect the game to be as physical as it was between the two teams?

MACKENZIE HOLMES: Yeah, I mean, it's a Power Five team, so we knew that coming in they were aggressive, physical team. We were preparing for that.

Q. Similar question to Holmes. Obviously you don't want to look at it now, but knowing that you have most of your team coming back and that you can go at it, even though this year is disappointing, you can go at it every year, it's a top team and you don't have to worry about sliding back and that this program is elite now, even if you didn't get what you wanted this year you'll always have it going forward now and next year?

TERI MOREN: Well, I think it's always hard. Winning is hard.

But I think once we get over the disappointment and the kids have a couple weeks off and then we regroup here -- it'll be weird not to see Grace Berger walk through that door -- but, yes, we have a lot to look forward to.

Q. When you got into that hole so early on, what was the cause of that?

TERI MOREN: Well, again, a lot of things. A lot of it, give Miami credit. They came out, we knew they were going to be physical, they got up in us, they made us uncomfortable. I didn't think we looked like we had any good rhythm, pace, flow to what we were trying to do offensively.

They came out and they stuck shots. They stuck shots early and helped build the lead. When you're sticking shots like that, that gives you a lot of confidence.

Then just like us, when we're sticking shots, it really energizes us defensively. So it had everything to do with the way they came out and shot the ball early and well, and then went down to the other end and made us uncomfortable.

And it took us a while, I thought, to get any kind of -- into a comfort level.

Mack was not very good in the first half. She was so much better in the second half. I think we can all agree with that. It's been about 12 days since Mack has played any competitive basketball in terms of getting up-and-down, and we knew she would take a minute to sort of get her legs underneath her.

But it's just unfortunate because we've been so disciplined, and we had some slippage there on the defensive side of the ball, going under 14, and just some other things that are uncharacteristic like of our team.

It's unfortunate on a night where we needed to be so good and flawless almost defensively. We had a lot of hiccups throughout the 40 minutes.

Q. I know there's a lot of emotions with it, but kind of with Grace, you guys have been so close. What do you hope is the perception of her --

TERI MOREN: Oh, shoot. She's helped build this program. We're not sitting here where we are today. We weren't sitting here a year ago, probably three years out without Grace Berger on this roster. Just so grateful that, as I said that, that she decided to become an Indiana Hoosier five years ago when she had a lot of different options. She chose us.

We're so grateful. And again, she's going to be one of the very best to ever put on a uniform. I can't wait to see what's next for her. She's been an unbelievable kid to coach. She's been an unbelievable teammate. That's why they're so emotional about her, because she means so much to all of us.

I don't know if I can quantify in words just how important she's been to us and this program.

Q. Coach, especially down the stretch, you kept going back and forth, kept tying it, but you never had the lead in the game, you couldn't take the lead at the end. What was it that made that barrier so difficult to break through?

TERI MOREN: Well, I mean, we got good shots. We got the shots we wanted. They just didn't go down. It's easy to see, right, and then we couldn't get the stops. We felt like the whistle was quick tonight down there, especially in the second half.

As physical as the game was, I thought the whistle was pretty quick down there, and we put them at the free-throw line. That's where they capitalized. That's where they hurt us. You can't do that going down the stretch in a close game like that. Those are free shots at the free-throw line unguarded.

But we got the shots we wanted. We'll take that shot from Grace Berger. I'll take the lay-up from Chloe that she missed, as well. They just didn't go down for us tonight. So we could have easily probably have climbed ahead, but it didn't happen and we have to learn from it, and we will. We'll be better because of this experience as we always are.

It'll take a couple days, but we'll move on.

Q. How do you coach your team through games like this when the tensions are so high, when there is frustration down the stretch with the whistle, just the way the game is being played and what it means to you guys?

TERI MOREN: Well, they were coaching themselves and just reminding each other that a lot of things were not going to be in their control and they couldn't complain and couldn't get frustrated. So I think that those guys collectively tried to remind each other just to stay level headed, to try to continue to show composure, but also we knew we had to guard. We had to get stops.

You can't fault the effort of these guys. They gave us every ounce of energy and effort.

But they did, Miami made us pay in the sense that they run great action, and we certainly had -- we had some game slippage, and that was frustrating over there on the sideline. Whether we didn't communicate the way we needed to on a switch, whether we went under a ball screen with the Cavinder kid that is so deadly from the outside. We did that. I think it was a two-point game at that point, and then we give up a three and we go down five, and it's because we went under a ball screen, and that was not our game plan.

