Berry Wallace doesn’t look like a player still finding her way anymore. After a sophomore season that put her on the All-Big Ten first team, she’s entering the next stage of Illinois’ rise as one of the program’s clear leaders.
Wallace was a unanimous First Team All-Big Ten pick by conference coaches after putting up 18.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. She also led the Big Ten by logging 35.7 minutes a night, a sign of just how central she became to everything Illinois wanted to do.
That kind of jump changed her role inside the program. The talented underclassman has become a veteran voice, and Wallace said she’s trying to pass along what she absorbed early in her college career.
"It's been really cool just remembering what I learned my freshman year and all the things all those vets taught me, and just trying to remember that, apply it and give those same tips to the younger players on our team," Wallace said. "They've done a great job of absorbing everything I've said, and I think coaches tell them."
Illinois has plenty around her, too. Cearah Parchment, Destiny Jackson, Gretchen Dolan, Jasmine Brown-Hagger, Aaliyah Guyton, Maddie Webber and Lety Vasconcelos are all back from last season’s rotation, and LSU transfer guard Divine Bourrage joins the group after arriving as a former five-star prep prospect.
That depth matters because Illinois is coming off a season that ended with an NCAA Tournament return and a first-round win, and the expectations are higher now. One of the goals this season is to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
Wallace, a former McDonald’s All-American and five-star high school prospect, has become a major part of Shauna Green’s rebuild and a key reason Illinois is climbing in the Big Ten.
The numbers show just how big the leap was from her freshman year to her sophomore season. Wallace went from averaging 8.5 points per game to 18.4, a gain of 9.4 points.
Her minutes jumped by 9.9 per game, her shot attempts rose by 6.9, and she kept the same 47.2% field-goal mark while getting to the line 3.0 more times per game and improving her free-throw percentage by 8.7%. She also added 3.1 more rebounds per game, finishing at 6.2, and increased her assists by 1.1 per game to 1.8.
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