Berger Dilemma -- Stop Her (And the Hoosiers) If You Can
3/21/2022 9:45:00 AM | Women's Basketball
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Grace Berger could go pro. She could pass on the college experience after this season, and explore WNBA and overseas opportunities.
Indiana's standout guard will not.
For this, Hoosier Nation gives thanks.
Berger is a Hoosier for a reason, because she cares, because she pushes, because she sees so much more she can do wearing the Cream 'n Crimson for a fifth and final season.
For now, that includes trying to help No. 3-seed Indiana (23-8) beat No. 11-seed Princeton (25-4) on Monday night to advance to the Sweet 16 for the second straight season.
Berger has triple doubles on her resume. She has scored as many as 29 points, grabbed as many as 15 rebounds, passed out as many as 12 assists. Twice she has had five steals in a game.
Beyond that, she has totaled 1,503 points, 626 rebounds and 434 assists.
She will rock your basketball world, but not your ears.
There's a reason why Charlotte coach Cara Consuegra calls her a "silent assassin."
Berger's quiet nature meant not telling her coach she was returning for a fifth season thanks to the NCAA-granted Covid exemption.
"Grace and I never had a conversation about her returning," Teri Moren says.
Instead, Berger told director of operations Liz Honegger she wasn't going to be part of the senior video. Honegger asked if that meant she was coming back for another season. Berger said yes. Honegger asked her if she had told Moren. Berger said no, but that Honegger could tell her.
"My staff and I were elated," Moren says. "We were keeping our fingers crossed that we'd have another opportunity to coach her."
Teammates who benefit from Berger's multi-dimensional play understand her success doesn't come from luck.
"Everything that Grace does is a product of how hard she works," forward Mackenzie Holmes says. "Only the people within this program get to see that every day.
"She doesn't take a rep off, she doesn't take a play off, and that's at practice, but it translates on to the court, as well. Just being able to play alongside her the past couple years is really special.
"She's a great player. But I think it's all a product of the amount of work that she puts in."
Veteran guard Ali Patberg, who is tied with Berger for the most victories in a Hoosier uniform (89), can't praise Berger enough.
"Grace is a leader," Patberg says. "She might not be the loudest person on or off the floor, but she leads by example every day with her work ethic, with the way she approaches every drill, every rep.
"I'm thankful she's my teammate. She's pushed me to be a better person and a better player."
Adds sophomore guard Chloe Moore-McNeil: "She sets a great example for me."
Moren has coached multiple great players during her 19 years in the profession. She understands the impact Berger, a two-time honorable mention All-America, has on teammates and opponents, now and in the future
"She is and will be a pro," Moren says. "I think (Holmes) said it the best. The outside is not privy to what we see every day with how hard she works and how every rep she doesn't take off. That's defensively and offensively.
"She would probably argue and tell you that she doesn't find herself a very good defender, but she has gotten so much better since she's been at Indiana.
"However Grace is able to impact this game never surprises any of us, whether it's her mid-range game, whether it's her ability to give six assists. She's a product of what she does every day, and that's just the work.
"She's a special player. Nobody is more excited that she's going to come back for another year. But she's also a pro, who is going to use her Covid year, but she'll be playing professionally after she leaves Indiana."
Berger's all-around play left a big impression on Consuegra.
"She's certainly one of the best players we've seen this year and one of the best players in the country," She said. "What makes her so good is she does what she does. I mean that with the highest compliments. She knows what she's good at; she knows what her kill shot is, which is that pull-up, and she knows how to get it. As hard as we tried to take that away from her, we weren't able to do that.
"That's what impresses me the most about her. She's kind of like a silent assassin. She's going to come in, she's going to do what she does and she's going to make it really hard to stop her."
Berger certainly was during Saturday's 85-51 victory over Charlotte, the most lopsided in Hoosier NCAA tourney history. She mixed scoring (18 points), rebounding (six) and passing (six assists) with ruthless efficiency to match her season averages of 16.3, 6.2 and 4.9.
"It's easy to talk about her mid-range game and her ability to score," Consuegra says, "but just her playmaking ability, at least from my perspective, is really underrated.
"She's got a lot of great pieces obviously around her, obviously, but she does such a tremendous job that if you do try to take something away from her, she's able to adjust and create a play for somebody else, and that's what great players do."
Now comes a red-hot Princeton team seeking to neutralize Berger and the Hoosiers.
IU aims to counter with an over-riding priority for every Moren-coached team:
Defense.
