A more confident Grace Berger begins year two with Indiana Fever as expectations and buzz around the franchise rise

Grace Berger was a star at Indiana for her entire career and after getting selected 7th overall in the 2023 WNBA Draft, expectations were high for the Hoosier. However, her rookie season came with many ups-and-downs and like most rookies, it was very much a learning and growing year.

Now in year two, Berger is ready to take her play to another level as a key member of the young core. And, she’s doing so more confidently.

“I think just going through last year just being more comfortable and more confidence (this year). Coming in as a rookie, you don’t know what you don’t know,” Grace Berger said at Indiana Fever Media Day. “So just continuing to learn but also I feel a lot more comfortable with my surroundings, what my coaches want me to do, what my role is on the floor. So just a lot more confidence coming into year two.”

Berger played in 36 games last season and averaged 4.2 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 14.6 minutes a game. But, it was a rollercoaster for the new Fever guard as she wasn’t always on the floor.

Her time on the court started out at just 5.4 minutes per game in May before jumping to 14.6 minutes in July and then 19+ minutes per game in the final two months of the season.

That was a result from what Berger called ‘being a sponge’ last training camp and taking in everything she could.

“I think my biggest goal for training camp is just to be a sponge for those around me,” Berger said last year. ” … To actually be here and be on this stage with them is something, you know a challenge I’m really looking forward to.”

Like most WNBA players, playing overseas during the offseason is a popular decision. That’s exactly what Grace Berger did following the end of the Fever’s 2023 season.

Berger headed to Spain where she was excited to use more of that sponge to soak up even more knowledge — this time from a slightly differently played game.

“It’s a different style of basketball,” Berger said. “The physicality, people that might not be in the WNBA but are really, really good. Really skilled and have been pros for 10, 15, some of them 20 years so they obviously knew a lot more than me and pushed me everyday to be better. So I think it was just a different style of basketball that was great for myself and can carry that over to here.”

After a few months, though, Berger was sidelined with a thumb injury that cut her time in Europe short.

After taking some time to ‘relax’ and ‘recharge’, Berger knew she couldn’t stay away from the court too long. Instead, she took on another challenge — playing with Athletes Unlimited. AU is another professional women’s basketball league in the United States with some of the top talent all around the country that takes place during the WNBA offseason.

It gave Berger more experience going up against the top talent in the country and world and helped her get back to full speed.

“It’s nice the WNBA offseason is long so I was able to take a couple weeks to chill, relax and reset my body and mental. It (the injury) forced me to do that because I couldn’t do a whole lot” Berger said. “Athletes Unlimited was great, it gave me A, a way to get in basketball shape and B, an opportunity to play with and against WNBA players and other professional women’s basketball players that have a lot more experience than I did. Just being able to learn from them and get in good basketball shape again was great.”

So as Berger takes the floor again this season with the Fever, she knows the expectations will be much greater due to the young talent they have on their roster and the addition of No. 1 overall pick and superstar guard Caitlin Clark.

Berger and Clark played against each other in the Big Ten numerous times. They both know each other and each other’s games very well. Now playing together, Berger already sees what it’s like to be on the right side of a Clark shot or pass.

“It’s a lot more fun to be on her team than to play against her. It’s not very fun to play against her and guard her and gameplan for her. She got the best of me and my team a couple times,” Berger said. “I obviously already know how great she is and have seen it for a long time as a competitor. But to now be on the same team and seeing how much better she makes me, how much better she makes our team — it’s been a lot of tun to see that side of her.”

The Fever went just 13-27 last year but it was just the third time since 2016 that they finished with double-digit wins. It was also the first time since 2019. They combined for 11 wins in the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

“It’s nationwide. There’s a huge buzz around the Fever,” Berger said. ” … even though we might not have won recently, people know we’re on the rise and coming and not far off. We feel like we belong in that conversation. We are going to keep working everyday and know we still have a long way to go, but our expectation is to be one of those top teams, top franchises down the road and sometime soon.”

Grace Berger and the Fever take the floor on Friday night at 8:00 pm ET against the Dallas Wings for its preseason opener — a team that has made the WNBA playoffs three years in a row.

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