BLOOMINGTON — The Indiana women’s basketball team’s offseason of change is at an end.
The Hoosiers open the 2025-26 season with a game against Lipscomb at 7 p.m. Tuesday night at Assembly Hall, and the fans are going to need to have a program handy to identify all the new faces.
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Indiana returns just 18% of its minutes played and 17.7% of its scoring from 2024-25, per Sports Reference. It’s the team’s lowest returning production numbers since the site starting tracking the stat in 2003-04, but returning veterans Shay Ciezki and Lenee Beaumont aren’t writing this season off.
They want to lead Indiana to a seventh straight NCAA tournament appearance and 11th straight 20-win season.
“I know a lot of people are doubting us right now, but we thrive off that,” Ciezki said.
Ciezki will look to build on the success she had down the stretch last season when she was one of the Hoosiers’ most consistent players. She averaged 15.6 points, 2.6 assists and 1.3 assists in IU’s final nine games while shooting 53.1% from 3-point range.
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Indiana coach Teri Moren would love to see that kind of production from Ciezki this season as the rest of the roster gets settled in. Moren also has lofty expectations for Beaumont even though she missed all last season with a knee injury.
Beaumont didn’t have any setbacks in her rehab and looked comfortable on the floor in her return to action against Missouri S&T.
Here’s what else to look for from the Hoosiers this season:
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Indiana will likely have one freshman in the starting lineup Tuesday against Lipscomb, and a second might not be very far behind. The Hoosiers started freshman guard Nevaeh Caffey in its 100-32 exhibition win over Missouri S&T, and fellow freshman Maya Makalsuky was among the first players off the bench.
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Caffey gives IU someone capable of pressuring the ball for 94 feet, a trait the team hasn’t had in recent years. The fact that her defensive intensity matched her athleticism throughout the game made the performance all the more impressive.
Makalsuky will help the Hoosiers replace all the 3-point shooting it lost in the offseason whether she starts or not. The former Miss Indiana Basketball has already earned rave reviews from the coaching staff for her basketball acumen.
Once she gets more comfortable on the defensive end like Caffey, she could jump right into the starting lineup.
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Zania Socka-Nguemen is one of IU women’s building blocks
Zania Socka-Nguemen made a strong early impression on Moren over the summer while playing for USA Basketball’s Under-19 team. She didn’t bat an eye at Moren’s high expectations and demanding approach while others unfamiliar with the coach were a little bit caught off guard.
Her experience playing for a UCLA team that reached last year’s Final Four and learning under Lauren Betts, the Lisa Leslie Center of the Year, probably helped, but Moren’s excitement over Socka-Nguemen’s presence goes beyond her willing attitude.
Socka-Nguemen has the ideal skill set Moren was looking for in the transfer portal as a frontcourt player with size and athleticism. She was leading the way on fast breaks and pushing the pace as much as the guards on the floor in IU’s exhibition win over Missouri S&T.
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It’s a much different style than the one Mackenzie Holmes relied on to beat up on opponents in the paint.
Will Indiana women’s basketball have a bigger bench rotation this year?
Moren has heavily relied on her starters throughout her tenure.
Indiana had four starters average 30-plus minutes last season for the third time in the last five seasons and didn’t miss the mark by much in those other two seasons. Moren had five starters average 27-plus minutes in 2022-23, and the starting five averaged 29-plus minutes the following year.
Ciezki is a lock to play 30-plus minutes a game, and Beaumont will likely be in that same category as long as she stays healthy. Beyond IU’s two veteran-most players, the minutes could move around on a nightly basis with Moren looking to develop a long list of underclassmen on the roster.
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What IU women’s basketball needs to reach the NCAA tournament
Indiana balanced some unexpected nonconference losses last year to Harvard and Butler with ranked wins over Stanford and Baylor.
They won’t have as much room for error this year given the lack of quality opponents on their nonconference schedule. Their toughest games will likely come in the Coconut Hoops tournament against Gonzaga and the winner of the Iowa State vs. Marquette game.
Moren’s scheduling strategy made sense given all the roster turnover, but it means they will need to get to nine or 10 wins to be in the NCAA tournament picture at the end of the season, assuming they can finish near .500 in Big Ten play.
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Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana women’s basketball roster, coach Teri Moren, Zania Socka-Nguemen
