For I.U.P.U.I., a Second Chance at a First Impression

Ten players and coaches for Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis had experienced what it was like to make the N.C.A.A. tournament in 2020.

But once the chance to play was stripped away because of the pandemic, Holly Hoopingarner, then a senior guard for the Jaguars, wasn’t sure that feeling would happen again.

But on Saturday, Hoopingarner, who is now an I.U.P.U.I. assistant coach, will get another shot at the big dance.

“She still gets the feeling of helping us make a run in the N.C.A.A. tournament,” said Macee Williams, a graduate forward and the career scoring leader at I.U.P.U.I. “She’s still excited to be here with us, she’s still a part of this program.”

The Jaguars won the Horizon League tournament behind the best offense in the conference, averaging 70.4 points per game. They defeated Cleveland State to earn a No. 13 seed in the national tournament, where they will face Oklahoma, a No. 4 seed and the No. 22 team in the Associated Press poll, on Saturday.

That will be the first time the Jaguars will get the chance to compete on the biggest stage, two years after they first qualified.

Williams was a junior on that team and had just won the Horizon League’s Player of the Year Award for the second time. She has won it again in both seasons since, becoming one of just five players ever — men or women — to win a conference player of the year award four consecutive times. (Jantel Lavender, the former Indiana Fever forward, is another.)

She is also one of the seven I.U.P.U.I. players — along with Destiny Perkins, Taylor Ramey, Ali Berg, Rachel McIlmore, Natalie Andersen and Morgan Allen — who have celebrated entry to the tournament twice.

After losing that moment once, it has taken a bit for reality to set in: This time, I.U.P.U.I. is actually going to take the floor.

“It still doesn’t feel real,” Williams said.

She stressed how important Hoopingarner, who was a second-team all-Horizon League player as a senior, has been for the program as a coach. They played three seasons together for the Jaguars.

“It means a lot to her,” Williams said. “We had that extra motivation so Holly could get that experience.”

I.U.P.U.I. made the jump to Division I in the 1998-99 season. The leap wasn’t easy; the Jaguars never won more than 17 games in the first 12 seasons. But by the time Hoopingarner arrived in 2016, a winning foundation had been laid.

It began with I.U.P.U.I. Coach Austin Parkinson, a former assistant coach for the university’s men’s program. When he took over the women’s team before the 2010-11 season, it had won just three games the prior season. By 2013, he had taken the Jaguars to their first Division I postseason event, a Women’s National Invitation Tournament. They won a W.N.I.T. game the next season.

Hoopingarner joined the program two years later, then was joined by Williams in 2017. Suddenly, Parkinson’s squad had momentum.

Losing the 2020 opportunity, though, was a blow. The program graduated a number of its core players, including Hoopingarner, who went to Florida as a graduate assistant.

The Jaguars were projected to win the Horizon League again in 2020-21, but despite finishing 11-3 in league play, the seeding calculations that were used to account for schedule disruptions left them in fifth place, and they fell to Wright State in the conference tournament final.

They had a challenging start to this season as well when they were dealt two early forfeits in conference play because of the coronavirus. While some conferences were allowed to play games to make up those contests after a rule change in December, the Horizon League made teams keep their forfeits.

So the Jaguars, who finished 24-6, had two losses on their résumé that they felt they didn’t earn.

“We started 0-2 against teams we would have likely beat,” Parkinson said. “We went through the season with more stress involved because there was no room for error.”

From there, err the Jaguars rarely did. They dropped an overtime decision against No. 12 Michigan and upset No. 8 Iowa, building an impressive résumé for a squad that started behind the eight ball.

Every team in every sport has been dealt a tough hand during the pandemic. The Jaguars, though, lost their chance to make history, the chance to avenge that lost season, and almost faltered again with the forfeits.

But all those obstacles just added extra motivation.

Williams has been cognizant that this season is her last chance at a title. Hoopingarner didn’t get that chance until she joined the coaching staff — and now, Williams wants that moment for the both of them.

“Not many people know where I.U.P.U.I. is,” she said, “and this is putting us on the map.”