Indiana women’s basketball entered the 2025-26 campaign, 129 days ago, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
When the Hoosiers first took the court Oct. 27 for their first exhibition of the season at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, all 12 players who were healthy entering the game saw action, including two freshmen, six sophomores, two juniors and two seniors.
Following the 100-32 victory over Division II Missouri University of Science and Technology, the Hoosiers seemed to possess potential heading into the regular season.
Now, four months later, Indiana’s season is all but over. The Hoosiers fell to the Associated Press’ No. 11 and the fifth-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes 83-59 in the second round of the Big Tournament on Thursday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
“So, I'm not satisfied at all this season,” Indiana head coach Teri Moren said postgame Thursday. “And I think our players would echo that as well, but I am proud. I'm proud of what we fought, we continued to fight.”
For a team that has been resilient in the latter half of the season, Indiana couldn’t mount a comeback in the final 20 minutes — something that the Hoosiers completed against Nebraska on Wednesday.
At halftime, Indiana faced a 12-point deficit. It wasn’t a pretty performance in the first half, as the Hoosiers shot 33.3% from the field and 2 of 10 from behind the arc, but Indiana had just erased a 45-28 halftime deficit a day ago.
But a car runs out of gas at some point. And the Hoosiers hit empty in the second half.
It wasn’t the bounce-back performance some expected Indiana to have. Senior guard Shay Ciezki was held to only two points in the second half, going 1 of 8 from the field. Without Ciezki scoring, the Hoosiers had little chance to win.
As a team, Indiana shot 33.3% from the field Thursday. They were outrebounded 45-33 and got into foul trouble early. Redshirt sophomore guard Lenée Beaumont picked up her fourth foul with 2:40 left in the second quarter. It compounded the Hoosiers’ rebounding problems, as 5-foot-7 senior guard Jerni Kiaku couldn’t provide the same size in rebounding situations as the 6-foot-1 Beaumont.
Indiana’s 24-point deficit at the final buzzer seemed more fitting for a January game than one in March. The Hoosiers have been unwavering this season, a statement Moren echoed multiple times, and have continued to improve even after facing a 0-10 start to Big Ten play.
“As I said to them in the locker room, just the resilience that they've shown has been, especially in the last month, has really been remarkable,” Moren said postgame. “... This group has continued to show up every day, to Cook Hall, to Assembly Hall, and they're willing to work.”
But if the Hoosiers don’t accept a bid to the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament or Women's National Invitation Tournament — which appears up in the air — their season is over.
It would end a disappointing season compared to previous ones. Indiana was a perennial Big Ten contender and NCAA Tournament team in recent seasons, last missing the national tournament in 2018.
Indiana finishes the 2025-26 season with an 18-14 overall and 6-12 Big Ten record. But there’ve been improvements throughout the season.
Freshmen guard Nevaeh Caffey and forward Maya Makalusky have had their fair share of growing pains, yet by the end of the season, the pair seemed more confident in themselves and their teammates’ abilities on both ends of the court.
“I’m proud of the team,” Makalusky said. “I'm proud of the way that obviously we continue to fight till the end.”
It’s a feeling Caffey reiterated.
“I'm really proud of our team and how we stuck together through times that we were 0-10,” Caffey said. “... I feel like us just sticking together and trusting each other helped us a lot.”
Indiana must now look to the future. The Hoosiers’ inexperience hurt them in early games, but the young players will need to be the building blocks for this Indiana program.
Caffey and Makalusky will continue to grow throughout the offseason. Indiana also will bring in four freshmen — including forward Zoe Jackson, who is already with the team — that helped the Hoosiers be named the eighth best recruiting class by ESPN. Beaumont also enters her first offseason fully healthy and as one of the faces of the program.
“I think first and foremost for me, it's going to start with just being healthy,” Beaumont said. I think in the back half of the year, it was hard to get my legs under me. I was constantly just trying to battle through it.”
With the hecticness of the transfer portal, it’s most likely this program will see players come and go. But this is a chance for Moren and her coaching staff to grow and reflect on the issues this group had in its 32 games together.
The potential for the younger players to blossom into stars is there. Makalusky and Caffey can join the likes of Grace Berger, Mackenzie Holmes, Sydney Parrish, Ali Patberg and Nicole Cardaño-Hillary as icons. But how long does Indiana have until they reach that potential?
Then-freshman guards Olivia Olson, Sylva Swords and Mila Holloway prospered in their first season in college basketball last year, leading Michigan to a six-seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Highly impactful freshmen are littered throughout women’s college basketball, but particularly in the Big Ten: USC’s Jazzy Davidson, Illinois’ Cerah Parchment and Destiny Jackson, Maryland’s Addi Mack and Washington’s Brynn McGaughy have all had impressive starts to their collegiate careers.
This season’s team will not be remembered for what the Hoosiers did on the court. But when this team is thought of in the future, it shouldn’t be recalled as a down-year, but as a season that transitioned Indiana from one resounding era to another.
“There's no doubt that there's better days ahead for us as a team and as a program,” Beaumont said. “... It sucks in the moment, for sure, but looking back on it, we're going to be very fortunate for these opportunities.”
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.
