Below .500: First time this late in BT season

[illiniboiler]

Since I can remember. Rutgers just deeper and more athletic than Purdue tonight. Similar to OSU.
At this point:
--We may well be looking at no tourney. I can see us winning 5 more games (not counting BTT tho we should have a bad seed in that) at best in the regular season which would only give us 15 wins. We may get in the NIT due to strength of schedule and the size of our crowds tho.
--We are not playing as badly as we were and sometimes playing well. We should have beaten an OSU team that is destroying Wisconsin on the road that beat us at home.
--At times we play very good D; at other times are really poor on the interior.
--Our outside shooting is the worst it has been in years.
--It appears we have the second toughest schedule in the nation, which does not help a team with almost no depth
--We have lost a number of OT games against good teams.
--We have no bench and our players are getting worn down.
--We have been really hurt by transfers and injuries.
--It appears that next year is a start over for Versyp. She will have the same guards a year older and she will have a huge, but young front line. She does have a top rated recruiting class. It is on her to turn us back to at least a BT contender or it may be time to move on.

 

[mathboy]

illiniboiler , This is well stated and fair. We are not a very talented or deep team this year.

There are some very good players on the team, but across the whole team, we are just not as good as usual. The class coming in next year, and hopefully the class after that should help right the ship. However, a young front line can lead to huge swings in execution, and very inconsistent play. So, next year could be rough also, but we should show more promise.

Like you, I see next year as a turning point in the program. If this next class is able to show the promise they would seem to bring, then I will consider us back on the road. I think we all knew this year was going to be tough with the loss of the guards who graduated.

If one of the underclassmen had been able to replace the 3-pt shooting we lost, it might be a different picture this year, but so far I have not seen the kind of game-to-game production KK and C-Mo brought. This reflects a recruiting shortcoming that will need to be addressed.

 

[destewart]

You really believe that second toughest schedule criap?

 

[GemstateBoiler]

I think our starting frontline this year is okay acceptable but our overall guard situation and bench might be the worst in the Big Ten. They have their moments but overall just not good. If we had one really good 3 point shooter, our team may be completely different. That said, I expect the incoming freshmen will make an impact next year but you can't expect freshmen to turn us around. I still envision guard problems next year again. Time will tell, I guess. It's been hard to take this year but it's still my school to cheer for. I'm at the point where I'm accepting defeats easier and I don't like that. I read an article where woman sports fans are more fickle than men's team fans.It said in women's sports, fans lose interest and desert faster than in men's sports and you don't get them back once they leave. Hope that doesn't happen here.

 

[Dan'l Boone]

I think Purdue's women's basketball fans have been pretty loyal over the years. The bottom half of the arena is consistently full. That being said, this year may be the start of a negative trend. Last night's game saw the bottom bowl only about half full and many left early.

Whitney Bays is a superstar. Unfortunately, she does not have a consistent supporting cast. Let's hope next year's recruiting class is as great as advertised. If not, we will have the worst attendance record in school history.

 

[WaltV]

I think that the front line is the major problem, which has made it much more difficult for the guards. We have ONE Big Ten caliber front line player. Yet, the offense continues to be built around getting the ball to posts who clog up the middle, preventing the guards from driving, and who do not have the necessary offensive skills to be effective. It is important to use an offense which takes advantage of the strengths of the players. I do not see that being done.
Having said that, the loss of Perry has been much greater than I thought it would be. She makes a huge difference.

 

[DocRon]

Agree with you about Perry. How people on this board and over on Knucklehead Central can go on and on about how bad our WBB team is but not mention the hit our team took with her being out for 6 wks (?) is beyond me. It has been a huge blow to a team of limited talent beyond their starters. The players just look whipped out there by the end of the game.

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This post was edited on 1/30 1:11 PM by DocRon

 

[destewart]

Minnesota lost the preseason POY, Ohio State lost THREE players to injury before the season began. Injuries are a fact of life and good programs build the depth necessary to absorb players losses.

 

[boilerluv]

Losing Perry did hurt--and hurt a lot. The other big hit we took (too late to try to recruit around it) was Redmon bailing out when she got her degree not sticking around for her final year of eligibility. No, she wasn't a huge scorer, but she would have been a huge presence in the middle, with her blocking, rebounding,and defensive skills. We would be a much, much better team with Camille on the floor. With Camille Redmon and Bridget Perry, we are a totally different team. I'm as disappointed in the way this season has been going as anybody, but just saying...and then---Moore is suspended, and we do not know all the ins and outs of what happened there and what effect it might be having on her teammates. Haley Bodnar is still on the sidelines, unable to play, and may end up being a red shirt for the entire season. When you put all this together and throw Maryland and Rutgers into the mix....well, this is what we got.


This post was edited on 1/30 9:25 PM by boilerluv

This post was edited on 1/30 7:26 PM by boilerluv

 

[illiniboiler]

Good points BoilerLuv and Manuel should be a productive senior now. Would really help if Bays and Clemens could get a break. Thornton is adequate and Horrocks is not ready and we have no one else to spell our front line. Tho Bays acts like superwoman, she gets tired too I am sure and Clemens is a good but not great player, fatigue probably being a factor too.
But what happened, happened and we cannot deny that a program that once was always in the BT title discussion is not at all this season. Will be interesting to see what next season holds. The program is at a turning point I think and Versyp will be the coach next year.

