BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2024

Teri Moren

Sydney Parrish

Target Center

Indiana Hoosiers

Postgame Press Conference

Michigan - 69, Indiana - 56

THE MODERATOR: Good evening. We'll start the Indiana press conference with an opening statement from Coach Moren.

TERI MOREN: It was a tale of two halves. We got off to a really good start, loved how hard we played. We had to move our pieces around. I thought we rebounded the ball in the first half. I thought we were really doing some really good things.

Knew that Michigan was not going to go away. Came out second half, completely different story. Bad shots, forced shots. I thought we panicked at times. We only had four turnovers at half, and we ended up with them scoring 24 points off of our turnovers. 19 points of those came off of our 10 turnovers in the second half.

Give Michigan credit, I thought Phelia was really good tonight, really just put her head down and attacked us. I thought Cameron Williams was a load on the inside as well. Then Hansen knocking down the last couple threes when we changed defenses. She had to step up and knock down some big shots for them.

We're really disappointed, but as I said to our guys, we have to continue to learn even in moments like this. Turnovers have been something that we've addressed. Being able to guard better off the dribble is something that we've addressed. And we didn't do either one of those good enough in the second half tonight.

Like I said, we're disappointed.

Q. Sydney, what happened when you got kind of shaken up, and how tough is that? You're already shorthanded, to have to leave the floor after just four minutes, what was kind of going through your head, and how did you kind of get back out so quick?

SYDNEY PARRISH: It's March, things happen. It's frustrating having to leave the court, but I wanted to be out there and help as much as I could. Got to shake things off and get back on the court.

Q. Sydney, you came up, had a lot of emotion on your face. Can you kind of just walk us through what you're feeling right now?

SYDNEY PARRISH: I think I'm most disappointed because I know what this group is capable of. I know we could have made it to championship Sunday. I know we're one of the best teams in the league, if not the best. And I think that's where I really got, I guess, emotional and upset because I know we're enough and I know we have enough pieces, even with Mackenzie and Lilly battling some injuries and stuff, I know we have enough pieces to be able to be a championship team.

So just pretty disappointed.

Q. Sydney, what did Michigan do to kind of change things in the second half to make it tougher?

SYDNEY PARRISH: They started attacking the basket really aggressively, and we had really trouble keeping Phelia in front of us. Once we went to the zone, they started hitting shots in the zone, and turnovers lead to fast-break layups. It's hard to play defense when there are live ball turnovers. I think that's really what happened towards the end of the game.

Q. This is not the way you wanted this to go, but you still have a bigger goal ahead. Can you guys maybe talk about sort of regrouping and looking ahead to the NCAA Tournament?

SYDNEY PARRISH: Of course. We talked about it in the locker room a little bit. A lot of teams this week in the country are losing and their season's over. We have the opportunity to go do something exciting in March, and we know that.

This next or two, just try and get as healthy as we can and bounce back harder. I mean, last year we lost early in the NCAA Tournament, and I think that this year it's going to have a chip on our shoulder, and we're going to come out harder.

Q. Kind of bouncing off of that question, this is a tournament unlike other conferences where the women's tournament comes before the men's. So now it's like that one week layover period. What does that look like for you guys because you know there are bigger goals ahead?

SYDNEY PARRISH: Just being in the gym and trying to, like I said, get healthy and get up and down a little bit and trying to just start preparing and watching film on this week's game and just get ready for the tournament. It's going to be a fun one.

We're excited to kind of push this aside and start looking at the next season.

Q. Mackenzie obviously brings so much to the team on and off the court. For you guys as players, what's that adjustment like when she's not out there with you guys?

SYDNEY PARRISH: We've dealt with it before. You saw us last year postseason. We've been with her and without on the court before. She brings a lot, but we have a lot of players on the bench that are going to step up and help too.

Lilly was battling through an injury and played 21 minutes, and I didn't think she could walk yesterday. So I think that's pretty good to see. She gave us good minutes. Mackenzie's presence was missed, but I think we're going to be great.

Q. Teri, as Mackenzie was concerned, it's pretty clear, but not playing her until the fourth quarter, you probably didn't want to. First of all, how healthy was she, and what goes through your mind as you're going through the game, especially as you start to see it go away, in terms of how you handle her situation?

TERI MOREN: I think it was just trying to figure out the balance. Our goal was to be here till Sunday. So we were going to -- she was available. We knew she was going to be available. We didn't want to have to play her. We wanted to be able to use her tomorrow more.

