Doyel: That new feeling for Fever fans is hope. But they're left wanting more in opener.
INDIANAPOLIS – It started in the second quarter, with the Connecticut Sun already pulling away from the Indiana Fever and the crowd of 7,356, an enthusiastic bunch with all kinds of famous faces — I’ll show you in a minute — looking for a reason to believe.
“We want Grace, we want Grace.”
That’s how it started, with one particularly determined fan of former IU great Grace Berger, a rookie on this rebuilding Fever team, chanting alone behind one basket until she was joined by two fans sitting nearby.
Pretty soon it’s the third quarter and first-year Fever coach Christie Sides is starting to empty her bench. Not because the game is a blowout, because it’s not. By the third quarter the Fever have awoken from their sleepy start — Indiana started 2-for-18 from the floor, and committed 10 turnovers before recording its first assist — and Kelsey Mitchell is scoring in 3-point bunches, pouring in nine points in 59 seconds. The Fever are within 35-30, and forward Emma Cannon enters the game for the first time.
“We want Grace, we want Grace.”
Now it’s a group of fans sitting in the corner of Gainbridge Fieldhouse, mostly kids but a few adults, and they want to see Grace Berger too.
Late in the third quarter, Sides inserts Fever rookie Victaria Saxton for the first time.
“We want Grace, we want Grace.”
More: Get to know the Fever roster for the 2023 season
Now the groups have merged, the fans behind the baseline and those fans in the corner, and soon there’s a dead ball and game officials are studying the monitor for one reason or another, and the chant now is a single word, and it is getting louder all around the Fieldhouse:
Grace, Grace, Grace, Grace.
The Fever make a game of it late, getting within 62-59 in the final two minutes after eight consecutive points from 2023 No. 1 overall pick Aliyah Boston, but Boston fouls out and Connecticut is pulling away when the final horn sounds on this 70-61 loss for the Fever.
They went 5-26 last season. They are 0-1 this season. They have two reasons for the crowd to come back, but it would help, going forward, if the Fever don’t neglect those two reasons.
Their names are Grace Berger and Aliyah Boston.
Everybody played ... except for Grace Berger
A Fever game is not like one with the Colts or Pacers. More like the Triple-A Indians. The game matters, for sure, but the Fever are going for family entertainment as well. There’s the Family Fun Zone behind the basket opposite the tunnel, where kids climb up an inflatable slide and come tumbling safely down. There’s the bank of baskets for kids to shoot at. There’s even an inflatable little crawling area for tiny kids to let out some energy.
People come to Fever games because they want to come, regardless of the product on the court. That’s the core of the fan base, anyway, and it’s a small but loyal bunch.
To grow the crowd, to take down those curtains walling off the upper deck — which serves to create an intimate atmosphere — the basketball has to get better. This is not brilliant thinking on my part. When Tamika Catchings was here and one of the best players in the world from 2002-16, the Fever were a WNBA powerhouse. They won the 2012 WNBA title, and were serious contenders most years. But Cachings retired after the 2016 season, coach Stephanie White left for the Vanderbilt job — she returned Friday night, coaching Connecticut — and the Fever nosedived.
No playoff appearances since 2016. A 45-127 record in that time, the win totals worse: 6, 6 and 5 wins in the past three seasons.
Play that poorly, and you get the No. 1 overall draft pick. The Fever chose the 6-5 Boston of South Carolina, a four-time All-American, and chose Berger with the No. 7 overall pick. Add that duo to Mitchell (20 points Friday), the No. 2 all-time scorer in women’s college basketball at Ohio State and a steady 18-ppg presence in the WNBA, and the Fever have some drawing power.
Thing is, Boston needs the ball. And Berger needs to play.
Doyel: Top WNBA pick Aliyah Boston worthy Indiana Fever successor to Tamika Catchings
Lookit, if Berger can’t play, if she doesn’t belong in the WNBA, then OK. You and me, we’re not at practices. We don’t watch. Berger was turnover-prone in the preseason, but that’s a two-game sample size. In a much larger selection of games at IU, where she played five seasons, she was part of a program-record 118 victories. She was a scoring point guard, a team player, providing the glue and the stardust.
The crowd wanted to see her badly on Friday night, and they got their wish just once. It was the third quarter, when Sides eventually cleared her bench of all but Grace Berger. Eleven of the 12 Fever players had gotten onto the court when the Fever played an Ivy Tech promotion during a timeout, when a young man identified for the crowd as “Casey” had 30 seconds to name as many college majors as he could. He named 11.
Here comes his competitor onto the giant video board, and it’s Grace Berger. This is a taped appearance, promise — I’m watching Grace during the timeout, and she’s standing near the Fever bench — but Berger’s face generates one of the largest cheers of the night. She starts naming majors, and stops at 10. The young man, Casey, wins. Berger’s face disappears from the scoreboard.
The crowd loses.
Aliyah Boston approaches double-double despite fouls
Boston needs the ball in her hands. She needs to not foul, too, but part of that is the obligatory whistle that befalls the biggest player on the court. What has happened for years to Purdue big men? It happened Friday night to Boston, whose first official WNBA foul was criminal, and not because she assaulted someone. Quite the opposite:
Boston is defending Connecticut center Brionna Jones in the post, and holding her own, and here comes NaLyssa Smith to help. Jones turns into Smith for the shot, bumps into Smith’s arms, and officials call a foul … on Boston. She has no idea the call is on her until it’s announced over the loudspeaker. Boston turns to the nearest official and mouths those words you see all the time: “I didn’t touch her!” Only, she’s right. She didn’t touch anyone.
Long night for Boston, who had 15 points and nine rebounds but fouled out in 24 minutes and didn’t get nearly enough post touches. When she got the ball she tended to shoot or get fouled or both — she was 6-for-10 from the floor, 3-for-6 from the line — but several times she had to grab an offensive rebound to get her hands on it.
If Boston’s teammates know how good she is, they did a fine job of hiding it.
Anyway, this is just one game. Let’s not make too much out of Boston being the Fever’s secondary option — no, the tertiary option or whatever’s the word for fourth option — in the opener. Lots of season left. The Fever will watch film and get better from this.
They’d better, so people that came to this game, people that don’t often come to Fever games — people like me, to be honest — want to come back. As it was, this game was a people-watching bonanza. Colts rookie cornerback Juju Brents was on one baseline, sitting opposite — 100 feet away — former Colts receiver T.Y. Hilton. Yes, Brents was lined up opposite Hilton.
Mayor Joe Hogsett was in the front row behind the scorer’s table, across the court from Pacers assistant Lloyd Pierce. Former IU athletic director Fred Glass was here with a gaggle of grandkids. Pacers reporter Jeremiah Johnson was in the crowd.
And Grace Berger was all over the place, her face and No. 34 on T-shirts and sweatshirts and the occasional hoodie. By the fourth quarter a handful of fans were shouting her name just to be spiteful, just to make known their displeasure with Christie Sides’ rotations.
Grace, they shouted. Grace! Grace!
Let’s give that to the Fever, after one game. Long season. New team, new coach, new crowd enthusiasm after several lost seasons. After one night of missed opportunities, let’s give the Fever grace.
Before too long, Fever, you might want to return the favor.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Fever fans came for a win and for Grace Berger, got neither
