Sharon Versyp Show for Monday 1/13/2020
(with Tim Newton)
My Notes - not verbatim but close. Parentheses are my input. (Notes do not necessarily reflect my opinion)
(with Tim Newton)
My Notes - not verbatim but close. Parentheses are my input. (Notes do not necessarily reflect my opinion)
- Tim: We were actually talking about football games over the weekend and the Houston/KC game - and its true of all games at any level - how one play can change the complexion of the game. When Houston decided to kick the FG instead of go for it on 4th & 1 it seemed like everything after went Kansas City’s way. Coach: Yes and once that starts it’s hard to stop that momentum good or bad. The same a couple weeks ago when Ohio State got the targeting call against them and Clemson took all the momentum - and the game - away from tOSU. We see it every day in our sport - it could be a FT, it could be a charge call or just that one TO.
- Tim: As a head coach you’ve been on both sides of that equation where one team has a big lead and then the other team charges to close the gap. Like Sunday at NW where you’re making a big charge in the 4th Q and it’s amazing. You can see it in their body language, their facial expressions, in the huddle. Coach: You can see it on the floor, in the huddle, on their faces. On Sunday it was a tale of two halves. NW’s D was unbelievable the first half and then for us when we made our run our D was unbelievable; It’s amazing how people can suddenly make their shots. You go back and forth.
- Coach: Yesterday was one of those games where they were kind of giving it back to us and we didn’t end up taking it. We learned a lot of good things but that’s something that when you are going back and forth and have those opportunities where we did get what we wanted - good looks. But when you go through that you’ve got to understand no one is going to give you anything without you working for it. You’ve got to be able to finish. You never want to get behind but the best thing is for you to have a lot of fight and this group has a lot of fight.
- Tim: In BB even more than other sports like FB you can make up a lot of ground in a short period of time - with the 3PT shot you can score 7-8 pts in 7-8 secs. Coach: You can. And in WBB now you can call a timeout and advance. Five secs is an eternity because you can get a timeout and score in 1 sec because you don’t have to work the ball up the court. So our game is made more exciting that way.
- Tim: Since we’re talking about the NW game let’s finish our thoughts on that. You were up early with a 10-4 lead and then 25-21. They got a couple of spurts. Unfortunately the offense went away in the 2nd Q where you only scored 8 points. You got great looks at the basket and just couldn’t finish. Coach: Yeah, you know, we missed bunnies. When you miss those bunnies that’s when you get tense and you’re not relaxed. You get tight. Then every shot gets tense. You’re getting the shots you want but they are just not going in.
- Coach: As we learn and grow, and obviously we have to grow quickly this week This last week we faced Rutgers, IU and NW and they’re the top defensive teams. Emotionally losing a player and then trying to get back up. I thought in the 2nd half at NW we really battled - we started out great in the 1st Q but then got complacent. But we’ve got to put the pedal to the metal. We haven’t talk about IU but we should have been up 10-1 at the start. (If you don’t take advantage of those opportunities it changes the game. Anytime you make a big shot or layup it changes the game - you can be dead tired but it charges you up. You’re pumped and you’re excited. We just have to finish better. But we were still (inaudible) and we came out in the 3rd Q and played a triangle and two and did our job but we didn’t box out and fouled them and then it just kind of built up.
- Tim: You did a terrific job on Sunday on Pulliam, one of the top players in the conference. You held her to 10 pts and she took a lot of shots from the field (that she did not make). You could see her frustration building up. Coach: Well we talked about how we needed to take Pulliam out, we needed to toke Scheid out. I thought we did well but then we started fouling Pulliam in the 4th Q. She was not making shots - just keep contesting - she was out of rhythm. We had done out job. In the 4th Q we put them way too much at the foul line. We did fine with that until the 4th Q.
- Coach: You know, you’re playing catch-up and being aggressive. We did a great job but then we let Wolf (Senior 6’4” center) - who has never had a game like that in her life - (go on a streak) and let that happen. You know, when you take certain players away - they took Traylor away and several other players - we needed maybe Harris to step up and score some points. Because everybody will take certain things away but then others need to step up. You can’t give up 24 pts down low. So those are the things we need to get better at.
- Tim (after a break): On Sunday Purdue fell at Northwestern 56-61. They were down 18 pts with 3 mins left in the 3rd Q. I thought that you turned the tide a little bit before the end of the 3rd Q when you got it down to 12. You made it more manageable and you could feel the momentum starting to shift. Coach: Absolutely - you always talk about our D and it’s been solid against these teams that score a lot of pts so we’re still defending well. But when you start making shots you get the energy on D. We started pressing causing some problems pressuring - making them take quicker and off-balance shots. We had talked about having some issues sharing the ball and we did better with that with 17 assists so we got better in that area. So you could feel them playing better on both the defensive and offensive end and just understanding things. We made half time adjustments. Your D can be strong but will it still be strong in the 4th Q. But we started to make plays and make some tough shots.
