Guard Grace Berger is the 'Heart' of Indiana Women's Basketball

Graduate student point guard Grace Berger has been nicknamed the heart of the No. 2 Indiana women's basketball team. She certainly was tugging at Coach Teri Moren's heart strings as she played her final regular season home game in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Sunday for Senior Day.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana women's basketball graduate student guard Grace Berger is an excellent ball handler, passer, scorer and person.

Her coach Teri Moren was of course emotional on the star point guard's senior day where both her and senior forward Alyssa Geary were honored.

Berger has been nicknamed the heart of the program as her calm and collective personality is needed to run an offense in high stakes games. She doesn't so much as bat an eye when the Hoosiers are down on the board, not that that's happened often this season.

The Louisville, Ky. native played her final regular season home game in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall Sunday versus Purdue where Indiana won big. The 83-60 win was nice, but the Big Ten regular season title was even better as the win was enough to clinch it for the first time since 1983. But Berger didn't want to think about that game as the last time.

"I tried not to think about it too much before the game," Berger said. "I would have been, I think kind of sad, but I mean to go out like that, obviously the job's not done, but to go out cutting down the net is something I've been working for since my freshman year. You couldn't ask for a better ending."

Indiana's Grace Berger (34) helps hoist the Big Ten championship trophy after the second half of the Indiana versus Purdue women's basketball game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023.

© Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

Moren jokingly asked media members not to ask questions about Berger following the game but was peppered with them anyway. Through tears, she talked about how the greatest gift you can give somebody is belief.

"She believed in this program," Moren said. "She believed in me and the vision, and for that, I'll always be grateful, because that's what it takes. This group has continued to believe, not just in Grace Berger, not only in this staff, but you know, they believe in each other and they have tremendous chemistry on and off the floor, which has been so cool to be a part of and so cool to watch."

More than five years ago when Berger arrived at Indiana, Moren said she knew Berger would be the most skilled player she'd ever coach. She watched her ball handling, midrange game and passing to come to this conclusion.

"I don't know that I'll ever have an opportunity to coach a player like Grace who is just incredible from a skill set," Moren said.

The only thing Berger hadn't done up until that point was lift weights. 

"Now you know everybody wants Grace Berger arms, right?" Moren said. "I knew that she was going to get stronger both mentally, physically. I still believe in our player development here."

Junior guard Sydney Parrish has only played with Berger for less than a year as Parrish transferred in from Oregon this season, but Berger's work ethic is very noticeable off the court to her teammates. Parrish confirmed Berger is great in the weight room too.

"She's just a special player, and not a lot of players come around like she is, so I've been super super grateful to be able to play with her, but we are not done yet," Parrish said.

Berger averages 12.2 points and 4.6 boards per game. She's also known for sharing the sugar as she's second on the team with 110 assists. The team proved they can win most games without her as she missed nine games this season with a right knee injury, but the truth is the team is better with Berger.

She could be the difference as the team's chances at a deep NCAA tournament run are looking good. Still, she's not satisfied and won't be until the job is complete.

"I feel like we still have a lot of work to do," Berger said. "We still have to finish up with a big game next Sunday and then obviously play a really tough Big Ten tournament, the best conference in the country."

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