From July to November, Nora Kiesler couldn’t do much of anything.
Idled by another concussion — she’s had several dating back to high school — Kiesler could only wait. And so she did until the start of the regular season, when she was first cleared to practice, then play. But those early games, after missing the first three, were rough as she tried to work herself back into playing shape.
Only now does the 6-foot-6 reserve center appear to have gotten there. In the last two games, Kiesler has come off the bench to score a combined 13 points and grab seven rebounds in 30 minutes.
“It’s been a long time,” Kiesler said Tuesday, as Purdue preps to play at Nebraska Wednesday. “It’s just being on the court and getting that confidence back. My teammates are helping a lot. They look inside the post and trust me to take care of the ball and make the right decision. The Big Ten season, having a better matchup for me, with bigger post players, bigger bodies, is more my style of play and I knew that. Having that time to build the confidence and come back, after being out so long, is what is really playing a key right now.”
The conditioning is helping, as well. Clearly, Kiesler has been moving better the last couple games, her defensive rotations coming more quickly to allow her to be a presence in the paint. And that ability is keeping her on the court more, giving her a chance to impact the offensive end, too. There, she’s hit four of her six shots across two games, wins over Iowa and Northwestern, and five of her six from the foul line.
After missing Purdue’s first three games, Kiesler scored six in her 2017 debut vs. Utah, but then had only two in the next five games combined.
“There’s a huge difference between being in shape and being in basketball shape,” the junior said. “So playing those games and getting into the right condition and the right physicality of how the Big Ten plays, there were some frustrations of, ‘Why can’t I breathe? Why can’t I get up and down?’ It takes time, takes patience. But a huge credit to my team for having my back through all that, the coaches always pushing me and getting me in a little extra.”
Kiesler’s emergence as been a huge boost in Purdue’s recent run — the Boilermakers (13-7 overall, 4-2 in the Big Ten) have won three straight — because its bench is so short. With Lamina Cooper out due to illness the last two games, the Boilermakers have played with a rotation of only seven, which puts a premium on reserve minutes being effective minutes, and Kiesler’s have been.
“She brings us a lot of energy,” Coach Sharon Versyp said. “… She puts in a lot of time and effort and it’s good for all of us that she’s able to play.”
For a while over the summer, it looked like that might not happen. Kiesler was out with a concussion, only the latest in her career. The problems started at Assumption High School in Louisville, when she missed a significant portion of time, school even, with a concussion. And now this one.
“We started to see long-term issues starting to arise,” Kiesler said. “It was Coach V telling me that I needed to take a step back, that life is bigger than basketball. So it was just with her and teammates all behind me, I was able to get my health back to where it needed to be.”
Kiesler has experimented with extra precautions, like wearing a concussion-specialized headband or mouth guard, but she couldn’t get used to them, and they reminded her that something bad could happen.
Instead, she’s just trying to play smarter, perhaps not dive after a loose ball or charge into the sidelines.
“Basketball is a physical sport,” she said. “If something does happen — knock on wood — I have a great doctor in Louisville (Dr. Tad Seifert), he’s a great guy and is all about doing whatever it takes so that I’m healthy and I’m able to play. He knows how important it is to me, how much I would love to be out there. It’s a concern, but at the same time I signed up to play basketball. I know the things that come with it.”
Cooper still out
Cooper won’t play against Nebraska (14-6, 5-2) Wednesday in Lincoln, Versyp said.
The sophomore wing has missed two games while battling illness, and although she’s back at practice, she might not yet be ready.
“She needs to get her strength up and her conditioning,” Versyp said. “She won’t be with us at Nebraska, but hoping she’ll be good to go for Penn State (Sunday).”
Freshman Tam Farquhar has started in Cooper’s place.
Good bye
With only seven in the rotation right now, until Cooper returns, Purdue’s second Big Ten bye came at a good time.
The Boilermakers beat Northwestern on Thursday, then had the weekend free of games before taking on the Cornhuskers.
“When we played Northwestern, we were pretty shot,” Versyp said. “It looked that way. They played a good game, but there’s times you’ve got to grind it out. Everybody is in the same boat. We took a couple days off and got refreshed, which was nice over a weekend, because you usually don’t get that. (Monday) was a really, really good practice.”
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