Friday night in Las Vegas may have ended in a 96-81 win over Auburn for the IU women’s basketball team, but the Hoosiers lost graduate guard Grace Berger to a right knee injury early in the game. Berger would sit out for the remainder of the Auburn game and the team’s next game against Memphis on Saturday.
Before the injury, Berger was a significant reason for the Hoosiers undefeated record this season with her technical ball handling skills, playmaking abilities and her notorious jump shot. Over her four seasons at IU, Grace has made quite the name for herself, but she started building her resume when she was only six-years-old.
“In a 20 minute game, she scored like 26 points,” Todd said about the time he watched Grace play in her first youth basketball game. “She passed the whole time because she was embarrassed that she was dominating the game. Right then we were like ‘wow she might be pretty good’.”
Grace’s journey to the top of her collegiate game was kickstarted with her dad’s help in the garage of her New Albany, IN childhood home and in the driveway of her Louisville, KY home.
“I put a [7-foot goal] on our garage for my son, Jack, to practice on, but the person out there practicing on it every night was Grace,” Todd said. “She was probably four. She was out there every night shooting on that basket. She loved basketball from the get go.”
Grace Berger talks about her gratitude for her family’s support, including how far her dad has traveled to watch her play, and gives insight on her pre-game and post-game rituals with her dad.
The dad-daughter duo continued to work on Grace’s skills all throughout Grace’s childhood, and the first skill they tackled? A left-handed layup.
“She couldn’t do a left handed layup,” Todd said. “So, one night I taught her how to do a left handed layup, jumping off the correct foot and everything. She was having trouble with it and I got home from work the next day and she was like ‘dad, dad, dad’ and she was doing it perfectly. She practiced it all day long. I don’t really deserve the credit for all her ball handling skills. Grace basically self taught herself all of these ball handling drills.”
Even though Grace took developing her skills into her own hands, she still needed her dad there to help her with rebounding.
“I was always kind of nagging him to get outside with me whether it was snowing or raining,” Grace said. “I would make him put on a jacket and suck it up and rebound for me and put me through those workouts no matter what was going on.”
All that time and energy paid off when Grace was recruited by IU women’s basketball head coach Teri Moren in 2018. Grace would see time on the court in all 34 games including four starts as a freshman. Her sophomore year, Grace would go on to start 30 games and became the second leading scorer on the team.
Now, as a graduate guard, Grace has too many accolades to count on two hands. However, the most notable change in Grace’s game that Todd can see is not the amount of honors or recognition Grace has received. It’s her maturity.
“She’s so mature it almost makes me cry,” Todd said. “She’s so mature compared to how she was when she got here.”
Todd Berger touches on how he helped Grace to develop her mid-range jump shot, when he knew Grace had a special knack for basketball and the best piece of advice he has given Grace.
Todd added that when Grace was a freshman at IU, he and Grace’s mom, Mary Charlotte, would have to stay in hotels after the games to make sure Grace was ‘okay’. Now, Todd and Grace have quick chats about life after her games and then the family is back on the road to Louisville.
“He likes to remind me all the time that this is the same game I fell in love with as a kid,” Grace said about her post-game talks with her dad.