- Tim: Not only were you able to make shots but if I’m not mistaken I believe NW missed their first 14 FG attempts in the 4th Q. Ironically the one they did make in the last minute was Wolf on the put-back that really hurt you after you had come up with a good D stand. Coach: Yeah, and that just goes back to not blocking out on the left side. We’ve got to be able to do those things. Again, we now have to do that by committees than before. There are always reliable rebounders but every guard has to box out - especially when we are undersized. We have to use out quickness a little bit better.
- Coach: That’s the thing - it’s that one rebound, that one shot, that one call going the other way. But it was great that we were fighting. The huge confidence builder was that when we got close to the end of the game, we called three plays and executed them to the T and scored the baskets. We got the game tight and talked about what we needed to do on that last play. We had a good look for Grant to tie the game. So the two time outs, executed to the T, did everything we needed to do defensively and that should bring a ton of confidence so that if we are in that situation again we’ve done that, we’ve been successful. Sometimes you do that and the play blows up, (or) they take something away from you, (or) you don’t make the shot. So the execution at the end of the game was successful.
- Tim: You talked earlier that no lead is safe in BB - they were up 7 with 40 seconds to play and you got a 3PT from McLaughlin and a layup from Harris. They missed a couple of FTs. You mentioned your down 3 with 9 seconds to go and you get the ball to in-bound. You throw a home-run ball to Harris who gets the ball to Grant on the right side. It looks like she has a great look and the ball looks like it was down but goes off the back iron.
- Coach: Yeah, we were supposed to get the home run to Harris - Hardin has the arm - and Harris’s job was to - Whilby and McLaughlin were supposed to “X off her”. Since Oden had fouled out, McLaughlin was supposed to come around but two people were on her. So Harris did the right thing and Grant did the right thing by popping out. When it left Grant’s hand I thought it was going to go in - you know, when it left her hand it looked a little bit strong but again, the execution was to a T on 3 of the last 4 plays. We need to do it a little bit better but when you’re playing catch-up your just trying to get a good shot. Maybe you’ll get fouled, maybe you’ll get a 1&1. But again, we can pull some good things from it.
- Tim: Let’s talk about Farquhar. Last week you had not made it official that she had injured her knee and was out for the rest of the season but then on Tuesday you announced that. How do you handle not just losing a starter in the middle of the season? Coach: Well, you just have to adjust but it is always difficult because you have your rotation, you’re starting to click, each person knows their identity. No one can (completely) take the place of any injured player.
- Coach: But Farquhar has played for three years now. She’s our best defender. She’s our heart and soul on D, our inspiration and gives us fire/emotion. She’s our top rebounder. She’s really good on offense. Everyone looks at scoring and she’s done a great job. But it’s her running - when Harris gets a rebound it’s her running in the lane down low so people have to guard her which allows the guards to be open in transition. There’s all these other things. Her heart - 100% all-in, she’s the hardest worker, it’s all the intangibles that people don’t realize.
- Coach: She told the team on Tuesday (Jan 7) and then for a couple days we are mourning and grieving and everyone wants to step up. So you have to adjust a little bit more. But there are opportunities there. Somebody has to get a couple extra rebounds. Someone else needs to run the floor a little harder. We have to collectively defend. We have to collectively box-out and do those type of things. As I said, at IU we could have jumped on top of that game a little bit better. We were trying to figure those pieces out. I felt that by the middle of the NW game we had started to figure that out. You could sense it. It was gelling. We started to understand rotations. Players were stepping up. We talked about Grant stepping up on the offensive end. We need to continue to do different things on the offensive end. You just morph yourself into a different type of team. It’s a bumpy road but I think we’ve jumped over the hurdle.
- Tim: We’ve talked about Grant sitting out last season after transferring. People wondered well what skills did she bring. We got a glimpse of that Sunday. She not only has ability to score around the basket but she has a nice mid-range game. Coach: And that’s why we recruited her. You saw Sunday offensively why she is here. She worked so hard for the year (that she sat out) and she did great things in Australia and then she had a leg injury. So she is still not in basketball shape. She is still not back. You saw her doing 10 mins here and 12 mins there but now she has to step up in a bigger role.
