Brogan Gets Her Berry Last Chance

It is rare that when asked about what a player needs to improve upon, a coach is rendered at a loss for words.

But Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith struggles to pinpoint something that co-captain point guard Brogan Berry needs to work on.

“I think Brogan has a complete game,” Delaney-Smith says.

The coach gushes about Berry’s unique and diverse skill set, complimenting her two-dribble pull-up jumper and ability to come off of screens as particular weapons of the three-time All-Ivy Leaguer.

Brogan Berry’s game is as unique as her name. She is undersized but has an unrivaled ability to get to the basket and is a powerful finisher.

Yet unlike most scorers, Berry has a knack for finding open teammates. While she led the team with 13.9 points per game, she also paced the Crimson with an average of 4.6 assists per contest.

“She’s the ultimate point guard,” Delaney-Smith says. “She has a very high court IQ, [and] she makes great decisions. She takes it to the hole. She can pull up. She can shoot the three. She’s a great passer. She finds balance in all of that.”

Berry came to Harvard with enough talent to earn her Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors, but she hasn’t rested on her laurels.

“I think I’ve definitely taken every year to learn from my teammates and coaches, and I try to get better every year, whether it’s going over film or going over plays with my younger teammates,” Brogan says. “I try to learn from everyone’s strengths.”

Berry spends countless individual hours perfecting her game and works religiously on the most critical fundamentals of basketball: shooting, dribbling, and passing.

She is also a student of the game. Berry has attended a camp called “Point Guard College,” which features on the court work coupled with class sessions, over the past few summers.

“Going to camps like that, reading books, and just attending a lot of games allows you to develop your game in a different way that you don’t have time to during the season,” she remarks.

Coming into this fall, Berry has focused on the leadership that she will need in order to guide a team that features five freshmen, along with a strong group of returning talent.

“This year comes down to me being an overall leader on the team,” she says. “Whether it’s being a leader by example in practice or games, or being a leader through my communication, or being able to take every individual’s weaknesses and strengths and apply it to our team goal. Everyone looks up to somebody, and that’s a big responsibility, but it’s a role I’m glad to take on.”

Berry’s role as a leader is one that Delaney-Smith feels goes hand-in-hand with her position. She stepped into the starting point guard role as a freshman, and has been looked to as a leader ever since, Delaney-Smith says.

“She’s always been a leader, but she’s going to be in charge of things like team synergy, reaching out to everyone—players that play and players that don’t play,” Delaney-Smith notes. “We’re only going to be as strong as our weakest link.”

Berry’s style of play speaks as loudly as anything she could say with words, cementing her role as a leader and teammate. She crafts her game so that her strengths augment those of her teammates.

“Brogan is a scorer so she attracts a lot of attention,” junior Victoria Lippert observes. “But with her drives, she always has her head up looking for kicks.”

Berry will need to up both her leadership and her on-the-court play to achieve the one goal that has evaded the star throughout here four years: winning the Ivy League title.

“The irony is, I think it’s amazing with how talented she is, has become, and was when she came here … that she doesn’t have a title yet,” Delaney-Smith explains. “We’re on a mission to get that title.”

Berry has no qualms with setting the bar high, after finishing last year second place in Ivy play.

“Our main goal is always to win an Ivy League championship,” she says.

But while this season begins with unfinished business, the highly decorated point guard speaks with contentment about her Crimson basketball career.

“Just being at Harvard—the best school in the country—and being able to play basketball at the same time has just been so much fun,” Berry says. “And I’ve learned a great deal from my experiences with basketball. The lessons that I’ve learned at Harvard have been invaluable, and I don’t think I could have learned them anywhere else.”