SOUTH BEND, Ind. — During a practice this season, Sharon Versyp took a ball and wanted to prove a point.
Pass the ball up in the general direction of freshman Ae’Rianna Harris, Versyp repeatedly told the Boilermakers, and she’ll be able to catch it. So Versyp decided to demonstrate.
“She would ask for the ball, throw it up and say, ‘’Ri, go get it,’ said Harris, “and then look at her guards and say, ‘You see, literally, just throw it up.’”
It’s a tactic that’s working for the ninth-seed Boilermakers (23-12), who played top-seeded Notre Dame (31-3) at 9 p.m. Sunday in Purcell Pavilion in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Twice on Friday, when Purdue beat Green Bay in the first round, the Boilermakers tossed the ball up for Harris, the second time coming on a fastbreak lob pass from Andreona Keys that she swooped in and laid up.
“She can jump out of the gym,” Keys said of Harris, who had 12 points, seven rebounds and three blocks in Friday’s win. “She’s athletic and has great hands. In the game, whatever happens, it’s a basketball play; throw it up to her.”
Harris certainly is a leaper. The 6-foot-1 forward can dunk, although she hasn’t in a game. She’s thought about it, however. In a game earlier this season, she ran the break with fellow rookie Lamina Cooper, but the pass she anticipated came a half-second late.
A moment earlier, Harris said, and she might have made the attempt. But she admits the highlight play isn’t necessarily important to her.
“I think about which shot would go in, rather than which shot would look nice,” she said.
Rivalry renewed?
From 1991 through 2012, Purdue and Notre Dame played 24 times.
But they’ve not faced each other since, with the Boilermakers, who own a 14-12 edge in the series, having lost seven straight, the last three by an average of 25 points.
The reason was debated during day-before press conferences on Saturday.
Versyp suggested expanding conferences — and extra scheduling complications — as a possibility, but also that Notre Dame wanted its home games over the weekend, while it was willing only to play in Mackey Arena on weekdays. The presumed reason being that Purcell would be fuller on the weekends and Mackey less so during the week.
“We never could commit to having equal home and home situations,” said Versyp, Purdue’s 11th-year head coach.
“… When we could play here, we would play on a Sunday. And when they would come here (to Purdue), the only opportunity was during the week, and I didn’t think that very fair.”
Muffet McGraw, in her 30th season at Notre Dame, says she’d not heard that reason previously, but said the Fighting Irish want to play.
“We’ve called them. They said it was too late, we couldn’t schedule for that next year (in ’13) even though we had played them every single year, so it just turned into a ‘We can’t find a date’ answer,” McGraw said. “We would love to get the rivalry going again.”
It’s had great moments. In 10 of the 26 games, both teams have been ranked in the top-25 — and five games, both were at least 13th — while at least one team has been ranked in all but three. The rivalry even reached the pinnacle, when Notre Dame beat Purdue in the 2001 NCAA National Championship game.
“That’s one we’ll never forget,” McGraw said. “We’ve had some great games over the years.
“Outside of conference, I think it’s one of the better (rivalries) that we’ve had. I think that’s one team that you play pretty regularly. We both were recruiting the same kids, a lot of Indiana kids on both teams, so it was always a pretty good rivalry.”
Senior Bridget Perry is one of those Indiana players — Purdue has five Indiana natives on its roster; ND only two — and she’s looking forward to the game.
“Before I came here, they would play every year and then they stopped the year before I got here,” the Roncalli grad said. “It was kind of a bummer for me, because Purdue playing Notre Dame is a really great matchup instate, somewhat of a rivalry. I’m glad we get to play them. It’d be a cool matchup I’d like to see more, but I’m not really in charge of that. I’m excited to finally get the chance to play them, especially going to Purdue and growing up in Indiana. Those matchups were always fun to watch.”
Versyp didn’t rule out a renewal.
“We have to see in the future if that would be good for both programs,” she said.
The nightcap
Although opening statements aren’t generally part of the pre-game press conferences, McGraw requested one Saturday.
Because she had an issue to talk about, expressing her displeasure over ESPN setting the tip for 9:05 Eastern on Sunday night.
“I think 9 p.m. on a Sunday night is a ridiculous time to play a basketball game,” she said. “It’s bad for the student-athletes who have to get to class on Monday, it’s bad for the team that has to travel and it’s really bad for our fans. I think it has the opposite effect on attendance, it’s really detrimental to our attendance, where we were really hoping to enjoy a great crowd. The parents, the kids, who have to get to bed at 9 o’clock, they have school the next day, it’s a really a bad decision to play this game at 9 o’clock.”
Purdue-ND is one of two games in the women’s NCAA tipping after 9 p.m. ET Sunday, but the other — Creighton vs. Oregon State — is being played in the Pacific time zone, a 6:10 local tipoff.
“I think the home team should definitely have some say in when they play because they know their crowd the best, but I just think Sunday is a great day to play in the afternoon,” McGraw said. “I wouldn’t want to tip after 5 p.m. I think that’s good for a Sunday.”
On the road
Notre Dame isn’t an easy place for opponents to win.
It's lost only one game this season in the Joyce Center, when UConn beat the Irish by 11 in early December. The Fighting Irish have won 42 straight conference games, first in the Big East, then the ACC.
And they’re 17-2 all-time in the NCAA Tournament at home, including 11 win in a row.
In the NCAA, the top 16 teams are seeded as hosts, playing on their campus courts the first two rounds. It gives a home-court advantage but also ensures larger crowds, a trade-off.
Perry says she’d prefer that over partially empty arenas.
“I would rather play with people there, because it brings more excitement to the game,” Perry said. “It’s just a fun environment to play in, whether you’re the home team or away team. Literally everyone is against you, so you come in with the mindset that it doesn’t matter who’s against me, we’re going to show up and make some noise. That’s really cool that a lot of people will be here.”
