What do Hoosiers need from Benet graduate Lenee Beaumont this season? It’s a long list

Indiana women’s basketball coach Teri Moren takes a breath and ponders the question: What does she need redshirt sophomore guard Lenee Beaumont to do for her team this season, on the court and off?

Moren knows she’s asking a lot of a player who sat out her sophomore season following knee surgery and only played only 287 minutes as a freshman, scoring 91 points for one of the best teams in the Big Ten. But there’s been a lot of turnover on the Hoosiers roster, and, well, if not the Benet Academy graduate and teammate Shay Ciezki — who’s only in her second season in the program herself — then who?

So Moren needs that breath to ponder all she’s asking of Beaumont and then describe it.

“Leadership is at the top of it. She knows how we do things. She knows why we do things. The way we do them. She believes in me, she believes in our program. She loves being in Indiana. She’s a great representative of our program,” the veteran coach said Wednesday at the Big Ten’s preseason basketball media day in Rosemont.

“And then we need Lenee the basketball player to just play with confidence. Play with freedom. And not overthink. We need her to score the ball for us. We need her to be a great defender for us. We need her to be a leader inside the locker room for us. Her list of needs for what we need her to do are great.”

And then Moren takes another breath because there’s still more.

“But I’ve said this: There’s no one that believes she is up for the task more than our staff and myself. And I’m excited, I’m super excited for her. She’s worked extremely super hard in the off-season. Loves the game. Passionate. Wants to work. Wants to help. Wants to make our program great. Those are the kids you cheer for, because she’s about all the right things.”

Sounds like the kind of things Benet coach Joe Kilbride used to say about the 2023 Illinois Ms. Basketball and Gatorade Illinois Player of the Year who led the Redwings to the Class 4A championship game as a senior.

Still, Moren has seen growth in Beaumont from her arrival on campus, and even before then, from when she started recruiting Beaumont at Benet.

“She’s grown into her personality,” Moren said. “She’s a young lady that has a tremendous amount of confidence about who she is as a person, as a player. She is a favorite for all of her teammates because she is such a giver and she pours into them. Tries to encourage them, tries to teach them, tries to give them wisdom. Things that she’s learned. She is by far a fan favorite as well. I think our fans respond to her and they enjoy her. The thing I’m most proud of is that she’s grown.”

Beaumont isn’t shying from the burden of being a team leader. If anything, she seems to be enjoying it. All of it.

Beaumont and Ciezki organized weekly dinners around Bloomington, paddle boarding excursions, ziplining and pottery outings off the court to build team chemistry. They also organized a lot of pickup games over the summer, though Beaumont was limited due to her knee.

Then they helped the coaches recruit when the transfer portal opened, with the occasional 2 a.m. text to recommend this player or that, sending highlight videos.

“Honestly, we were in the office just about every single day meeting with them as to, what girls do you need us to reach out to?” Beaumont said. “We would do our own research. We would be on Twitter I think too many hours throughout the day, looking to see who entered in the portal, sending it to our coaches.”

Beaumont and Ciezki take some credit for recruiting some of the newer players. And now that the knee injury is a part of her past, she’s on the court with them, Beaumont said.

“If you were to ask me a few weeks ago I’d say I have a ways to go, not even from a physical standpoint, just mentally moreso, just getting used to playing basketball again, making live reads,” she said. “But I feel like I’m in a really good spot right now, not only mentally but physically as well with my conditioning. I feel like I’m full on ready to go for the start of the year.”

Ciezki couldn’t let that go without adding her two cents about the teammate sitting to her immediate left.

“She’s been super humble,” Ciezki said while Beaumont listened, blushing. “She’s an absolute killer on the court. I mean it doesn’t even seem like she was injured a year ago.”

Beaumont knows this team will have its ups and downs this season with so many new faces, but, she said, “I don’t think there’s a ceiling, or there should be a ceiling as to what this team can accomplish. I know a lot of people don’t know what to expect, but we put the work in every single day just like we have in years past, and coach isn’t going to lower the standard just because of the people we brought in or changing the team lineup, whatever it may be. We’re ready to go out there and win every game that we can.”

Spoken like a true leader.