Basketball
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Until Monday, the players who had entered the transfer portal from Indiana’s women’s basketball team were mostly reserve players. Lilly Meister was the only player among the five Hoosiers who went into the portal who had started regularly early in the 2024-25 season.
That changed on Monday as leading scorer Yarden Garzon reportedly went into the transfer portal, according to On3sports.com.
According to On3sports.com, Garzon is in the portal with a “do not contact” tag. That usually indicates that the player entering the portal may have a future school already in mind.
Garzon has been a key component for the Hoosiers in the previous three seasons. Listed as a guard, the 6-foot-3 Garzon could play every position on the floor – and she often did.
In 2024-25, she averaged 14.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists. She led Indiana in scoring and was second in both rebounds and assists. Garzon also made 40.7% of her 3-point shots.
Garzon started all 97 games she played for Indiana. She had career averages of 12.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.1 steals. She shot 44.4% overall for her career and was 42.6% from 3-point range. Her 220 career 3-point shots made is an all-time Indiana record.
Garzon is the sixth Indiana women’s basketball player to go into the portal. Meister, Lexus Bargesser, Sharnecce Currie-Jelks, Julianna LaMendola and Henna Sandvik had announced their entries into the portal last week.
Her departure is a big blow for the Hoosiers as she was one of the only players returning who was a proven productive player. Garzon’s departure means guard Shay Ciezki (11.8 points) is the only Hoosier with any starting experience in an Indiana uniform.
Also returning is guard Lenee’ Beaumont, who sat out the 2025 season with a knee injury, forward Faith Wiseman, forward Sydney Fenn and guard Valentyna Kadlecova. Only Beaumont has significant playing time in an Indiana uniform.
The rebuild for Indiana coach Teri Moren will be the biggest she’s undertaken as Hoosiers coach. She acknowledged after Indiana was eliminated by South Carolina in the NCAA Tournament that “we’re going to have a lot of holes to fill.”
“There’s no doubt when I look at our team, we’re going to have to get bigger. We’d like to get more athletic for sure,” Moren said. “But the intangible things are still really important to me, and that’s the high character piece. That’s being about the team, not being about myself or yourself.”
“We want competitors. We want kids that want to come in and work every single day. The willingness and the commitment that our staff has and pouring into those players and helping them develop as players is off the charts,” Moren continued.
“We’ll continue with that recipe because I feel like it has worked for us. But as the game has grown and continues to grow, we’re going to have to grow with it. So those are things that in my mind – that come to me, right, in terms of what our team – the direction that our team needs to go in,” Moren concluded.
Read More Todd Golden