Holmes Selected As USBWA First Team All-American; Berger On Honorable Mention
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Senior forward Mackenzie Holmes becomes the program’s first United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) First Team All-American while graduate student guard Grace Berger earns a place on the honorable mention team, announced by the organization on Wednesday.
Holmes has now earned her third All-American honor this season, as she was named The Athletic All-America and Associated Press All-American first team. She was also named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and All-Big Ten first team in the annual postseason conference awards and is now a two-time All-Big Ten selection in her career. She has also been named to the 2023 Lisa Leslie Award finalist and the first Hoosier to appear on the national ballot. She is also up for a variety of other national player of the year awards including 2023 Wooden Award national ballot, 2023 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy, 2023 Lisa Leslie Award finalist, 2023 Wooden Award and 2023 USBWA Ann Meyers Drysdale Player of the Year.
The Gorham, Maine native averages a team-high 22.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.9 blocks and is one of the nation’s most accurate shooters by going 68.8 percent from the floor. She is second in the nation and leading the Big Ten in field goal percentage, fifth in field goals made (271), seventh in points per game (22.3) and eighth in points scored (670). Holmes has led the Hoosiers in scoring on 24 occasions this season. She has scored in double figures in all 30 games, scoring 20 points 17 times and has three 30-point scoring efforts this season. Her nine double-doubles leads her teams as six of her double-doubles have occurred in conference play, which ranks eighth all-time in a single season. She led the league in blocks (56) and blocks per game (1.9) and averages 1.1 steals (33) per game. She set a season-high five blocks against Nebraska and Michigan while recording multiple blocks in 14 games. Holmes is now in the top five in scoring in school history (1,875) and second in all-time blocks (206).
Berger returns as an honorable mention selection from the 2021-22 season as she was also named an Associated Press honorable mention this season. In 22 games, the Louisville, Ky. native is averaging 12.5 points, 5.8 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game while shooting 48.5 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3-point range and 74.6 percent at the free throw line. She has scored in double figures 16 times including a season-high 26 points in the win over Iowa. A player who does a little bit of everything, Berger has dished out multiple assists in 19 games and averages 1.1 steals per outing while holding a +2.3 assist-to-turnover ratio. She collected three double-doubles this year including two on the road at then No. 11/4 Tennessee and in a win at Ohio State while also having the first point/assist double-double for the program since 2017.
The Hoosiers were selected as a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, which begins on Saturday, March 18 against the winner of the play-in game between Tennessee Tech and Monmouth. Tip time is set for 11:30 a.m. ET at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and will be live on ESPN2.