MINNEAPOLIS — Indiana women’s basketball coach Teri Moren is ready to pound the table for her All-American forward Mackenzie Holmes.

The Maine product grew into one of the best players in women’s college basketball after signing with IU to little fanfare in 2018.

Holmes and Grace Berger powered the Hooisers to a No. 1 seed last year and Big Ten regular season title. Berger exhausted her eligibility while Holmes opted to return for a fifth year in hopes of building on that success.

She was at the Target Center on Monday representing Indiana at Big Ten Media Days for a second straight year and was happy to cede the spotlight to Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, the reigning national player of the year.

"The attention she's brought is great for the women's game, and she's going to continue to help it grow,” Holmes said of Clark.

Moren wasn’t so quick to let her soft-spoken star stay in the shadows.

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“Maybe some of the people on the national level don't take the time or effort to watch a kid like Mac and what makes her so special,” Moren said. “My challenge is whether it's for the media, people who write about women's basketball, they need to do a better job of watching Mac.”

“I can tell her story, but to watch her is to understand what makes her one of the best players in the country."

Moren frequently describes Holmes as a “bad a**”, a throwback type player with a dominant presence in the post that’s elite on both sides of the court.

Holmes smiled when she heard about Moren acting as her hype man of sorts.

“It doesn't surprise me,” Holmes said. “She would do anything for me…I know she knows I don't care about that stuff, I think she tries to go to bat for me sometimes. I'm appreciative of that."

‘One of the great stories in our conference’

The coaches in the Big Ten didn't need to hear Moren’s pitch about Holmes, they had front row seats for her rise to prominence.

“Glad she’s a senior, finally,” Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said.

Holmes has helped IU win four straight regular season games over the Buckeyes, the last of which was one the best performances of her career. She had a career-high 33 points on 15 of 18 shooting (second best all-time in Indiana history) with five rebounds in a 83-59 win over then No. 2 Ohio State.

"She's a great player,” McGuff said. “I think it's one of the great stories in our conference. She came in as not as highly touted as a recruit as other kids, but boy, has she consistently gotten better and better each season.”

Michigan had similar issues slowing Holmes down in a pair of regular season losses to Indiana. Holmes averaged 26 points (52.6% shooting), 7.5 rebounds and three blocks a game in the two wins. .

"I think she's super efficient,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “She scores well around the basket. She's really crafty, she's a tough matchup because she is crafty and she can go right and left shoulder. She can go mid-post area.”

“She's a tough matchup for our fives because she's active and she's a tough matchup for our fours, because she's bigger and stronger. I think she's one of the best post players in the country."

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Holmes ranked seventh in the country with 22.3 points per game and her 68.0% shooting percentage was ranked second.

“I think people know what she can do on the block and she's so crafty and creative with her footwork and just efficient as a scorer, but even if you try to throw double-teams, she finds these narrow little creases to still be able to get in, in a lot of traffic to finish at a high rate,” Nebraska coach Amy Williams said.

Williams is equally impressed with what Holmes can do defensively.

Indiana beat Nebraska 74-62 in overtime last year. The Hoosiers didn’t allow a point after regulation ended and Holmes was at the center of that effort with the way she defended reigning Big Ten freshman of the year Alexis Markowski.

"I think it's the way she is one of the best players in the league on both sides of the ball," Williams said. "That's probably what impresses me the most."

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Mackenzie Holmes is one of the country's best women basketball players