05-05-2025
Indiana women's basketball coach Teri Moren seeks another golden summer with USA Basketball
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IU coach Teri Moren for the second straight summer will lead a USA Basketball women's national underclass team.
Moren has 10 straight seasons of 20 or more wins at IU, including seven NCAA tournament appearances, three Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight.
Moren had to rebuild her IU roster, which continues still, after losing four starters.
There is no doubting how great a coach Teri Moren is given what she's built Indiana women's basketball into, and those coaching duties will expand to USA Basketball.
Moren in 11 season leading the Hoosiers had 10 straight seasons with 20 or more wins, seven NCAA tournament appearances, three Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight. She was national coach of the year in 2023 and is two-time Big Ten coach of the year in 2016 and 2023.
And in July, she will lead the USA Basketball Women's Under-19 National Team at that age division's FIBA World Cup in Brno, Czech Republic. Moren served as an assistant coach last summer but has been elevated with Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey and South Florida coach Jose Fernandez serving as her assistants.
Moren served two summers ago as an assistant coach on the Under-19 national team alongside Joni Taylor, who is Texas A&M's coach, and Old Dominion coach Delisha Milton-Jones. Players on that team included Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo, South Carolina's Chloe Kitts, UCLA's Kiki Rice and Londynn Jones, Cotie McMahon, who was at Ohio State until transferring to Ole Miss this cycle, and others. They won a gold medal and this summer's team could make it four straight golds at the Under-19 level.
They have good base to go off of, too. Moren led her first USA Basketball women's team last summer to a gold medal at the FIBA Under-18 Women's AmeriCup in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Conceivably, most of that team will remain, and there was star power to it.
Connecticut's Sarah Strong turned into a dominant post for the Huskies, who won the national championship. Several of the top Class of 2025 recruits per On3 industry ratings were part of the roster, including No. 2 overall Jazzy Davidson (USC), No. 3 Sienna Betts (UCLA), No. 11 ZaKiya Johnson (LSU) and No. 16 Leah Macy (Notre Dame). USC's Kayleigh Heckel and Kennedy Smith, South Carolina's Joyce Edwards, Mississippi State's Madison Francis, Texas' Jordan Lee, Florida's Liv McGill and Duke's Arianna Roberson made up the rest of the team.
Perhaps Moren's own players from that recruiting class could get attention. She'll have No. 42 Maya Makalusky, a 6-foot-3 forward from Hamilton Southeastern, and No. 61 Nevaeh Caffey, a 5-10 guard from Incarnate Ward in St. Louis, on campus as part of a rebuilt roster. They are both Ms. Basketball winners, Makalusky in Indiana and Caffey in Missouri.
The transfer portal has helped rebuild an IU roster that lost four of its starters, three to graduation and the surprising entry of Yarden Garzon as the program's all-time leading 3-point shooter left to go to Maryland. Shay Ciezki is the lone returning starter, but there was talent added, too.
The 2024 Indiana Ms. Basketball winner hailed from 25 miles away, Bedford North Lawrence's Chloe Spreen. She decided to return to the Hoosier State after a season at Alabama. Dutch guard Phoenix Stotijn transferred from Arkansas and fellow backcourt 'mate Jerni Kiaku committed from Duquesne.
Former McDonald's All American Zania Socka-Nguemen was the lone forward to commit to IU so far. She decided to leave from UCLA. Then 6-0 wing Emely Rodriguez entered the transfer portal from UCF and has visits scheduled to Iowa on May 12 and IU on May 13, per Prep Girls Hoops.
