BLOOMINGTON — Lexus Bargesser is the fastest person on the IU women’s basketball team. And it isn’t very close.
Before every season, the Hoosiers run a mile as part of their training regimen. The IU strength and conditioning staff time it, and it’s part of the Hoosiers’ program records in the weight room.
So, in her freshman year, Bargesser made a statement. Not only was she the fastest of the entire IU women’s basketball team in its 2022 timed mile, but she tied Tyra Buss’ program record with a 5 minute, 40 second mark. Grace Berger came in six seconds behind her that season with a 5:46.
Bargesser’s sophomore season was more of the same; this time, without Berger on her tail, she had a larger margin between her teammates. She ran a mile in 5:46, over 20 seconds clear of her closest teammate, Lenee Beaumont, who ran a 6:07 time.
‘There’s no shortcuts’: How freshman Lenée Beaumont finds role with IU women’s basketball
“Yeah, I do consider myself to be (the fastest person),” Bargesser said, laughing, in an interview with IndyStar.
Bargesser’s speed is evident on the court, even when she’s dodging her teammates and opponents. She can easily run down an opponent’s fast breaks, becoming the one player trying to stop them from getting an easy shot.
Bargesser’s speed isn’t surprising; she ran track for all four years at Grass Lake High School in Michigan. Her final year of track, though, felt different — it was a way for her to rehab, both mentally and physically, from the torn ACL that took away her final year of prep basketball.
Fighting back
Bargesser was at the peak of her prep career going into her senior year. She had just led Grass Lake to a Division 3 state basketball championship as a junior, and she was on track to contend for Michigan Miss Basketball. But that final high school season of the game she loved was quickly lost. She tore her ACL not even halfway through her first game as a senior, stepping awkwardly while going for a layup, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Obviously, tearing her ACL wasn’t something she planned for, or wanted, she said, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise.
“Tearing my ACL was super hard for me, but I mean, I learned so much through it,” Bargesser said. “And I know that it was something that was good for me; I learned how to grow in my faith and how to rely more on God than on sports throughout my torn ACL, and I think I really needed that, and it was the perfect timing because college basketball is hard. You’re gonna go through a lot of hardships and trials, and without my faith, and without having grown so much in it through my torn ACL in high school, I wouldn’t be the player and the person I am today. playing college basketball now.”
Bargesser spent her final high school basketball season — the one where she had hopes of bringing her team back to the state championship — on the bench. It was a huge adjustment for the player who had averaged 26.1 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 3.5 assists the season before.
But it wasn’t a waste. Not at all. Instead, Bargesser became another coach on her team’s bench, learning the ins and outs of communicating effectively from a coach and player perspective.
“Being able to see both sides of the game, from when I didn’t play as much to now, I’ve learned that there’s always more to learn,” Bargesser said. “There’s always something I can improve on, and I just needed to learn how to be more eager to learning and listening.”
Still, Bargesser needed an outlet to put all of her anger after missing her final season — and that came in track.
Just four months after she tore her ACL, she was cleared to run for a full track season during her final months at Grass Lake. She won three track state meets in her junior season, and while she knew she wasn’t at full strength, she trained for a shot at defending her 400-meter title.
Bargesser ended up placing fourth in the MHSAA Division 3 track and field finals in the 400 with a time of 58.88 seconds. Running track wasn’t all about defending her championships, though.
“I was so sad, not being able to play my senior year of basketball,” Bargesser said. “So when the doctor told me I was able to compete one last time in high school, I truly felt how like trusting in God, and how God stays true to his word, and that, I think that really set me up not just for college basketball, but for life.”
She had no restrictions on her leg by the time the 2022-23 IU women’s basketball season started, but she still wore a brace for extra support.
Finding her place on the court
Coming into a top-25 program, especially just a year removed from a torn ACL, is a tough transition. Knowing IU coach Teri Moren’s style, Bargesser knew it was going to be that way.
“Your freshman year, it’s so hard,” Bargesser said. “The pace of the game is so much faster, and there’s so much more to learn. And I think just realizing that like, you’re not going to get it all right away. After some time, and listening, and trying to take in everything that the coaches are saying, your moment will come, you just need to be patient.”
Moren typically runs a tight rotation, especially when it comes to conference play.
In Bargesser’s freshman season in 2022-23, every starter averaged 29 minutes or more per game. Sara Scalia, then a sharpshooting transfer from Minnesota, got the bulk of the bench minutes with 26.7 per game, and she was the only bench player to see time in every game the Hoosiers played.
‘This is not normal.’ How Sara Scalia became one of the Big Ten’s best 3-point shooters.
Lilly Meister, a part of Bargesser’s freshman class, came close. She played in 31 games with one start in place of Mackenzie Holmes, averaging 6.7 minutes per game.
