IU Coach Teri Moren said Wednesday night’s women’s basketball game at Rutgers can’t come fast enough.
After a potentially demoralizing blowout loss to Maryland on Sunday, Moren said she was eager to get her team’s mindset straight. She gave them the day off Monday and lightened the practice load, but at the same time expects her squad to come prepared for the 7 p.m. tip at the Rutgers Athletic Center.
“We’re really trying to make it easy for them right now,” Moren said. “We’re just trying to simplify it a little bit. They don’t have to play perfect, but their effort has to be perfect. Tomorrow night that will be the goal.”
Rutgers comes into the matchup with a 3-7 record in the Big Ten, while IU’s recent two-game slide has dropped the Hoosiers to a 5-5 conference mark. Moren always stresses the need to treat each game as a one-game season, but with conference play more than halfway complete, both she and senior guard Karlee McBride acknowledged a bit of a sense of urgency.
Rutgers has had a difficult time locking in its starting lineup this season, as 10 different Scarlet Knights have started at least three games thus far. But, like IU, Rutgers leans on three players in particular for the brunt of its production.
Junior guards Shrita Parker and Kandiss Barber, along with sophomore guard Khadaizha Sanders, combine to play more than half the team’s total minutes and score more than half the team’s points per game. This trio will look to push the tempo and feed the physical players that patrol the paint for the Scarlet Knights.
“They’re definitely a very athletic team,” McBride said. “They’re fast and they’re quick. We’re going to have to get back in transition and stop the ball so they can’t get run-outs.”
The Scarlet Knights are last in the Big Ten in scoring at just 52 points per game and shoot less than 30 percent from 3-point range. Despite poor statistics, Rutgers boasts a win over Michigan State, whom IU lost to, and a loss to No. 3 Maryland by single digits, so Moren said her team needs to recognize the potential Rutgers has.
IU’s offense also enters Wednesday’s game in a funk, as the team has shot poorly in each of the last two games. The Hoosiers shot just 32.8 percent from the floor in the losses to Michigan State and Maryland.
Junior forward Amanda Cahill has been the lone consistent performer in the past week for IU as the team’s leading scorer in both losses. The stretch upped her season scoring average to 15 points per game.
After watching film of the Maryland game, Moren said her team made some fixable errors. In particular, she noted eight missed first-half layups that she thought affected IU’s mindset going into the second half. Playing just three short days after the mistake-filled game will help, Moren said. The third-year coach said she is eager to see what the Hoosiers bring Wednesday.
“All those things that we did that were not good, we can fix,” Moren said. “We can hit layups. But we just have to put Maryland behind us and move on. The thing that I’m most excited about is that we do have a really short turnaround. We need to get back on the floor.”
