Under the reign of head coach Teri Moren, freshman starters have been few and far between for Indiana women’s basketball. Despite this, freshman guard Nevaeh Caffey was announced as a starter in the Hoosiers’ first game of the season and has remained firmly entrenched in the starting lineup ever since.
Despite enduring a season with quite a few growing pains, Caffey delivered her best performance for the Hoosiers on Wednesday, scoring a career-high 16 points in a narrow 77-74 victory over Wisconsin at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin.
Coming to Bloomington after four straight Missouri Class 6 State Championships at Incarnate Word Academy, Caffey adapted quickly to Indiana’s practice level during the offseason, with Moren praising Caffey’s perimeter defense prior to the start of the season.
As the season has progressed and the bench has continued to struggle, Caffey has played more minutes. She’s played 30 or more in all but two of Indiana’s conference games.
“What we ask her to do every night, which is guard the best player on the other team and then run our team, it was a lot for a freshman,” Moren said postgame.
Caffey is already Indiana’s best defender and one of its primary ball-handlers, but she has suffered growing pains on the offensive side of the court. Prior to Wednesday’s matchup, Caffey averaged 7.3 points per game, the fifth-highest mark for the Hoosiers.
Caffey has also struggled with scoring inside. She shot 39.8% from the field before Wednesday despite shooting 47.6% from 3-point range. Some of this is due to the volume of 3-pointers Caffey has taken, just 21 3-pointers compared to 112 2-pointers. But it also spoke to her consistent struggles with layups.
Against Wisconsin, no struggles could be seen from Caffey on offense. She shot 6 for 9 from the field, her highest field goal percentage in games where she took five or more shots. Caffey was 2 for 4 on shots from beyond the arc, also managing to hit four of five 2-point attempts.
“It was good to see her hit her layups,” Moren said. “We needed every one of those points for us that she provided tonight. Again, I just think that you continue to see Nevaeh getting more comfortable at this level, which is hard for freshmen, the transition.”
Caffey’s 16 points were only bested by senior guard Shay Ciezki, who marked her third game of 30 or more points in the last four games. Caffey also collected four rebounds and committed just one turnover, an improvement from having committed three or more turnovers in each of the past four games.
Caffey is not only Indiana’s best perimeter defender, she’s also rather clean while doing it. Prior to Wisconsin, Caffey was the only current starter to not have fouled out of a contest. She did, however, foul out for the first time against the Badgers, exiting the game with 10 seconds remaining after forcing Wisconsin into the bonus through an intentional foul.
One of Caffey’s main responsibilities is ball-handling, but that currently doesn’t include playmaking. She averages 2.5 assists per game, the third-highest mark on the team. She is often a lynchpin of Indiana’s ball movement, which doesn’t always translate to a lot of assists.
Despite some inconsistencies, Caffey has taken major steps in recent weeks, especially on offense. She’s been a disciplined on-ball defender and one of the Hoosiers’ main ball-handlers, and her performance against Wisconsin is a sign that her offense is coming along as well.
“Give her credit tonight,” Moren said. “Like I said, for scoring some points for us, because we needed every one of those. So, really proud of her.”
Follow reporters Savannah Slone (@savrivers06 and srslone@iu.edu) and Max Schneider (maxschn@iu.edu) and columnist Sean McAvoy (@sean_mc07 and semcavoy@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana women’s basketball season.