Bargesser was a rotational player for the Hoosiers for parts of her first year in Bloomington. When then-senior Grace Berger went down with an injury in November, necessitating a six-week recovery, Bargesser’s minutes steadily grew. She played a career-high 23 minutes against Nebraska on Jan. 1, 2023, which came in the middle of five consecutive games with double-digit minutes.
But when Berger returned in mid-January, Bargesser’s minutes fell off again. She ended up playing an average of 7.6 minutes per game, scoring 60 total points.
More: Q&A: Fever guard and IU alum Grace Berger on thumb injury, first WNBA season
Coming back from an ACL tear, transitioning to high-level college basketball, and working through her fluctuating minutes was difficult. But being forced to sit out of her senior season in high school made her realize that basketball wasn’t everything, and any time she got to play was special.
“I always used to think that basketball was my everything, and I finally was able to switch that mindset to know my identity is in God, and that’s how I get my confidence,” Bargesser said. ”My confidence comes from knowing my identity is already made in God, so I don’t need to do anything special in basketball but rely on the gifts and strength that God has given me in the sport. Now, I can just use basketball as you know, a gift and play with joy.”
How a brief starting stint can help the Hoosiers in the tournament
Bargesser continued to work in the offseason with newly-minted assistant coach Ali Patberg — they put in extra hours in the gym, extra time in the film room whatever she needed to improve.
“Lexie, she’s one of the hardest workers on our team,” Patberg, Bargesser’s position coach, said. “She’s in every day and just trying to get better and do what we’re asking her to do.
“She’s grown a lot in terms of how she approaches the game,” Patberg added. “Just her toughness, her attitude, mentality, and the way she is with her teammates. She talks a lot on the floor. She communicates at a high level and she’s just becoming a really good leader for us on the floor. That’s been the coolest, coolest part to see just her growth and in those intangible things.”
‘She loves Indiana.’ One of program’s greats Ali Patberg fulfilling dream on IU’s bench.
Bargesser became a core piece of IU’s rotation this season. She was one of the first players off the bench every game, bringing a fierce defensive mentality to the Hoosier backcourt
So, when senior guard Sydney Parrish injured her foot ahead of IU’s game against Purdue on Jan. 21, Moren had two options: She could either start freshman Julianna LaMendola, who had limited time on the court but was Parrish’s direct backup at the 4, or start Bargesser, who was always the first off the bench.
She chose Bargesser and her experience.
With Bargesser in the starting lineup, the Hoosiers needed to shift their rotations on and off the court. The sophomore had been serving as point guard Chloe Moore-McNeil’s backup, meaning there was going to be a smaller lineup out on the floor without a true power forward.
Bargesser wasn’t a scorer — she didn’t score in her first two games in the starting lineup. But scoring wasn’t something the Hoosiers needed at the time. They needed strong defensive plays and a facilitating ball-hander. She made an immediate impact in her first game as a starter, recording a block and a steal to set the defensive tone.
“We have scorers on the floor, I feel like we have a lot of them,” Moren said on Jan. 28. “We need Lexie to continue to facilitate … the decision-making, facilitating, all of that, and then she has to be another, our second-best, I think, on-ball defender.”
During her starting stint, which ended up lasting nine games, Bargesser became a defensive juggernaut. She and Moore-McNeil would trade off guarding the opponent’s best players, and Bargesser, as the quickest player on the team, frequently ran down fast breaks.
Bargesser eventually found her groove offensively. She scored 10 points with six assists against Michigan State on Feb. 8, and then 12 in a rematch against Purdue on Feb. 11.
“I’ve improved the most on just understanding the right moment for different things offensively, but also just like picking up the intensity of defense,” Bargesser said. “Understanding when I can take more risks on defense to give more energy to the team throughout the game.”
Parrish returned about a month after her initial injury, coming off the bench against Illinois on Feb. 19 and returning to the starting lineup on Feb. 22 against Iowa. As a result, Bargesser’s minutes went down, but she said she gained some invaluable experience in the starting lineup — making her essentially a sixth starter for the Hoosiers as they enter the grueling NCAA Tournament season.
Bargesser will be crucial for IU heading into March Madness, especially with center Mackenzie Holmes’ health in limbo. Holmes, who is IU’s leading scorer with 20 points per game, hurt her knee on March 3, leaving her limited in the Big Ten tournament.
Holmes’ path to IU: A Bob Knight camp started Mackenzie Holmes’ road to Indiana..
Holmes said she should be good to go for the NCAA Tournament opener against Fairfield on Saturday. But if Holmes can’t go for any reason, Bargesser will step in to give some defensive firepower at Assembly Hall.
“She has grown up, and she’s done some really great things for us,” Moren said on Feb. 11. “She’s had to, and she’s more than capable of doing everything that you guys are seeing … it’s a great, great thing that she’s gotten experience this whole time.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How IU sophomore Lexus Bargesser could be essential to tournament run