Q. You were talking earlier about the runs throughout the game, and got down double digits and Chloe knocked down a 3 and Mack with her back to back field goals in the third quarter. But the play of Chloe handling the ball, Grace also, but Chloe is going to be back with you next year. Just some of your thoughts about her.

TERI MOREN: Yeah, Chloe has been so terrific all year, especially in the absence of not having Grace for a time. She has been so fun to watch, the way she has handled herself, from the time she was a freshman until the time she was a sophomore. You guys have heard me talk just about her story and the process and being patient and waiting for her opportunity and time, and she's walked in those doors every day and has put her head down and worked. She's a great teammate.

She obviously was so instrumental in our success we had this year. I'm excited that we got her to -- we have her for another year next year because certainly having an experienced team -- a kid that's been battle tested the way she has will bode well for us.

Q. Teri, it's never a given you're going to get the ball back in those last seconds, and you had a couple chances, and then Yarden hits the three. What went through your mind when you tied it, and did you tell the players, this is what you've got to do?

TERI MOREN: Well, you've got to get a stop. That's what you've got to do. You've got to get a stop, and we didn't.

They went inside to Harden and we kind of over-shot it a little bit and gave her just enough space. The thing I think hit every ounce of rim and went in.

Again, another hiccup. Chloe was supposed to get the ball quickly and inbound it to Grace. We had 3.8 seconds to get down the floor. Instead, we hit the panic button and Yarden takes it out, and then there's a little bit of confusion there.

In those moments you try to help them as much as you can, but again, we had an opportunity to get the length of the floor and perhaps get a shot, but again, Miami did a great job of closing the gap and knocking it out of Chloe's hands.

Q. You lost four games this entire year, but it was by just 12 points, a combined 12 points. When that margin is so small, how do you just simply process the loss, knowing you were pretty much right there every game that you lost?

TERI MOREN: Well, again, it's just things that you build off of for the future, right. We'll talk about all the historic moments, like I said, that we've had this year and in this program.

These guys have been so good. It's at times frustrating because I think it's human nature for us to always remember the last game, just like it was -- when we lost in the Big Ten Tournament to Ohio State, it was the last game, and everybody sort of wrote Indiana off, I felt like.

These kids had won 27 games at that point, and it's that one game that everybody wants to talk about. That's not fair to those kids.

As we move forward, I'm going to -- we're going to remember that, right, 12 points. You're 28-4; that's a great season for a team that was picked third, I think, in the Big Ten and end up winning only the second Big Ten championship. You get a No. 1 seed, which has never happened here in the history of Indiana women's basketball.

So there's been so many great things that have happened with our program. I choose to focus on all the great things instead of those four hiccups that we have.

Like I said, it hurts right now, but it should. We work hard, and winning is hard. Those kids are upset. They're emotional right now. Their plans were to win a National Championship, and we haven't -- have no problems talking about that goal.

We'll regroup, and then the goals will remain the same: to win another Big Ten championship, to get to a Final Four. We've just done so many great things this year, and it's really hard -- I'm sad, but golly, when I look back, I'm very proud.

Q. Sydney talked about coming to IU and that sort of reigniting her love for basketball, finding herself again. And then she talked about the role Grace played in that. How have you seen that develop with Sydney, the role Grace has played in helping reignite that love?

TERI MOREN: Grace plays such a big role in all of our lives because I love to say, and you guys know this, she's the biggest introvert you'll ever meet, but she is the best teammate and she is just the most coachable kid, the most competitive kid, and that resonates.

When you have a kid that -- she is no drama. She's not on social media. She doesn't need that platform. She just continues to do her work. She has a very businesslike approach.

Again, that -- because of who she is, she touches so many people, and kids like Yarden and Henna and Lexy and Syd coming into our program, that's why this program has had the success, because they've had kids like Grace Berger who have led the charge.

Syd now is a part of our program, where being in the gym, which is something Syd Parrish has always loved to do, is now it's fun for me. It's work, but it's fun.

For Syd to say that, that she's regained her love but also it's been a lot influenced by Grace Berger. Trust me when I tell you, she touches everybody in their own way just because of who she is as a kid, as a person, as a human being.

I said this about Ali Patberg last year. It's hard to find kids that want to come in here every day with that businesslike approach that by the way, are great human beings and they want to work and they want to be great teammates and they want to be respectful and they want to just help you be successful.