But she looked at me, and she said, I'm ready to go in, see if I can help.

So in terms of how healthy she is, she could have easily played tonight. We just were trying to hold her out as much as we could to see what the pieces that we did have that we did feel were healthy enough, if we could get past Michigan and into tomorrow's semifinal.

Q. Is it a struggle, though, when you're kind of trying to balance all that and -- did you think, when Michigan starts making a run, oh maybe here? How hard is that as a coach to try to have the right feel to try to this is the moment?

TERI MOREN: I don't know. I don't if I -- I'm not sure how you figure that out. I really did think that we would be able to settle down a little bit, especially in the timeouts we talked about we're kind of going off script here.

Shot selection, forced shots -- I think everybody was just trying to do a little bit more. We needed to do what we're good at, and that's share the ball and play off of one another. Then again, the turnovers just were -- I mean, almost every one of those led to a run-out.

We talk all the time, there's no defense for that.

Q. Last time your team played Michigan, you got off to a historic start, scoring 38 points, going 15-for-15 from the floor. Can you talk about what that difference was today that made it more difficult to get going on offense?

TERI MOREN: Well, we were naive to think we were going to start off like that. We're always hoping, but again, Michigan is playing for something right now. They're playing really, really good basketball. Kim and her staff do an excellent job.

So, again, it was just we got off to a really good start. We didn't get off to the start we did back at home in Bloomington, but it felt good going into halftime. Also cautioned our kids that it was far from over.

Then Phelia just decided to come out and sort of try to take that third and fourth quarter over, but then she had help. I thought Williams again was a presence on the inside. Again, when we did change defense, our defenses, them being able, whether it was Hobbs, she had a couple, but Hansen, those two threes towards the end in the fourth really hurt us.

Q. Teri, you kind of just touched on it. In that second half, what were you seeing from the team that just wasn't working on the court?

TERI MOREN: We just didn't seem like we -- I felt like we were all just guilty of trying to do a little bit too much as individuals. That's what I love about this group so much because they want to do the right thing. Sometimes the right thing is maybe being guilty of forcing shots and not taking better care of the ball.

So that's what I -- there was a couple moments where they came down, and I kind of looked over like, I'm not sure what that was and why we felt like we had to do it, and we were winning. We were up.

It's a hard lesson, but I think we've been in those scenarios before where we've had a lead, we've been able to maintain a lead. Tonight we weren't. A lot of that has to do with Michigan, but tonight I just thought, like I said, we kind of lost our way there in critical moments.

Q. Coach, do you sort of have an idea, because you have some time before the NCAA Tournament, what it will look like for Mackenzie in terms of does she rest a little more?

TERI MOREN: Yes.

Q. Is she able to practice regularly, or do you sort of take that day by day?

TERI MOREN: I think it will be -- she's been in practice. Probably not early in the week she was not, but it won't be like we did a year ago because this is where she hurt her knee last year. So she needed that time off.

She feels really good, which is very positive. So I anticipate she as well as -- Syd's right. Lilly really battled tonight. I'm kind of with Syd. I didn't know if she was going to be able to play at all tonight. So that, and then Syd has also been battling her own foot injury.

The two weeks in between is going to be really, really important for this group to get healthy. I think when the NCAA Tournament gets here, I think we'll feel a whole lot different and much, much better.

Q. I know you're not going to feel sorry for yourself, but how hard is it to not have the best version of your team for now a second year at this time of year? That's not to say anything bad about the pieces you have, but just how hard is that? I know it seems with the emotion with Sydney, it's kind of part of it. Is that hard when you're in this moment?

TERI MOREN: Absolutely. It stinks. It really does. Especially when they're such a great group and they're so connected. We've had a great year, have been in some really tough battles in which we've won, a couple that we've lost.

So you want to come into this tournament and have a chance because you came so close in the regular season of winning another one. This is your last chance for those seniors, especially for Mackenzie and Sara and Arielle.

Yeah, it stinks that we kind of limped into this tournament, but I still admire this group and love them and appreciate them giving everything they had in spite of all those things that right now haven't gone our way.

Q. This loss kind of puts into limbo hosting the NCAA Tournament, I'm sure more than you'd like. What is your mindset going into this week just not knowing for sure?

TERI MOREN: I think our body of work speaks for itself. We're not healthy by any stretch of the means. I think that has to be part of the criteria or whatever they look at. This is not Indiana at full health right now. It's not a healthy squad.

But I do believe this, that come tournament time in two weeks we will have a much different looking, healthier basketball team.