Indiana lost 56–46 at Butler on Wednesday, and coach Teri Moren said that her team couldn’t handle Butler’s perimeter defense.
That was a big reason why the Hoosiers turned the ball over 16 times and scored less than 50 points for only the fourth time in Moren’s career.
“We just talked to the kids about it, and that bothers our staff and players, too.” You could say “soft.” Moren told me on Wednesday, “You could use it.” Indiana plans to be very rough with our guards as part of their game plan. That bothers them.
We need to understand that, though, and then bow down and do better. We need to be tougher. We need to be more physical, accept it, and know that’s what the other team is doing to us.
They try to be very rough, especially in the first few minutes of the game, which makes it hard to play. They held us back. That being said, it is a problem.
The next game Indiana played was at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Sunday afternoon against a 4-0 Stanford team that was ranked No. 24 in the country.
When the game started, Moren told her team that they had to be the guardians this time. To some extent, Indiana turned things around from Wednesday’s loss by being rough with the defense.
Stanford had a great offense going into the game. They were named No. 1 in the country with a 51% 3-point percentage and No. 2 with 12.5 3-pointers made per game.
That helped them score 89.8 points per game in their first four games, which was good enough for 23rd in the country.
Indiana ended the season with 22 fouls, which was the most of any team. However, the fouls were spread out among many players, so they didn’t have a big effect on how the order changed.
Because of this, Stanford’s overall statistics were by far the worst they’ve been this season.
It was Stanford’s worst game of the season in terms of points, 3-point tries, and made baskets. They lost 79–66. The Cardinal made only 2 of 11 3-point shots, which is 18.2%.
They also made only 26 of 65 field goals, which is 40%, which was their worst mark of the season. There was a lot of good defense from the Hoosiers on Sunday, and Moren named Jules LaMendola the defensive MVP of the game.
“Stanford is a very good team, and we didn’t want them to foul around us,” Moren said. “But we wanted them to know that we would be there for them and be tight when they came off of staggers in their split action and wanted to face cut.
We were there to hold them up. Part of our plan was to be the more physical team, and our kids did a great job of that.
Moren believed that Indiana home good practice days before playing Stanford. This led to a win that the team needed, both to get back on track after a loss and to boost its confidence.
She told her team they were tough after the game, even though she knew they would be.
With this win, Indiana’s record is now 2-2. They will now go to the Bahamas for three games in the Battle 4 Atlantis event, where Moren hopes that games like Sunday’s will happen more often.
Many times, when things get tough, you quickly understand what you’re made of, Moren said. “And I think we learned today that we can do a lot.
What I want for this group is for them to be able to see themselves in this game and know that they can do this every night.
