While on a team trip in Canada, IU men’s basketball Coach Tom Crean left her a voicemail.
“That was very, very special,” Moren said. “I received several texts, but I got a voicemail from Tom, taking time out of his schedule in Canada to welcome me to the Indiana family and offering any kind of help that he could give me as I got to Bloomington.”
After the Seymour, Indiana, native spent four years coaching Indiana State, during which time she had two winning seasons and a Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship in 2014, she was chosen to lead a program that had abruptly lost its own head coach.
Curt Miller, who coached the Hoosiers from 2012 to 2014, had resigned, citing health and personal issues. However, a definite reason for his resignation is still unknown. Under Miller, IU had gone an even 32-32 and clinched a berth to the WNIT Tournament.
“She walked into a very tough situation,” Crean said. “She walked into a much harder one than most people would believe, and I think she’s done a fantastic job.”
With just three upperclassmen of the 10 players on the team, Moren’s inherited team was young to say the least, as many of the athletes who played for Miller had either graduated or transferred.
The team that had finished eighth in the Big Ten with a record of 18-12 was gone and replaced by young talent in then-freshman guards Tyra Buss and Jess Walter, freshman forward Amanda Cahill and four sophomores.
“She walked in as part of the rebuilding phase and has had to put her stamp on it,” Crean said. “I love working with her. Working with her in recruiting? It’s easy. Her staff is very consistent and attentive to detail. They love Indiana, and the young ladies seem to really be buying into what she wants done.”
After former IU Coach Kelvin Sampson resigned in February 2008, five different NCAA recruiting allegations loomed above the program and interim IU Coach Dan Dakich led the Hoosiers to a first round ousting in the NCAA Tournament, as the Hoosiers lost four of their final eight games.
Crean was brought in as the answer on an eight-year contract.
“Indiana is a program that, even when I was not a Hoosier and at Indiana State, I watched as Tom built his program,” Moren said. “He walked into a rebuilding project, so I feel like we were in a similar situation coming in new. I’ve leaned on him for some wisdom, for some advice.”
Moren said Crean makes a conscious effort to influence the women’s program as much as he does the men’s by meeting with current and prospective athletes who are considering IU women’s basketball.
“When I say meet with our athletes, I mean he will have 30- or 40-minute conversations with our student-athletes, prospective student-athletes and their moms and dads in his office,” Moren said.
She recalled one particular weekend when Crean was entertaining three men’s basketball recruits of his own but still met with prospective women’s basketball recruits. Moren said Crean gives that effort because he knows the importance of what each varsity sport is trying to do.
Moren said she watches the men practice and every time she leaves, she does so with something new to apply to her coaching. She emphasized Crean’s high energy, intensity and attention to detail.
“That’s what you’re supposed to do. We’re a team, right?” Crean said about his involvement in the women’s program. “I would want somebody doing that for me, and I’d want somebody doing that for my child. I would expect anybody, if they were the men’s coach at Indiana, knowing what that seat means at Indiana, to do that. For me, it’s easy.”
With the relationship between the men’s and women’s programs, Moren said she hears the chants and cries for Crean to be fired whenever the program suffers a big loss on — or off — the court.
“It irritates me,” Moren said. “What we do is incredibly tough, and it seems like people and fans on the outside think our job is really easy. I can tell you that there is no other guy that instills excellence and high standards for his team more than Tom.”
Moren said she sees Crean as a tremendous basketball coach and a high-character human being, and, as she enters her second year as the women’s head coach, she said she feels lucky to be sharing Cook Hall with Crean.
“She’s going to have success, but people have to understand that it’s not like she walked into a down league,” Crean said. “It’s a hard league on the women’s side too. She’s going to have to be very patient. Year two is really, really hard.”
