During the middle of Indiana women’s basketball’s season, assistant coach Ali Patberg made a decision.
Sophomore guard Lexus Bargesser had shown development on both ends of the court from the beginning of the season and earned an important role coming off the bench, along with a seven-game stint in the starting lineup due to Sydney Parrish’s foot injury.
But her inconsistent shooting limited her impact at times. Opponents often sagged off Bargesser in coverage, feeling safe allowing her an open jump shot, and they were equally comfortable putting her on the foul line. Through the first 20 games of the season, the Grass Lake, Mich. native shot 37.5 percent on free throws.
So Patberg, at some point, started working with Bargesser before practices on her free-throw motion. They implemented a nearly one-handed release, with a slight touch from the guide hand, and rolled it out for Indiana’s big game at Ohio State in early February. IU head coach Teri Moren said it was Patberg’s call to start working with Bargesser on that.
Shooting has been a struggle for Bargesser throughout her time at IU, but she trusted Patberg’s guidance on foul shots, believing it would help her become a better player.
“It’s kind of been a work in progress since I’ve gotten to college, trying to figure out the best shot for me. I think it’s still a work in progress, and I just had to adapt to whatever coach Ali was throwing at me,” Bargesser told The Daily Hoosier during IU’s open locker room period on Friday. “I trust her, I trust what she says and how she’s trying to help me out with my shot. So just trusting in that and that it’s all going to work out.”
The changes paid dividends. Since she rolled out her new free-throw motion against Ohio State, she’s gone 13 for 17 at the foul line — a marked improvement.
No. 4 seeded Indiana hosts No. 13 seed Fairfield in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall at 1:30 p.m. ET. And as the Hoosiers get going in March Madness, Bargesser could be a difference-maker that helps determine how far they go.
Moren said she and her staff haven’t regularly tweaked players’ shot mechanics in the middle of a season, especially not as drastically as they have with Bargesser’s free throw. But they all decided the sophomore’s new approach worked better after seeing the results it yielded.
It can be a difficult adjustment to revamp a shooting motion midseason, when confidence is so important for shooters. But Bargesser is used to the adjustment, after toggling with her shot multiple times through the years.
Her teammates have seen the work she’s put in with her free-throw shooting — and overall — and respect her drive to improve.
“I think it just shows her willingness to get better for our team. She’s been in the gym a lot, and I’m really proud of her. It’s definitely been a little bit of a struggle at times, but she’s came a long way over the past year,” fifth-year Sara Scalia said. “I’m just really proud of her, and she’s definitely a key piece to our team this year and helped us win a lot of games.”
Bargesser particularly stepped up in January and February with Parrish out of the lineup. She made her first start as a Hoosier on January 21 at Purdue, and immediately played a career-high 34 minutes. And though she didn’t score that day, the sophomore held her own, both defensively and as a distributor.
She said she was just excited for the opportunity that day in West Lafayette, even as it came under unfortunate circumstances.
“I was so grateful for the opportunity to go in and play,” Bargesser said. “I was just excited and I knew that I was ready for the moment and the coaches had confidence in me. So all I had to do was have confidence in myself.”
That confidence only grew from there. Bargesser doesn’t always fill up the stat sheet, but her role and importance goes beyond that. Her steady presence offensively — usually being in the right spots and making smart plays — allowed her teammates to thrive with Parrish out. And Bargesser provided the same defensive boost in the starting lineup that she does coming off the bench.
She’s one of Indiana’s strongest on-ball defenders — she spent a lot of time guarding Caitlin Clark during IU’s win over Iowa in February, and she played well that night. Bargesser’s defense was a big reason behind Clark’s second-half struggles in that game.
Indiana went 6-1 with Parrish out, a stretch that included one of its better wins of the season over Michigan State. Had Bargesser not aptly stepped into the larger role, IU may not have survived that period.
“When Syd went out those (seven) games and she had to slide over into the other (guard) spot for us, what I was proud of Lexi is she didn’t try to do too much,” Moren said. “She tried to facilitate. She tried to make her teammates around her better. She gave us another great on-ball defender. She’s a great athlete, can jump, quick. So what she gave us — again, in what we’ve seen her do from the bench, but she played a lot more minutes. So it gave her great experience as we go into March, or this tournament.”
Bargesser has averaged 22.7 minutes per game this year after playing just 7.6 last season as a freshman. Her statistics have largely improved — the sophomore has scored 4.4 points, grabbed 2.7 rebounds, and dished 2.9 assists per game.
She’s far from a finished product as a player. She had to wear a large brace on her left leg for all of her freshman season at IU after missing her senior season at Grass Lake High with a torn ACL. So this is her first brace-less basketball season in three years. And her shot form may continue evolving — she hasn’t tweaked her jump shot the way she has her free-throw motion, but said that work could come in the offseason.
Bargesser’s growth this year has put her in position to potentially become a full-time starter at IU next season. As her role continues to grow, Indiana may want her to play even more aggressively on offense and become more of a scorer.
But for now, the sophomore has just focused less on what she struggles with and more on how she can help this current Hoosiers team win games. And Bargesser’s teammates feel she’s played a bigger part in that than she, herself, grasps.
“(She’s) just proving that she belongs and that she’s a really special player. She’s helped us tremendously this season. Tremendously,” Parrish said. “And I don’t know if she realizes how much she’s helped us down the stretch. But she works so hard every single day and you see her in the gym and doing extra lifts. She’s just a very special player and I’m really, really grateful I get to play with her.”
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