Ae’Rianna Harris says she hadn’t even considered the idea of an individual award at the end of the regular season.
So when the Big Ten named her the league’s Defensive Player-of-the-Year Monday — and considering she did so while nursing an injured right foot through most of the season — it came as a bit of shock.
“I thought, ‘Cool. I’m doing this on one foot, that’s crazy,’” Harris said Tuesday. “If (the honor) would have been in the back of my head, I would have thought, ‘Yeah, this is the goal,’ but it was like, cool. I was sort of nonchalant. I was excited, but the season isn’t over.”
Purdue (18-12 overall, 9-7 in the Big Ten), the No. 8 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, plays No. 9 Rutgers (19-11, 7-9) at noon Thursday in Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The Boilermakers are well represented by the league, with Dominique Oden joining Harris on the second team (media and coaches), while Andreona Keys was a second-teamer (media) and honorable mention (coaches). And Karissa McLaughlin was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team.
“I thought it was very well deserved all the way around,” Coach Sharon Versyp said. “I was very pleased that three of them got on the second team.”
Harris, only the third Purdue player in program history (Kelly Komara and Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton) to be the league’s top defender, is averaging 12.4 points, 8.8 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game, making her only one of four players nationally to be averaging better than 12, eight and three.
The 6-foot-1 forward ranks fifth in the nation with 92 blocks; already, she’s more than half way to Wisdom-Hylton’s career Purdue mark of 281.
“Figured ‘Ria would be one of the defensive (team) players, but for her to win it, it shows that all her work paid off,” Versyp said. “She’s obviously a threat when she can be a shot blocker or be able to rebound or get her hands on a lot of things.”
Harris spends much of her practice time on a scooter, with her right foot in a boot. She has a lingering injury that won’t require surgery, but will need rest and rehab. But now, she’s playing through it.
Tuesday, she sat on the scooter while talking to several reporters, one of whom asked how she is feeling.
“Scoot, scoot,” she laughed. “I’m chilling.”
The noon Knight matchup
Purdue and Rutgers split their regular-season series, each taking the home game.
But since the Boilermakers beat the then-21st ranked Scarlet Knights Jan. 10, it’s been a struggle for C. Vivian Stringer’s crew. It heads to Indy having lost eight of its last 10, and after being 15th in the NCAA committee’s first list of the tournament’s projected top 16, it’s in danger of missing the tourney.
But Rutgers’ defense is solid — it held Purdue to only 47 in the Boilermakers’ 14-point Mackey Arena win — so Purdue will have to be careful with the ball.
The Knights, who are ranked ninth in the country in steals per game (12.1) and 24th in blocked shots per game (5.2), lead the Big Ten in scoring defense, holding opponents to 59.3 points per game.
“They’re doing the same things,” Versyp said. “They want to run on you, turn you over, so they can get fast-break points. They want to get second-chance opportunities. That’s where they score 80 percent of their points, so obviously we want to control the tempo. We want to be able to do a good job of controlling the boards, hat’s a big key. But we have to be able to take care of the basketball, whether it’s full court or half court.
“You’re going to turn the ball over on them, you just don’t want to do it 20-plus. If you can stay under 20 — and I know that sounds strange, but it’s what they do — if we can stay in that 15-turnover range or if we turn it over, we have to be able to set up our defense. That’s what they want, to speed you up, so we have to control tempo.”
Buddy tape
Oden has her left ring finger taped to her pinkie, a buddy system that will help keep the little one in line.
The sophomore guard dislocated it in the second half vs. Michigan State, cooling her off after a hot third quarter. Then, Oden scored 14 of Purdue’s 30 as the Boilermakers rallied from down 15.
“It’s kind of weird to have two fingers taped together,” she said. “… But hopefully I’ll get used to it real fast.”
Oden, who has averaged a team-high 15.5 points per game in the Big Ten, doesn’t think the buddy tape will affect her shooting, but she is somewhat concerned about dribbling with her off hand.
“(Dribbling) is finger tips,” she said, “and this finger tip is covered up, so that’s something I’ll have to get used to.”
Oden doesn’t know how she suffered the injury; standing on the lane line during a free throw in the second half, she looked down and saw that her pinkie had locked against her palm. And she couldn’t move it.
“I went to the bench and they said, yeah, it’s dislocated, so we popped it back in place,” she said.
Still out
Lamina Cooper remains sidelined due to illness, Versyp said.
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