 

[DocRon]

Originally posted by illiniboiler:
Good points BoilerLuv and Manuel should be a productive senior now. Would really help if Bays and Clemens could get a break. Thornton is adequate and Horrocks is not ready and we have no one else to spell our front line. Tho Bays acts like superwoman, she gets tired too I am sure and Clemens is a good but not great player, fatigue probably being a factor too.
But what happened, happened and we cannot deny that a program that once was always in the BT title discussion is not at all this season. Will be interesting to see what next season holds. The program is at a turning point I think and Versyp will be the coach next year.

Illiniboiler. Your posts on this topic here and on Knucklehead Central have been reasoned and thoughtful. Thanks.

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This post was edited on 1/31 9:46 AM by DocRon

 

[boilerluv]

You are right about Manuel! That loss still bugs me. She could have been so good and we certainly could use her this year! She was that big "no fear" body in the middle that could be a game changer. And of course, if we had beat tOSU to the punch and hired Mitchell's dad as an assistant, we'd be moving trophies around in the Mackey trophy cases to make room



Editing to add: and if my aunt had had wheels, she'd be a tea cart.

This post was edited on 1/31 1:03 PM by boilerluv

 

[illiniboiler]

Doc Ron, appreciate your affirmation. Not many comment on this board and it seems to either be really positive or really negative. Most things are in the middle. The changing face of WBB is part of what happened to Purdue. I still and will always maintain that the Curry scandal when we lost those 3 top recruits allowed others like ND to by pass us and we have not recovered. Hopefully a top Ten class will send us back up the ladder but a lot of other programs, in the meantime, have hired new coaches and brought in solid talent. Therefore it is harder than ever to maintain a top program. Look at PSU. They have been great but the loss of experience has really hurt them and they have plummeted as has MSU. Look for Nebraska and Iowa to experience the same as well as others in their turn and for young programs like Illinois and Northwestern to have more success. Much more parity now. So you have to recruit and coach and not have a lot of injuries or player losses to really compete. Gone are the days when Purdue just had the best talent consistently. Whether we like it or not, we may have to be content with a competitive team with the dreams of dominance fading as it has for most BT teams. Maryland, a national program, at this point is the one exception. But with our fan base, Purdue WBB should be in the upper echelon most of the time.
It is reasonable to expect that.

 

[mathboy]

Originally posted by destewart:
Minnesota lost the preseason POY, Ohio State lost THREE players to injury before the season began. Injuries are a fact of life and good programs build the depth necessary to absorb players losses.

True that. I think the loss of Manual (academics) and Redmon (also academics, but different) destroyed any chance of us being competitive this year. You would also need to add in the injury problems some of our freshmen had to get a real perspective.

Also, our losses were all front court players, so we have a real thin spot there, and that is exactly where we are getting beat, along the front line. Although Perry is listed as a guard, most of her scoring was done in the paint. I know I remark about the lack of long distance shooting, but the truth is we are getting beat up front in most BIG games I have watched.

 

[smalltownIL]

"I still and will always maintain that the Curry scandal when we lost those 3 top recruits allowed others like ND to by pass us and we have not recovered." In my opinion, your statement hits the heart of the situation. I don't think Curry is a good coach and having watched Harris and Phillips (again, in my opinion) underachieve at Xavier, I don't think we'd have been the Final Four regulars that some on this and OldGoldFreePress think that we should be. But, having landed recruits like them would likely have drawn additional talent and Curry would still be here with us being top 3 in the B1G - and the boards would be grumbling because we regularly flamed out in the sweet 16 or elite 8.

 

[Boilermakerdad]

Totally agree with you, MathBoy. We do not have the front court necessary to hold up against the Marylands, Minnesotas, Ohio States, etc. in this league. Bays has had to play center against women 3 inches taller than her. With more front court support, our guards would be doing just fine.

 

[destewart]

Championship caliber guards do not shoot 35 percent

 

[TC4THREE]

Originally posted by illiniboiler:
Good points BoilerLuv and Manuel should be a productive senior now.

Yea she's working wonders for 2-18 Loyola.

The simple-minded people here will marvel at her 14 and 10 averages so far at Loyola.

-However, looking further, you'll notice she did not play in either of her team's wins this season.
-She has 53 turnovers in only 12 games. According to many here, turnovers weren't an issue for her.
-She's shooting 43% from the field (and this is against players who are on average not nearly as big as what she would face in the Big Ten).
-Did she work on free throw % during her time off? Apparently not as she's shooting 58% from the line.
-She's shooting 8% from 3 point range but that hasn't prevented her from hoisting 1 per game.
-If you go back and look at the play-by-play you'll find out why she averages so many rebounds per game. In addition to playing in a lesser conference, she misses many layups and then gets the rebound from her missed layup.
-And unless something has changed, you can probably count on the opposition beating her back in transition and off the dribble time after time.

Simply put, if you think this girl was a big loss (in anything but a body mass perspective) then you just don't understand basketball. The only way she was ever going to help us win games is by getting into shape and playing under control. My guess is that she didn't want to do either so she left to a program so bad that she could get away with both.

 

[illiniboiler]

She did indeed appear to have a motivation problem
But her frosh stats were encouraging
I believe she was all. Bt frosh team?
Truly a spilled Milk situation
Highly unusual
Losing a big I usually hurts and this is compounded
With the loss Redmond
Result no front line depth really
Hurting us

 

[Dan'l Boone]

Come on now??! The Curry scandal was what, 10 years ago? This is Versyp's team. We have had ample talent the past few years. That has not been the problem. We have had above average talent playing below average basketball for several years now. I am tired of it. Tonight was an embarrassment. Unfortunately, it was not the only time in recent memory.