Big get for Drake.
Grace Berg is heading back to her roots.
The 6-0 forward out of Indianola, Iowa is trading in the black and gold for the blue and white. Playing in 19 games for Missouri this season, while averaging 3.8 points and 12 minutes a game, Berg is off to Des Moines to play for head coach Jennie Baranczyk and the Drake Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs have won 46 straight Missouri Valley Conference games and are in pursuit of their third straight conference title. It’s no wonder Berg wants to come home.
She was a four-time first-team all-state selection in Iowa and was named the 2018 Iowa Basketball Coaches Association’s Class 5A Player of the Year. She scored nearly 1,800 points in her high school career, leading Indianola to four state tournament appearances and an 86-12 record overall while she was there.
Given the recent (and booming) success of Drake under Baranczyk’s lead, this isn’t the first transfer from a non-mid-major conference for the Bulldogs. They landed Monica Burich out of Colorado and most recently, Kierra Collier, a point guard transfer from the University of Washington. Both Burich and Collier hail from the midwest—from Minnesota and Missouri, respectively.
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Collier is sitting out this year and will have three years of eligibility left at Drake. While at Washington, she played in 25 games, started in 14 of them, and was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team honorable mention. Burich’s college career, on the other hand, hasn’t been as straight forward. Although a redshirt junior this year, she still has two more years of eligibility.
The Bulldogs will graduate Maddy Dean, Sammie Bachrodt, Nicole Miller and Becca Jonas after this season. Combined, Drake’s senior class is averaging 29.7 points, 13.5 rebounds and 9.6 assists per game. Dean and Bachrodt have also started every game this season.
Berg seems to be the right fit for Drake’s system. Recruiting players from the state of Iowa, and having a solid representation of Iowa kids on the roster, is something Baranczyk has always valued and aimed for—and they’ve been highly successful in a Bulldog uniform, too.
Look at Becca Hittner and former Bulldog Caitlin Ingle, for example. Hittner is the reigning MVC Player of the Year and averaging 18.2 points per game in 2018-19. Caitlin Ingle ended her career as Drake’s and the MVC’s all-time career assists leader.
Berg will have three years of eligibility left at Drake.