“We are going to win this game,” Moren said on her radio show Monday night.
Moren was referring to IU’s matchup against Michigan (14-11, 6-8) at 7 p.m. today in Ann Arbor, Mich.
“We are walking into a place that’s tough to play and tough to win,” she said.
Sunday at No. 13 Iowa, IU (14-11, 4-10) struggled to stop an offensive-minded team.
Iowa put up 28 shots from behind the arc and took 20 more shots overall than the Hoosiers. The Hawkeyes beat IU by playing along the perimeter and coming down with rebounds. They had 13 offensive boards in the 81-64 win.
Michigan plays with a style similar to that of the Hawkeyes. The Wolverines are currently second in the Big Ten in 3-point shooting percentage.
But they are bad defensively, allowing opponents to shoot 45 percent from the field.
The Wolverines are also second in the conference in offensive rebounding percentage, coming down with 38 percent of their missed shots.
In Michigan’s game Saturday, it experienced the type of heartbreak IU is accustomed to. On Jan. 18, IU led Minnesota for 38 minutes before giving away the potential upset due to turnovers. But Michigan led its entire game against ?Northwestern but missed four consecutive free throws in the ?final 20 seconds and gave up the game-winning basket with 4.4 seconds ?remaining.
“I would suspect, because of how they lost that Northwestern game, that they are going to be kind of like we are, anxious to be on the floor,” Moren said.
Michigan relies ?primarily on two players for 3-point shooting, guards Siera Thompson and Katelynn Flaherty. Both have taken 150 3-pointers this season and are shooting better than 38 ?percent from deep.
Moren seemed to place more focus on forward ?Cyesha Goree.
The 6-foot-3 senior is averaging 14.4 points and 10.2 rebounds per game and will likely be a challenge for IU post players such as sophomores Jenn Anderson and Lyndsay Leikem and freshman Amanda Cahill.
Anderson will have to stay out of foul trouble, Moren said, and get into the athletic stance that she and coaches have been working on to force difficult shots.
The focus will be getting the ball down low to Anderson early in the game in order to get Goree into ?foul trouble.
After a 4-2 start to Big Ten play, the Wolverines have lost six of their last eight. Their last three losses were to Rutgers, Ohio State and Northwestern, and they have all been by single digits. IU has lost in all four meetings with those three teams.
“They are going to, I imagine, give us their best shot just to get back in the win column,” Moren said.
