The good thing for Purdue is that it feels its recent issues are solvable.
The Boilermakers, losers of five of their last seven, are attempting to make a course correction with six games left in the Big Ten. And a lot is at stake, primarily a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Goal No. 1, coming off a loss at Wisconsin, is getting back on the glass. The Badgers beat the Boilermakers (16-7 overall, 7-5 in the Big Ten) there, 38-29, regularly getting second-chance opportunities – they scored 12, including four critical points in the last couple minutes – in a 64-57 victory.
“That was the biggest thing,” junior Bridget Perry said. “Watching film of that game, we would force up a shot that we wanted them to take and then not secure the rebound. We couldn’t reward ourselves.”
Rebounding had been a concern for the Boilermakers before the season, but it hadn’t yet been a problem. The Badgers made it so. Perry had 10 rebounds, but six others combined for only 14.
“They crashed the boards hard – and other teams have – but I thought we were out of sync in the post spot a little bit,” Coach Sharon Versyp said. “But we have double-teamed all year, and on the weakside, our guards did nothing. And usually that’s what has gotten us going.”
It’s been Purdue’s formula: Get a defensive stop, rebound and – if the opportunity presented itself – get into transition. The Badgers didn’t allow it, nor did Maryland a week before; the Boilermakers play the seventh-ranked Terrapins (21-3, 10-2) in the rematch at 7 p.m. Thursday.
In the first meeting in Mackey Arena, Maryland raced to a 87-67 victory, behind the strength of 65.5 percent shooting. Guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough had an arena-record 41 points, hitting 17-of-21 shots.
But Purdue doesn’t think all was lost; In that game, the Boilermakers played even on the boards, although Maryland didn’t miss a lot, and was within seven in the fourth quarter. But they turned the ball over 17 times, leading to 26 UM points.
“We did some really good things, we did,” Versyp said. “If you look, we did some really good things, the biggest thing was that we didn’t allow them to get a lot of offensive boards, but they shot the ball well. The big key was transition defense. It’s going to come down to rebounding, transition D and you can’t allow yourself to make a lot of mistakes or they’ll make you pay.”
After Maryland, the Boilermakers host Michigan on Sunday afternoon. Then, they’re at Iowa and Nebraska before hosting Rutgers and Wisconsin in the final week of the season.
Four wins over its final six would give Purdue 20 before the start of the Big Ten Tournament, perhaps a magic number for entry into the NCAA tourney.
The Boilermakers, though, say they’re not looking at it like that.
“It’s three weeks before Big Ten, you should be excited, fired up, it shouldn’t be panic mode,” Versyp said. “But each game has so much more significance. You’ve got to try to downplay that, you can’t say ‘Oh, you’ve got to have this one’ and then it’s more stress. You’ve still got to play all year, but this is where you jockey for wherever, it could be third through seventh, eighth, ninth.”
Last edited:
