Excuse me if I'm a bit ambivalent about this recent spate of in-bound transfer success for Teri Moren and the IU Hoosiers. Let me explain.
- I like Teri Moren as a coach. Her charges play smart and tough. They rarely beat themselves, so you'll see a lot of closely fought games.
- She has had some recruiting challenges, but I'd argue they might tie in with her retention issues. She's had some very good players to the portal, even before the "play immediately" cards were in play: Jaelynn Penn and Brendu Yeaney come to mind.
- As a whole, the transfers have done well -- Al Patberg and Brenna Wise, Nicole Cardano-Hillary. And she's played those two -- along with MacKenzie Holmes, Grace Berger and Aleksa Gulbe -- as ironwomen.
- This year, Chloe Moore-McNeil (guard) and Kiandra Brown got minutes; in part, due to injuries to Holmes.
So, Patberg (finally) runs out of eligibility, as does Cardano-Hillary and Gulbe. Moren picks up a tall guard-wing in Sydney Parrish and a stretch in Geary. And now, Sara Scalia joins the backcourt to shoot the eyes out of the basket.
- On one hand, wahoo, particularly if I'm the Hoosiers were a pro team like the Fever. What a rebuild (Lin Dunn should be so lucky).
- But IU is still a college team and what happens to the chances of Moore-McNeil, Brown and Grace Waggoner to get more PT? They worked hard their first couple of years to help the mainstays and now, well, keep your coat check at the door.
- Maybe this is Teri Moren wanting to capitalize on having her two leading scorers -- Grace Berger and MacKenzie Holmes -- back. Or this is the new reality. Or, it could be viewed as the reason why Moren is having recruiting issues: why come there when she'll find something better in the portal? Once again, I'm not sure I blame her (from today's reality), but leaves me feeling for the kids who were wearing IU jerseys on the bench last year.
