Last season it was Mackenzie Holmes and Sara Scalia who stole the lion's share of the spotlight for the Indiana women's basketball team. Looking ahead to next season, it is Sydney Parrish and Chloe Moore-McNeil who many expect to blossom into the most vital cogs of Teri Moren's entire operation. However, everyone knows that two individual players can only take a team so far. It takes an entire team's election to buy into their roles.
Last season it was Parrish, Moore-McNeil, Yarden Garzon and a bunch of bench players who combined to offer ancillary support to the team's two big guns. With the aforementioned trio expected to assume a "big 3" label of some sorts, it will be on the incoming freshman and returning bench mob to provide backup for the heavy hitters. Thankfully for this program and fanbase, there is one member of the returning cast of uber-talented bench players who should be able to alleviate a heavy dosage of pressure from the "big 3".
During her sophomore season in B-Town, the 5'9" Lexus Bargesser was super solid as the first player off the pine in Teri Moren's rotation. In her 32 games played (9 starts), she amassed nightly totals of 21.7 MPG, 4.3 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 2.8 APG (compared to just 1.2 TOPG), and 0.9 SPG on shooting splits of 49.1% FG/30.0% 3FG/55.6% FT.
She has never been known as a superior scorer, and it should go without saying that her jumpshot needs a ton of fine-tuning. However, scoring and shooting are not the areas of the game which Indiana has needed her to excel in. It has been her overall IQ as both a defender and true point guard which have kept her on the court consistently. And if it were not for the arrival of incoming senior-to-be sharpshooter Shay Ciezki, chances are that Bargesser would find herself in the starting lineup each and every time out in 2024-2025.
Regardless of whether she starts or sustains her spot as the team's first player off the bench, Teri Moren and her staff are once again going to count on Lexus Bargesser to do the little things and connect the dots. She is a tough, gritty defender who is never afraid to roll up her sleeves and get after it on the less glamorous end of the floor. And she always seems to make the right pass/play over the flashy one.
Lexus Bargesser is not confusing anyone for an All-Star, but she is going to be the X-Factor of the Indiana women's basketball team in 2024-2025. Her continued growth will play a large part in determining how many additional games this team will play following the conclusion of next year's regular season.