BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (WDRB) — Eleven programs cracked the list of ESPN’s preseason Top 25 teams in men’s and women’s college basketball.
Most are the usual suspects — Connecticut, Texas, Baylor, Arizona.
A few are not. Including the Indiana Hoosiers.
But there they are. The women’s team, led by former Sacred Heart star Grace Berger is ranked 17th in ESPN’s too-early women’s poll. The men are listed two spots higher.
The Hoosiers embraced the double-barrel recognition Thursday afternoon at Simon Skjodt Assembly by hosting a preseason media day for both programs.
“We want to be nationally ranked programs in both sports and we want to treat it as such,” IU Athletic Director Scott Dolson said.
"My freshman year, none of this would have been possible,” said Berger, a fifth-year senior.
“So, to see how much excitement there is around women’s basketball at Indiana is just super cool and super fun to be a part of.”
“(Grace Berger) has been such a significant part of why we have had the success we had.”#iuwbb Head Coach Teri Moren with high praise for the Louisville product. #iuwbb pic.twitter.com/ukWHTKkv9x
— Griffin Gonzalez (@grifgonzo) September 22, 2022
The shared media day stage was a thoroughly 2022 moment as well as a program first. And it also stirred some intriguing questions.
Like which team is more deserving — Teri Moren’s women’s squad, which returns only two starters or Mike Woodson’s men’s program, which features four guys who started a year ago?
Or which team is better positioned to deliver a rousing March — a women’s program that has crashed the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight and Sweet Sixteen the last two seasons or a men’s program that finally won its first NCAA Tournament game in six seasons last March?
The quick answer will likely be the men’s team.
The Hoosiers return center Trayce Jackson-Davis, who is on track to become the program’s third all-time leading scorer.
Jackson-Davis grew up a Hoosier. That means that he understands his legacy will not be determined how close he gets to Calbert Cheaney (No. 1) and Steve Alford (No. 2) on that points list. Winning a Big Ten or NCAA title will determine that legacy.
“I think I have kind of set the stone of my individual legacy, being an All-American and doing all those things,” Jackson-Davis said.
“But those don't really matter if you don't win something here. Winning is a big thing here, so winning a National Championship and also winning a Big Ten title, those are my two main goals this year, and if I do that, I know everything else will take care of itself.”
Trayce Jackson-Davis scored 16 points in the first half for Indiana against Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament Saturday in Indianapolis. Photo Jamie Owens.
Three other starters also return, topped by point guard Xavier Johnson, who played like one of the best guards in the Big Ten over the final month of the season.
After a traffic incident last spring, Woodson told Johnson to send his car home to Virginia and leave it there until after the season. Johnson said he did not fuss.
“I’m fine with it,” Johnson said. “I said I wanted to be a leader on this team and I meant it.”
Blend in a Top 25 recruiting class, led by 5-star guard Jalen Hood-Schifino, and everybody in the Indiana locker room knows what people are saying about this team:
That sliding into the final spot in the 68-team NCAA Tournament and then getting blown out by Saint Mary’s in the round of 64 will not be acceptable.
“We’ve got goals,” Woodson said. “I can’t say this loud enough. “I came back here to win Big Ten titles and national titles. That’s all I want.
“I’m not going to push the team in any other direction. If they’re scared of that challenge, they shouldn’t be here. That’s kind of how I look at it.”
There is another way to look at it: Over at least the last two seasons, the women’s team has been more successful than the men’s team.
They’ve been more competitive in the Big Ten. And they advanced farther in the NCAA Tournament.
“I love what they’re doing,” said IU men’s guard Trey Galloway. “It’s pretty motivating for me to see how hard they’re working. They’ve been to an Elite Eight and achieved things that we want to do. We want the same thing.”
They’ve more than earned the stage they shared with the men’s team. For too many years, women’s basketball at Indiana was an afterthought. Moren changed that.
“I say this in the most respectful kind of way, but the tradition (here) has always been on the men’s side of it,” Moren said.
“What we set out to do when we arrived here (nine years ago) was build our own tradition of winning and filling this place up with not just women’s basketball fans, but basketball fans.”
Teri Moren talks about her team at the 2022 IU basketball media day.
Average attendance at women’s game climbed to more than 4,700 last season, more than double what it was when Berger arrived as a freshman.
Berger and center Mackenzie Holmes averaged a combined 31.4 points per game last season, but the Hoosiers must replace three departed seniors who also averaged in double figures.
Moren worked the transfer portal, signing Sydney Parrish, a former Indiana Mr. Basketball who left Oregon; Sara Scalia, a 3-point shooter from the University of Minnesota and Alyssa Geary, a forward from Providence.
“Our chemistry -- that's the thing that has set us apart,” Moren said. “I think our chemistry has just been off the charts the last two season, so it's going to be up to us in terms of how quickly we can build relationships with one another, how quickly our chemistry can be, once again, really, really good.”
Likely Top 25 good — in men’s and women’s basketball at Indiana.
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