A team of 10 freshmen and sophomores won’t become 10 juniors and seniors any time soon.
After a loss to Ohio State on Thursday, IU Coach Teri Moren referred to her team as “unpredictable.”
Only time can fix a lack of experience, and that youth has been evident through four Big Ten games this season.
Despite a win over No. 24 Michigan State, the Hoosiers’ three other Big Ten games haven’t been close. They lost to Rutgers, Purdue and Ohio State by a combined 91 points, including a 103-49 loss to the Buckeyes.
After the slow start, Moren said her underclassmen, all of whom had successful high school careers, are still adjusting to finding the same success at the college level. That task becomes even more difficult against the more physical, athletic teams in the Big Ten.
Moren, a first-year coach at IU, is getting her first taste of the conference at the same time as many of her players.
“You’re playing against some of the very best teams in the country,” she said. “There’s a toughness that goes with that, there’s a calmness. I think teams that pressure us and are more athletic than we are and more physical than we are, we’ve got to learn to match that toughness.”
The Hoosiers (11-4, 1-3) look for their first win since New Year’s Eve at 2 p.m. Sunday when Wisconsin comes to Assembly Hall.
The Badgers (6-8, 2-2) are coming off a 65-46 win against Penn State. Their leading scorer, fifth-year senior Michala Johnson, suffered a season-ending ACL tear in a loss to Miami at the beginning of December.
Johnson averaged 16.6 points through 21 games during the 2013-14 season and was named first-team All-Big Ten. In six games this year, she was scoring 12.8 points and grabbing 6.3 rebounds per game.
Junior guard Nicole Bauman is now the only Badger scoring more than ten points per game.
Moren said no matter the competition, with a guard-heavy team it’ll always be key to be able to get into a shooting rhythm early on in the game. The Hoosiers shot just 18 percent from the field in the first half against Ohio State and a 32-point deficit was too much to overcome in the final 20 minutes.
“If we come out and hit our first few shots we feel good about ourselves,” Moren said on Thursday. “If we don’t, we struggle. There wasn’t many players in that locker room (at halftime) feeling good about themselves and their ability to hit open shots.”
In the past two games, IU shot just 31 percent from the field and made 14-of-66 3-pointers. Moren said the shots will fall, but she wants to see massive improvement on the defensive end.
Moren admitted there’s still a long way to go for her team. But there is also plenty of time, and games, left.
“Tonight it seems like it’s a long road ahead for the Hoosiers, but I still like the pieces that I have,” she said following the Ohio State game. “One of the things I’ve learned is you can never get too high over a win and you can never get too low over a loss.”
