The NCAA college basketball transfer portal officially opens today and will remain open until April 22. The portal opening means that programs are able to contact players through the portal, and in turn, players can officially commit to their next school.
With Indiana's season officially over as of yesterday when the Hoosiers fell to the 1-seed South Carolina Gamecocks, head coach Teri Moren can put all of her time and energy into finding her next players.
Indiana will be losing three players to graduation now that the season is over, and not just any three players, but three starters. Indiana native Sydney Parrish, Chloe Moore-McNeil, and Karoline Striplin have all exhausted their eligibility and won't return for the Hoosiers. Those are three of Indiana's top players who will now be absent from the lineup, and with Indiana bringing in just two high school recruits next season, Moren knows she needs to hit the portal hard.
"Well, I think we're going to have a lot of holes to fill," Moren said in her post-game press conference after yesterday's loss to South Carolina. "Trust me, we've already been in the process of figuring out what we feel like those holes are going to be and addressing those."
Last year, Moren did not have a single player enter the transfer portal, which goes to show what kind of program she is running and the kind of coach that she is. However, she did a fantastic job going into the portal and kindling Striplin, who played at Tennessee before her one season at Indiana, and fellow Big Ten guard Shay Ciezki from Penn State.
Both players played big roles for Indiana this season, especially Ciezki late in the season. Moren knows how important it is to find a special talent that she can use in some manner. With so many holes to fill, though, Moren knows the importance of making sure she doesn't lose any players this year.
"For us, it's going to be really important because we don't go into the portal, we're very careful," Moren said.
The fact that Moren didn't lose a single player to the portal last season speaks volumes about who Moren is as a coach and the kind of program she continues to build at Indiana. Even after a tough season and not hosting an NCAA Tournament game for the first time since 2019, Moren is proud of her girls for the fight they put out on the floor and will miss her seniors dearly.