If you were unfamiliar with Yarden Garzon's game before, prepare for a profound introduction during her upcoming third campaign wearing the cream and crimson at Indiana.
She seems to be the least hyped of the tremendous trio of returning starters, but with all due respect to Sydney Parrish and Chloe Moore-McNeil there is certainly a universe that exists in which Garzon stakes her claim as the alpha of this year's pack. While that uprising will more than likely transpire during Garzon's senior season in 2025-2026, she will combine with Saucy P and CMM to form one of the more terrific trifectas across the entire landscape of women's college basketball.
With the additions of Shay Ciezki and Karoline Striplin to a highly versatile rotation, some expect a bit of stagnation in terms of Yarden's output in the season to come. With so many talented players surrounding her, some believe that Garzon may find herself overshadowed by her peers.
Let the record show that we are NOT among that group of (non)believers.
While growing beneath the wondrous wing of the magical move-maker Teri Moren, Garzon has received an abundance of lifelong wisdom from one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) active NCAA women's basketball head coaches. On the floor, she has laced up her sneakers and gone to battle/learned from with the likes of Hoosier legends Grace Berger, Mackenzie Holmes, and Sara Scalia. That is a wealth of knowledge and tutelage coming from some truly spectacular basketball presences, and when you intertwine the beneficial lessons that she is constantly learning with her strong work ethic there is no telling how high the product of Israel can rise.
Garzon has proved to be a highly productive player through her first 2 seasons, amassing impressive averages of 29.7 MPG, 11.4 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 3.0 APG (compared to 2.4 TOPG), 0.9 SPG and 0.7 BPG on steady shooting splits of 45.2% FG/44.0% 3/74.7% FT while starting each and every one of the 64 games that she has appeared in for the Hoosiers. She has primarily made her mark as an outside marksman, but she is incredibly versatile and impacts the game in a multitude of manners.
Garzon is not the most explosive player, but what she lacks in athleticism she more than makes up for with her overall sense of toughness and willingness to get rugged. She tends not to force things on the offensive end and always seems content with letting the game come to her naturally. Defensively, she rolls up her sleeves and gets after it.
As we prepare for Yarden Garzon's impending junior season sporting the candy stripes, you can at the very least bet on her coming out and once again providing a steady source of support for the stars. But as we look ahead to her future, you would not be crazy for putting your money on her sprouting into her own stardom.
Yarden is up next. Keep going, Garzon!