IU Coach Teri Moren made her way across the court from the locker room after the half. She took the folded piece of paper in her hands and began ripping it into pieces.
Things in the first half did not go to plan.
The offense was not making any shots. The defense was not making any stops.
It was a series of events that kept going wrong and not really improving that displayed many of the biggest flaws on a young IU team (11-4). An ugly start only escalated into a 103-49 defeat by the hands of Ohio State (11-5).
“There’s nothing that I can pick off of the stat sheet that will make any of us feel better about tonight,” Moren said.
This IU team, that does not give notable minutes to any juniors or seniors, has struggled to make the jump into Big Ten basketball. Thursday’s blowout loss comes on the heels of an 86-64 loss to Purdue on Sunday.
The Hoosiers turned the ball over 18 times and Moren said they were never able to comprehend how to play against the 2-2-1 zone defense. She took some of the blame, and said she needs to do a better job of helping her team understand.
There were moments when things went well, though. At one point, IU was outplaying Ohio State 20-17 after the half. When an Ohio State player made a bad pass into the stands, IU assistant coach Todd Starkey stood up cheering behind Moren.
The head coach still sat in her seat with her chin resting on her hand with a look of defeat. IU still trailed by 29.
It all comes back to learning how to play against tough competition.
All of the IU players were great high school athletes with great stats, but this isn’t high school basketball, Moren said.
“One of the things about having 11 freshmen and sophomores is that we are going to be unpredictable,” Moren said. “We are just trying to figure out how we can win at this level.”
This is a team that took down Michigan State, that was ranked at the time, by 19 points. The evidence is there that winning is possible.
The issue, Moren said, is that there needs to be a toughness, a calmness, to win at this level.
Heading into Thursday, IU was shooting 33 percent from 3-point range and 46 percent overall. The Hoosiers made 7-of-36 shots from behind the arc against Ohio State. They allowed the Buckeyes to shoot 62 percent from deep.
Players looked lost and poor decisions were made, but it is a young team that is growing. Moren told her team that she has learned to never get too high after a win and never get too low after a loss.
IU was still fighting after loose balls late in the game and trying to salvage an outing that turned ugly early. It is a long season and Moren said she still likes the pieces that she has, but needs to get them all to learn how to play at a certain level.
“We aren’t there yet, and we will be,” Moren said. “We will get there.”