"What's going to carry us throughout this tournament," Moren says, "will be our defense, our ability to defend and rebound."
Princeton punishes with patience and discipline on offense and defense.
"The stuff they run, there's a first option, and if they don't get that, there's a second, a third a, fourth, a fifth," Moren says. "They're patient enough to wait to see where the advantage is going to be, where there's going to be a breakdown.
"As soon as you make a mistake, they make you pay."
For those who pick Princeton to lose on Monday night, Tigers coach Carla Berube says she wouldn't want it any other way.
"I like being the underdog," she says. "I enjoy that, having a little chip on our shoulders."
Per Ivy League mandate because of Covid restrictions, Princeton didn't play last season. That followed missing out on an NCAA tourney opportunity in 2020 because of the pandemic.
The Tigers have made up for it. They've won 18 straight games, including a victory over Kentucky in Saturday's opener, to reach the second round of the NCAA tourney for just the second time in program history.
"This wasn't an upset in our minds," guard Abbie Meyers says. "We were ready and knew we were going to be underestimated, just being a mid-major, Ivy League team.
"We're going to play our game. We're going to get stops. We're going to show them what the Ivy League is made of.
"We're going to set our sights on Indiana, prepare as best we can, heal our bodies and be ready to shock the world again."
Meyers has a message for any opponent overlooking Ivy League teams:
Don't.
"We proved ourselves in the Ivy League. It's a growing conference. It's good to prove that the Ivy League, we can handle ourselves and we can really compete on a really, really high level and on a great stage.
"It feels really good. All that hard work is paying off."
Adds Berube: "They work really hard. They play for each other. They play together. They are really resilient.
"It's such a joy to come to practice every day."
Will joy include facing the Hoosiers on their home court?
Why not, guard Maggie Connolly asks, in so many words.
"We love playing tough, out-of-conference opponents."
Unlike Berger, this will be Patberg's last home game. She wants to make the most of it.
"I'm trying to stay in the moment," she says. "I want to win. I want to win bad."
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Grace Berger could go pro. She could pass on the college experience after this season, and explore WNBA and overseas opportunities.
Indiana's standout guard will not.
For this, Hoosier Nation gives thanks.
Berger is a Hoosier for a reason, because she cares, because she pushes, because she sees so much more she can do wearing the Cream 'n Crimson for a fifth and final season.
For now, that includes trying to help No. 3-seed Indiana (23-8) beat No. 11-seed Princeton (25-4) on Monday night to advance to the Sweet 16 for the second straight season.
Berger has triple doubles on her resume. She has scored as many as 29 points, grabbed as many as 15 rebounds, passed out as many as 12 assists. Twice she has had five steals in a game.
Beyond that, she has totaled 1,503 points, 626 rebounds and 434 assists.
She will rock your basketball world, but not your ears.
There's a reason why Charlotte coach Cara Consuegra calls her a "silent assassin."
Berger's quiet nature meant not telling her coach she was returning for a fifth season thanks to the NCAA-granted Covid exemption.
"Grace and I never had a conversation about her returning," Teri Moren says.
Instead, Berger told director of operations Liz Honegger she wasn't going to be part of the senior video. Honegger asked if that meant she was coming back for another season. Berger said yes. Honegger asked her if she had told Moren. Berger said no, but that Honegger could tell her.
"My staff and I were elated," Moren says. "We were keeping our fingers crossed that we'd have another opportunity to coach her."
Teammates who benefit from Berger's multi-dimensional play understand her success doesn't come from luck.
"Everything that Grace does is a product of how hard she works," forward Mackenzie Holmes says. "Only the people within this program get to see that every day.
"She doesn't take a rep off, she doesn't take a play off, and that's at practice, but it translates on to the court, as well. Just being able to play alongside her the past couple years is really special.
"She's a great player. But I think it's all a product of the amount of work that she puts in."
Veteran guard Ali Patberg, who is tied with Berger for the most victories in a Hoosier uniform (89), can't praise Berger enough.
"Grace is a leader," Patberg says. "She might not be the loudest person on or off the floor, but she leads by example every day with her work ethic, with the way she approaches every drill, every rep.
"I'm thankful she's my teammate. She's pushed me to be a better person and a better player."
Adds sophomore guard Chloe Moore-McNeil: "She sets a great example for me."