- Coach: I was just pleased for everybody because everyone sees that others are stepping up - take a deep breath. I thought Diagne did good things for us Sunday with rebounding and finishing. Everybody missed box-outs but I thought she was solid. Other players - Whilby came in cold off the bench and hits a deep 3PT. That’s hard - hard to do when you are sitting cold on the bench for the majority of the game. So we are finally getting back where we need to be. We’re gelling and we are going to be fine. We are going to be okay, we will do really, really well. It’s all about the confidence of our team. And then we still have Farquhar who is still there and an inspiration to all of us. Her not being at IU but being at NW was a big inspiration to us.
- Tim: We touched on the IU game where you got off on a 4-0 lead and then went into a little bit of an offensive drought. If you look at the three games IU lost this year they are the games that Patberg did not play well. When she plays well they are a pretty salty unit. Coach: Yes they definitely are. When we played them here last year we did a good job on her. When you watch their games it’s the same thing you just spoke about. She did well but other people didn’t. Berger was 1 for 11. We kept them below their average but we have to do better.
- Coach: Like at NW, even though we missed some lay-ups, we were ahead 25-21 and we grew from the IU game. But especially playing your rival, you need to do better. But like we talked about, we should have been up 10-1 and then they would have been playing a little differently. They would have started to get a little bit tight. It would have affected the whole strategy of the game. Like anything, you miss one lay-up - two lay-ups - three lay-ups and the outside shots. And we had looks. Then we are getting tighter and your cuts and movements might not be as sharp.
- Coach: Obviously in the 2nd half I thought Harris really stepped up for her team a little bit better but we need to be able to do that consistently. We need to find the right people. We need to see the floor a little bit better. It’s always a battle there. You are constantly fighting. Constantly trying to make something happen. But you’ve got to let the game come to us. But they are a great BB team. (I watched) them play Iowa where they lost in double OT but they had chances to win. But Patberg is the key but she hit shots against us.
- Tim: Talking about the IU @ Iowa game, I was stunned when I read that IU has lost in the Carver-Hawkeye Arena 20 straight times. Indiana has not won there since 1994. That would have to start getting in your head and become a little bit mental. Coach: Sometimes it does. Iowa had one of the top home Big Ten win streaks and we were the ones (in 2018?) who ended it. And we hadn’t won at Ohio State for a long time - even before our coaches being here. So we don’t even talk about that because once you talk about it it just gets fixed in their heads. Sometimes if you talk about it it just becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
- Coach: But IU is tough and their big posts are really efficient. I thought we did really well in (defending) their post’s play. Our posts did a really nice job there in boxing them out and not allowing them to make plays. Because their two posts do a lot of them. But again, it’s players making plays. All of us trying to make passes and having penetration to make the next pass and the get to the next passer and the next. But our point guards need to continue to grow to understand execution and reading lanes -if someone is taking this lane from you then you need to penetrate so I can create. You’ve got to penetrate. We need to get to the paint. We need to get to the paint. Those are the teams that are most successful - the ones who can get to the paint.
- Tim: We’ve heard all season how you need (offensive) production from your big 3 night after night - McLaughlin, Oden and Harris. I want to throw out some numbers. McLaughlin on Sunday hit a couple of 3PT. She has 300 3PT’ers and one more assist will give her 300. She has had to take on different roles this year and she, as we’ve seen game after game, is the person who the D focuses.
- Coach: Absolutely. They find her. NW did not make one mistake on her Sunday. Usually you can find mistakes. But they just chased her and Oden down. But McLaughlin has done a good job of finding a way to affect the game. If the D is focusing on her then she has to find a way for others to score. She challenges herself all the time, is tough on herself and a “self-critic”. I keep telling her she has to play three levels - the three pointer, mid-range and driving to the rim where she usually gets fouled or does a good job. So we don’t want to get totally focused on the three point shots. But Sunday they really chased her down. I think in the IU game she got some good looks but they didn’t go in. You know, when you make shots you always move better and get open. Again, we need to create ways for her to come off screens - we need to screen better and read screens better. It is a work in progress.
- Coach: I told her today - everyone knows you like the back of your hand. You need to improve in certain areas that you are “OK” at because they know everything about you. We have to improve and continue to grow to have the team continue to grow and we have go own that leadership. Her numbers speak for themselves. And you want these three to have amazing years this year because they ARE the big three. We just need to keep working at it.
- Tim: Oden has 1550 pts and needs 16 more to move into 13th place which right now is held by YOU. You did point out to me before the show, and rightly so, that you played before the 3PT line. So you would have been higher up on that scoring total with the 3 pt line. Coach: Well, records are made to be broken and that’s OK when there are the same rules and standards. (Laughs) But you want people to break your records because that means you are doing great for your team. The things I think are most important is that it is always about the team. Oden was a unanimous captain and that’s just huge.
