5 burning questions for Indiana women's basketball, starting with: Who replaces Grace?

BLOOMINGTON — The No. 9 Indiana women’s basketball team is preparing to defend its Big Ten regular-season title this season — and avenge its early postseason exit.

The Hoosiers returned four of their five starters from last season, including preseason All-American Mackenzie Holmes and All-Big Ten selections Sydney Parrish and Sara Scalia.

Indiana will have an open exhibition against Northwood on Wednesday to gear up for its season opener Nov. 9 against Eastern Illinois.

As the offseason wraps up, here are five burning questions the Hoosiers need answering.

Who will replace Grace Berger?

Grace Berger was a program fixture for five years. She is IU's all-time winningest player with 118 wins and was a four-year starter for the Hoosiers.

Berger was the person opposing teams scouted for and put their best defenders on. She was a shot-creator, the one to take the last-second shot if needed.

So who replaces her?

It’s more than replacing her spot in the starting lineup — Berger was a highly-effective player, averaging 12.4 points on 45.4% shooting throughout her IU career. With the other four starters returning, IU coach Teri Moren confirmed Scalia, a fifth-year senior guard, will slip into the starting five.

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Scalia avoided serious injury this August while playing on the Hoosiers' summer trip in Greece. She hyperextended her knee in IU’s first of two games, and at the time feared it was a torn ACL. Scalia still had to sit out a month while recovering and returned to practice at full strength in September.

The Hoosiers will need one of their guards to step up to replace Berger’s consistency, and Chloe Moore-McNeil could be the one to take on that role.

“Grace was the one you know, when we needed to put the ball in somebody's hand on the perimeter, it was always Grace Berger,” Moren said. “But I think we feel comfortable, you know, putting the ball in Chloe's hands, knowing that she's gonna make the right decision for us.”

Moore-McNeil shot 44% from the field last season, including 34% from the 3-point arc.

How will the newcomers fare?

IU has three newcomers for the 2023-24 season: freshmen Julianna LaMendola and Lenee Beaumont, and UT-Martin transfer sophomore Sharnecce Currie-Jelks.

Right now, it seems like the three will be just out of the rotation; Currie-Jelks, who suffered a quad injury in preseason, will be the No. 3 center behind Holmes and backup Lilly Meister. LaMendola and Beaumont, despite joining a program that runs a four-guard lineup, came in at a time when there is indescribable depth at the position.

That doesn’t mean that they’re not going to play, though.

“I feel like we're gonna use them,” Moren said of the freshmen. “They're gonna get playing time this year for us, and you know, we're gonna need them. We're gonna need them to grow up fast. But both of them have done that and they’re so fun to coach but really, really great workers, great teammates.”

Moren added LaMendola has been practicing at the 4-spot recently behind Parrish, and Beaumont is working at the 1 and 2 spot.

Expect the three newcomers to get their feet wet in IU’s mid-major nonconference games against Eastern Illinois, Murray State, and Lipscomb. Those three games could determine how much they will play going forward.

“Time will tell with how the rotation will pan out,” Moren said, “but I can see them all getting some time.”

Will Mackenzie Holmes be at full strength?

Holmes, a fifth-year senior, is the face of the program — especially after Berger’s departure. She's the first preseason All-American in program history, and she is the Hoosiers' undoubted emotional leader.

But will she be at full strength when the time comes?

Holmes suffered an injury to her knee in the Big Ten tournament in March, and that kept her out of parts of the Hoosiers’ tournament semifinal loss to Ohio State and opening NCAA tournament win over Tennessee Tech. She returned for IU’s second-round game against Miami, but she was limited in the shocking loss.

Holmes spent the offseason rehabbing her knee and getting back to full strength. Even now, though, Moren is hoping to take some of the load off of the All-American in the first part of the season; in turn, giving Meister and Currie-Jelks more reps.

But Holmes isn’t someone who likes to sit out, no matter if the Hoosiers are playing a mid-major or in the thick of the Big Ten slate.

“There's nothing about easing Mack into anything,” Moren said. “She looks like she's been shot out of a cannon in terms of how she approaches things. Mack is full speed, has been, but we've tried to limit her reps and give those reps to Sharnecce and Lilly Meister.”

Will a strong nonconference schedule help or hurt?

IU didn’t go with a cupcake nonconference schedule this season. After the season-opener against Eastern Illinois, the Hoosiers head west to face No. 13 Stanford and potential lottery pick Cameron Brink.

Later in November, IU will play No. 12 Tennessee in the Fort Myers Tip-Off, where the Hoosiers will also play Princeton, a team Moren thinks is tougher than it looks.

“I just think those early games are just helping you get ready for what we know is going to be a grind in the Big Ten,” Moren said. “They’re some really great programs we have a ton of respect for,”

The key to this tough nonconference schedule being beneficial for the Hoosiers, though, is the mentality they take from the games. How will they feel if they lose to the Cardinal on the road in the second game of the season? Will it break them down or push them to be better?

The road doesn’t get any easier with the Big Ten schedule having two games with Iowa, Maryland and Purdue. IU will need to have a strong mentality early.

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How far can IU go this season?

IU won the conference regular season title last season for the first time since 1983, rising as high as No. 2 in the nation.

Then, after their early exit, the Hoosiers had to sit and watch as other Big Ten teams made deep runs in the NCAA tournament — Ohio State made it to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1993, and Iowa reached the national championship game.

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This season, the Hoosiers are using that disappointment as fuel.

The Hoosiers have the firepower to reach the program's first Final Four — with an All-American at the helm, IU can learn to build around Holmes instead of Berger. But switching to build around a center versus a guard is easier said than done.

It just comes down to how well Indiana can actually play without Berger. The Hoosiers struggled in the back half of the Big Ten season in 2022-23 when Berger was out with an injury, but they don’t have her to come back and give them a spark anymore. IU will need to create its own spark between Holmes, Scalia, Moore-McNeil and Yarden Garzon this season to make a deep run.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IU women's basketball: 5 burning questions for Final Four hopefuls