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BLOOMINGTON — After a tumultuous start to the Big Ten season, IU women’s basketball can see a clear path to qualifying for the Big Ten Tournament.
Indiana improved to 4-12 in the conference after a 72-65 win over Oregon (7-9 in Big Ten) on Sunday at Assembly Hall. That win put Indiana at 15th in the Big Ten standings with two games left in the regular season, barely squeaking into the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis next month — only the top 15 qualify.
IU’s final two opponents are teams that sit outside of that top 15; Rutgers is last in the conference with a 1-15 record, while Penn State is 16th in the conference at 3-13.
Indiana women's basketball: How Shay Ciezki became leader for Indiana women's basketball: 'We all trust her'
“Today was a great win for us,” head coach Teri Moren said. “We feel like we have to not just win today, you know, we got to get on the road and win at Rutgers, and then we got to come home and we got to finish the rest of it against Penn State. So that's going to be the goal as we finish down the stretch here, and then we'll see where that puts us.”
It’s been a strong turnaround, relatively, for an IU team that started 0-10 in Big Ten play. The Hoosiers won three straight after that stretch, which included a crucial win over Northwestern that could play into tiebreakers.
IU can clinch a spot in the tournament as early as Wednesday if it beats Rutgers and Penn State loses to USC. If both of those things happen, the result of the Penn State-Indiana game on Feb. 28 would not have any impact on standings.
Qualifying for the conference tournament is relatively new for Big Ten women’s basketball. The conference introduced a 15-team tournament for men’s and women’s basketball in the 2024-25 season, following the addition of Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and USC.
The new format was met with mixed reactions from coaches and fans, so the conference allowed coaches to decide whether they wanted an 18-team or 15-team tournament going forward. The men’s basketball coaches voted to expand to 18 teams; the women’s basketball coaches voted to keep it at 15.
When asked, head coach Teri Moren did not go into much detail of why the women’s basketball coaches opted to keep the tournament at 15.
“It’s funny, you know, the men do it (have all 18 teams in the tournament), you know, and we’ve had so many conversations in those rooms of why we do it the way we do it,” Moren said. “... It’s just something I think, collectively, as the 18 coaches in there have decided we want to do it this way.”
So, 15 women’s basketball teams will head to Indianapolis next month for the conference crown. And IU, provided it can win its final two games, could be one of them.
Want more Hoosiers coverage? Sign up for IndyStar's Hoosiers newsletter. Listen to Mind Your Banners, our IU Athletics-centric podcast, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the latest on IndyStar TV: Hoosiers.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana women's basketball has clear path to Big Ten conference tourney
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Indiana improved to 4-12 in the conference after a 72-65 win over Oregon (7-9 in Big Ten) on Sunday at Assembly Hall. That win put Indiana at 15th in the Big Ten standings with two games left in the regular season, barely squeaking into the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis next month — only the top 15 qualify.
IU’s final two opponents are teams that sit outside of that top 15; Rutgers is last in the conference with a 1-15 record, while Penn State is 16th in the conference at 3-13.
Indiana women's basketball: How Shay Ciezki became leader for Indiana women's basketball: 'We all trust her'
“Today was a great win for us,” head coach Teri Moren said. “We feel like we have to not just win today, you know, we got to get on the road and win at Rutgers, and then we got to come home and we got to finish the rest of it against Penn State. So that's going to be the goal as we finish down the stretch here, and then we'll see where that puts us.”
It’s been a strong turnaround, relatively, for an IU team that started 0-10 in Big Ten play. The Hoosiers won three straight after that stretch, which included a crucial win over Northwestern that could play into tiebreakers.
IU can clinch a spot in the tournament as early as Wednesday if it beats Rutgers and Penn State loses to USC. If both of those things happen, the result of the Penn State-Indiana game on Feb. 28 would not have any impact on standings.
Qualifying for the conference tournament is relatively new for Big Ten women’s basketball. The conference introduced a 15-team tournament for men’s and women’s basketball in the 2024-25 season, following the addition of Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and USC.
The new format was met with mixed reactions from coaches and fans, so the conference allowed coaches to decide whether they wanted an 18-team or 15-team tournament going forward. The men’s basketball coaches voted to expand to 18 teams; the women’s basketball coaches voted to keep it at 15.
When asked, head coach Teri Moren did not go into much detail of why the women’s basketball coaches opted to keep the tournament at 15.
“It’s funny, you know, the men do it (have all 18 teams in the tournament), you know, and we’ve had so many conversations in those rooms of why we do it the way we do it,” Moren said. “... It’s just something I think, collectively, as the 18 coaches in there have decided we want to do it this way.”
So, 15 women’s basketball teams will head to Indianapolis next month for the conference crown. And IU, provided it can win its final two games, could be one of them.
Want more Hoosiers coverage? Sign up for IndyStar's Hoosiers newsletter. Listen to Mind Your Banners, our IU Athletics-centric podcast, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the latest on IndyStar TV: Hoosiers.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana women's basketball has clear path to Big Ten conference tourney
Continue reading...
