ROSEMONT, Ill. — The Indiana women’s basketball team hasn’t lost a regular season game at Assembly Hall since Feb. 19, 2022.
Sydney Parrish wants to keep it that way.
The Hoosiers’ 31-game regular season win streak came up when Parrish was asked about her goals for the upcoming season at Big Ten Media Days on Wednesday.
“Never lose in Assembly Hall,” Parrish said. “I’ve only lost once there. Never again, protect Assembly.”
Parrish was still at Oregon when Indiana lost 96-91 to Iowa back in 2022, but she was part of the team that suffered a heartbreaking exit from the NCAA tournament the following year as a No. 1 seed with a 70-68 loss to Miami.
The former Miss Basketball out of Fishers doesn’t want to relive that moment anytime soon.
More: Indiana women’s basketball has new look roster for 2024-25. Same team chemistry.
Indiana women’s homecourt one of the toughest places to play in the country
Indiana averaged a program-record 10,336 fans per game last season — the program ranked fifth in national attendance — while going 17-0 at home. It was just the fifth team in Big Ten history to average 10,000-plus fans during a single season.
That number is more than double what it was in 2021-22 when the team averaged 4,726 fans per game.
“It’s been really, really great for me to watch, watch it evolve, develop,” Moren said. “So grateful that I’m still present here to be able to see it happening. I think we can continue to make more steps also to — our goal is to sell out Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall like our men do. That’s one of our goals.”
“Some might say that will never happen, but I’m the optimistic one. The glass is always, right, half full for me. I think we can get it done.”
The Hoosiers have sold out one game in each of the past two seasons — a 86-69 win over then No. 4 Iowa during the 2023-24 and the program’s annual rivalry game against Purdue in 2022-23.
Indiana has once again expanded the amount of reserved seating for a second straight year in response to the increased demand for tickets. In 2024-25, the entire main level at Assembly Hall will be reserved for season ticket holders. The program set aside Rows 1-31 last year for season ticket holders.
“It’s a special place to play,” Parrish said. “I’m really excited for other people to experience it just like we do. We’re very lucky that we get to play there at home all the time. If it was not our home court, I would not want to come to Assembly.”
Indiana women’s basketball will be tested at Assembly Hall in 2024-25
Indiana’s road to a third straight undefeated regular season at home won’t be an easy one.
The first test comes early in the year when the Hoosiers host Stanford on Nov. 17. The former Pac-12 school beat the Hoosiers by 32 points last season on the front end of the home-and-home series.
Stanford underwent some significant changes during the offseason from a move to the ACC to the retirement of longtime coach Tara VanDerveer to leading scorer Kiki Iriafen transferring to USC. The Cardinals still will be formidable after signing last year’s Big Ten Freshman of the Year Mary Ashley Stevenson as a transfer and three four-star recruits out of the high school ranks.
Indiana also hosts all four of the teams picked in the league’s preseason poll to finish above them at home — USC (Jan. 19), UCLA (Jan. 4), Ohio State (Feb. 20) and Maryland (Feb. 27).
USC and UCLA remain two of the most talented teams in the country after reaching the Elite Eight last season.
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 The Herald-Times: Why Indiana women’s basketball homecourt advantage is the real deal