- Tim: Lastly, for Harris, she has 335 career blocks which is 5th all time in the B1G. She is 14 career rebounds away from passing Lyndsay Wisdom-Hylton. So by the time she leaves here she will not only be the leading shot-blocker in Purdue history but the all-time leading rebounder. And she only needs 45 rebounds for 1000 and she will be the first in the program’s history to make 1000 pts and 1000 rebounds. There have only been 23 players in the history of the B1G who have grabbed 1000 rebounds.
- Coach: Yes, Harris needs to just keep playing at a high level day-in and day-out. You are always seeing her getting rebounds. If we can see her get a couple more offensive boards that would be big for her and for her team as it will help her score points. She is an incredible athlete. Sunday she had three blocks in a row that were just amazing. Those are the things that get your team going - the momentum. Those three are just very special. It’s been fun coaching them.
- Tim: There is quite a log-jam in the B1G conference right now. For the first 5 games there is no one winless or without a loss in the conference. In the top 30 or 40 in the RPI you have Maryland, Northwestern, Indiana, Iowa, Purdue and Ohio State. It will be a fun race the rest of the way. You better strap it up every night. Coach: Everybody is going to beat everybody up. I don’t ever look at the bracketology, but someone said that there are 10 B1G teams in the brackets. That’s not going to happen - that’s what it is right now. But even though we are supposedly (air quotes) not even close to being the best conference which is supposedly the PAC-12. I guess that is because four of their teams are in the top 10 but the rest of the conference is, you know, substandard. But top to bottom it doesn’t matter - at home, on the road - you gotta be ready. It has been topsy-turvy.
- Coach: I have been so shocked by the amount of pts people have been beaten by. Tim: Yeah, you look at Iowa going to NW a couple of weeks ago and winning by 26. Coach: And then Maryland goes there and is beaten by 30 or whatever. Maryland goes into Michigan and beats them by 30 or 40. Tim: If you tried to get a transitive property here your head is going to explode. The math just doesn’t work.
- Coach: It just doesn’t make sense. It’s a battle. We talk about this every year. But when you see that 10 teams would be in bracketology this year you say “Wow”. There could be 10-12 teams that are right there but it’s going to come down to their RPI and their SOS. And we’re included in that but you’ve got to win some games. You got to keep going to work - you’ve got to be successful. Those things are going to really matter down the stretch.
- Tim: By the way, talking about schedules, it sounds like the B1G women are going to go to what the B1G men have done the last few years. Starting next year you’re going to play some B1G games before Christmas. Coach: Yes, we’ll play two games early in the season just like the men are doing. We don’t have any byes in our schedule. We’ve got to make sure how the calendar falls next year. But we are going to be doing the same thing. We will have to be ready to go.
- Tim: Two games at home this week and the two teams played each other Sunday - Illinois and Minnesota. A lot of people were surprised that Illinois picked up the win at home but Minnesota played without Destiny Pitts (guard/forward 5’10” sophomore) - who had been suspended and the Bello sisters (forwards 6’2” juniors) did not make the trip. So there were a lot of question marks heading into their game on Sunday. Coach: Yes. There is not really a down team in the B1G and with Illinois winning their first conference game they will be on “Cloud 9” as they should be. They have some good post players. They’ve got some 3PT shooters. They’ve got some one-on-one players. So like you said we have to strap it up every night and be ready to go. They’re tough.
- Coach: And Minnesota - they spread you out. They shoot lights out. They have Hubbard (guard junior 5’9”) back this year. And obviously Pitts being out - whether it will affect any of them whatever the suspension will be who knows. But everyone will be ready to go. We need to do good things and get that good (winning) feeling back again.
- Tim: You mentioned Illinois and their Holesinska (guard 5’10” redshirt junior) from the Czech Republic has scored big for them. She scored more than 25 pts Sunday. She can score inside or outside and get to the foul line. Coach: She used to be just a 3PT shooter but now she has obviously improved her game. For us we need to take her 3PTs away - we will need to chase her around. We need to keep her from settling in. I watched that game today and saw her being able to put the ball down and being able to finish a lot better than she had in the past. She’s grown her game. And Beasley (guard 5’6” senior) still is a great one-on-one pull-up jump shooter. Andrews (forward 6’2” senior) can shoot the 3 and stretch you out. They’ve got some good post players who can do some good work. So they have some good pieces but it is just how we set the tone and the tempo.
- Tim: Classes start today. Vacation is over not that they had a full vacation but at least a school vacation. Coach: Well I like that. A lot of our kids wanted that structure back. I’m not sure they wanted school to start again (laugh) but like last week was kind of a long week when you are playing three games and emotionally you don’t have someone else to turn to. We’ve done a lot of creative and fun things to keep them going but everyone is good with structure. Everyone does better when they have deadlines and that type of thing.