Moren has coached multiple great players during her 19 years in the profession. She understands the impact Berger, a two-time honorable mention All-America, has on teammates and opponents, now and in the future
"She is and will be a pro," Moren says. "I think (Holmes) said it the best. The outside is not privy to what we see every day with how hard she works and how every rep she doesn't take off. That's defensively and offensively.
"She would probably argue and tell you that she doesn't find herself a very good defender, but she has gotten so much better since she's been at Indiana.
"However Grace is able to impact this game never surprises any of us, whether it's her mid-range game, whether it's her ability to give six assists. She's a product of what she does every day, and that's just the work.
"She's a special player. Nobody is more excited that she's going to come back for another year. But she's also a pro, who is going to use her Covid year, but she'll be playing professionally after she leaves Indiana."
Berger's all-around play left a big impression on Consuegra.
"She's certainly one of the best players we've seen this year and one of the best players in the country," She said. "What makes her so good is she does what she does. I mean that with the highest compliments. She knows what she's good at; she knows what her kill shot is, which is that pull-up, and she knows how to get it. As hard as we tried to take that away from her, we weren't able to do that.
"That's what impresses me the most about her. She's kind of like a silent assassin. She's going to come in, she's going to do what she does and she's going to make it really hard to stop her."
Berger certainly was during Saturday's 85-51 victory over Charlotte, the most lopsided in Hoosier NCAA tourney history. She mixed scoring (18 points), rebounding (six) and passing (six assists) with ruthless efficiency to match her season averages of 16.3, 6.2 and 4.9.
"It's easy to talk about her mid-range game and her ability to score," Consuegra says, "but just her playmaking ability, at least from my perspective, is really underrated.
"She's got a lot of great pieces obviously around her, obviously, but she does such a tremendous job that if you do try to take something away from her, she's able to adjust and create a play for somebody else, and that's what great players do."
Now comes a red-hot Princeton team seeking to neutralize Berger and the Hoosiers.
IU aims to counter with an over-riding priority for every Moren-coached team:
Defense.
"What's going to carry us throughout this tournament," Moren says, "will be our defense, our ability to defend and rebound."
Princeton punishes with patience and discipline on offense and defense.
"The stuff they run, there's a first option, and if they don't get that, there's a second, a third a, fourth, a fifth," Moren says. "They're patient enough to wait to see where the advantage is going to be, where there's going to be a breakdown.
"As soon as you make a mistake, they make you pay."
For those who pick Princeton to lose on Monday night, Tigers coach Carla Berube says she wouldn't want it any other way.
"I like being the underdog," she says. "I enjoy that, having a little chip on our shoulders."
Per Ivy League mandate because of Covid restrictions, Princeton didn't play last season. That followed missing out on an NCAA tourney opportunity in 2020 because of the pandemic.
The Tigers have made up for it. They've won 18 straight games, including a victory over Kentucky in Saturday's opener, to reach the second round of the NCAA tourney for just the second time in program history.
"This wasn't an upset in our minds," guard Abbie Meyers says. "We were ready and knew we were going to be underestimated, just being a mid-major, Ivy League team.
"We're going to play our game. We're going to get stops. We're going to show them what the Ivy League is made of.
"We're going to set our sights on Indiana, prepare as best we can, heal our bodies and be ready to shock the world again."
Meyers has a message for any opponent overlooking Ivy League teams:
Don't.
"We proved ourselves in the Ivy League. It's a growing conference. It's good to prove that the Ivy League, we can handle ourselves and we can really compete on a really, really high level and on a great stage.
"It feels really good. All that hard work is paying off."
Adds Berube: "They work really hard. They play for each other. They play together. They are really resilient.
"It's such a joy to come to practice every day."
Will joy include facing the Hoosiers on their home court?
Why not, guard Maggie Connolly asks, in so many words.
"We love playing tough, out-of-conference opponents."
Unlike Berger, this will be Patberg's last home game. She wants to make the most of it.
"I'm trying to stay in the moment," she says. "I want to win. I want to win bad."
Players Mentioned
Guard
/ Women's Basketball
Forward
/ Women's Basketball
Guard
/ Women's Basketball
Guard
/ Women's BasketballFB: Under the Hood with Indiana Football - Week 4 (Illinois)
Wednesday, September 17
FB: Kellan Wyatt Media Availability (9/16/25)
Tuesday, September 16
FB: Mikail Kamara Media Availability (9/16/25)
Tuesday, September 16
FB: Curt Cignetti Media Availability (9/15/25)
Monday, September 15