Teri Moren’s travel schedule took an unforeseen change Aug. 9.
Moren was set to travel with the Indiana State women’s basketball team for a weeklong tour in Costa Rica.
During a layover in Miami, Fla., Moren received a message from IU Athletics Director Fred Glass.
“I had just landed, and I had a message from Fred saying to call him,” Moren said. “Then I called, and I was offered the job.”
Moren said she was in contact with Glass during the previous 48 hours before the offer came in.
Once she received a formal offer, she informed her coaching staff and team — who fully supported the move — of the change and flew to her new home in Bloomington.
Moren, an Indiana native, arrives in Bloomington with a record of 199-130, having experienced just one losing season during her 11-year career, the 2011-12 season, her second with Indiana State .
Playing high school basketball in Seymour, Ind., Moren scored 1,138 career points and appeared in the 1987 state finals.
Moren averaged 18.4 points per game as a high school senior, which earned her the Columbus Republic Female Athlete of the Year award.
After high school, Moren played for and graduated from Purdue University.
In 1991, Moren started every game on the first women’s Boilermaker team to make an appearance in the NCAA tournament.
Despite her Purdue roots and previous in-state coaching stops Moren said it has always been her dream to coach for the Hoosiers.
“For a southern Indiana kid that grew up watching Bobby Knight, Ted Kitchel and Steve Alford, this is a dream come true,” she said. “It doesn’t matter where I played and where I’ve coached. It only matters why I do this. I do it because of our impact on the lives of these young kids.”
In addition, Moren said she hopes IU is the final destination on her coaching journey.
“I’d like this to be my last stop,” Moren said. “I’d like to retire here and look back sometime down the road and leave this place in really good shape.”
Taking over a program late in the offseason isn’t the ideal circumstance for any new coach.
Moren said it is difficult to assemble a staff late in the offseason because most candidates are looking for jobs shortly after the season concludes.
Nearly a month after being named head coach, Moren announced her staff Sept. 2.
The coaching staff will consist of Curtis Loyd, Rhet Wierzba and Todd Starkey.
Loyd spent the previous four seasons as a defensive assistant with the University of Minnesota.
Wierzba comes to IU after spending the 2013-14 season with Moren at Indiana State.
Starkey has spent most of his coaching career at the Division II level, most recently at Lenois-Rhyne University, where he is also the winningest coach in program history.
With what Moren believes to be the right coaching staff in place, the next challenge is to form relationships with players not just on a basketball level but also on a personal basis.
“For us being a new staff, our No. 1 priority is to foster relationships with the kids,” Moren said. “We’ve had to expedite the process. We are trying to get to know them as quickly as we can.”
Wierzba added that getting to know players is about more than just skill level.
“You’re learning about their mental toughness,” Wierzba said. “Who are your leaders going to be? Who can you go to when it counts? We are learning these things day by day. Each day you gain something new.”
On the court, Moren will add her own wrinkles to the team’s previous game plan.
“We decided when we took this job, one of the things we were going to not do was reinvent the wheel,” she said. “This is a team that has been very comfortable in the old system offensively. We feel like we can bring in some of the stuff from our other stops and add to it.”
The Hoosiers will look to play at a faster pace during the first year in the Moren Era.
“We are talking about pace and tempo,” Moren said. “I’m a really firm believer in what we do in practice is what we’ll do in a game. We’ve been teaching to get the ball up court as quickly as possible. Every team will tell you that they like to run, but it’s not that easy.”
Although there is a lot of focus on developing the offense that averaged 69.7 points per game last year, defense is going to be a primary focus before the Nov. 11 opener against the University of Indianapolis.
With Curt Miller last season, the Hoosiers’ defense allowed 66.5 points per game, which was the 157th best scoring defense on the national level.
“It’s going to be an emphasis in practice and games,” Moren said. “We (need to be) able to defend and rebound the ball on nights when our shots aren’t falling.”
Starkey said the team plans on throwing a variety of different defensive looks at teams depending on the situation.
“We want to make it difficult for teams to shoot every time down the court,” Starkey said. “We’ll build out from half-court man defensive principles and translate to good zone. If you focus on zone, it really doesn’t translate to man. We’ll take calculated risks instead of risks all over the court.”
Despite the coaching change, Moren and the Hoosiers have high expectations.
“There are great things in store for the program,” Moren said. “We have an eager group. Any time you have success it breeds confidence.”
