In IU Coach Teri Moren’s first two seasons in Bloomington, her teams didn’t have much depth.
In year one, there seemed to be a revolving door of players. In year two, there was a rotation of just eight or nine. Now in year three, she finally has the depth she wants to play her fast-paced style of basketball. However, there was not much production from those reserves Saturday against the Northwestern Wildcats.
The Hoosiers shot just 32 percent from the field, and Northwestern handed IU its second consecutive loss, 80-67, Saturday in Welsh-Ryan Arena.
“Whether they play two minutes, five minutes, seven minutes, whatever, they are expected to do their job, and we didn’t do that as a whole.” IU assistant coach Glenn Box said on the IU radio postgame show on WHCC 105.1. “We had some non-productive offensive players today who need to step up. In games like these on the road you need that from bench players.”
All season long it has been one of three players to lead this IU team — junior guard Tyra Buss, junior forward Amanda Cahill or senior guard Alexis Gassion. Buss, Cahill, Gassion and even senior center Jenn Anderson all scored in double figures Saturday, but it would’ve taken some help from others to get over the hump against Northwestern
Buss continued to be a steady force. Her 14 points extended her double-figures scoring streak to 55 games even though she shot just 4-for-17 from the field.
Moren’s bench has been under a bit of scrutiny this season. After IU’s win against Northern Kentucky in early December, she called them out in her postgame press conference. They responded with a few good games. On Saturday the second unit didn’t show much. IU had nine bench points compared to Northwestern’s 20.
The six reserves that saw minutes collectively took just six shots and made only two. No matter to whom Moren turned, there weren’t many contributions to replace her starters. Their spotty field goal percentage didn’t help things either.
“Our shot selection wasn’t always the best,” Box said. “We paid the price, we have to play better on the road, especially in an environment like this.”
The only player on the bench who had some semblance of offense was transfer and senior guard Amber Deane. Deane scored seven points in her second game back from injury.
After losing two consecutive games it will be interesting to see if the rotation starts to get smaller. The past two games were on the road, but IU needs more production outside Buss, Gassion and Cahill.
“’You know who you are, you know the shots you should be taking, you know the shots you are capable of making,’” Box said he was telling his shooters during the struggles. “It’s too much stress put on them. We have other kids that need to step up too.”
