Sharon Versyp Show for Monday 1/6/2020 (with Tim Newton)
My Notes - not verbatim but close. Parentheses are my input.
Notes do not necessarily reflect my opinion.
My Notes - not verbatim but close. Parentheses are my input.
Notes do not necessarily reflect my opinion.
- Tim: Let’s start with the win over Wisconsin on New Years Day 72-61 over a good team. Coach: Wisconsin is very well coached and they do a good job of spreading the floor. What their guards do really well in that they penetrate and cause you to rotate and step off to their post players. Sometimes they’ll throw up a wild shot but they will break people down. They’ll dump it to Imani Lewis who is a great BB player. Their post play is their strength. When post play is their strength you should play a little bit of zone but I didn’t want them to knock down their 3PT’s like when we played them at their place last year. They had played Rutgers and had them but ended up losing in the last minutes.
- Coach: They came in to us and we had a 13 pt lead and then we missed a couple of bunnies which happens. We did well from the FT line which is what really helped us. We ended up playing a lot of man-to-man which really worked in our favor. We were able to get up and down and share the BB. McLaughlin had an amazing first half and we were able to find her. She shot the ball exceptionally well. And then in the 2nd half we were able to have other people step up.
- Tim: You mentioned the FT shooting. You had not shot well in the non-conference games but in our first two conference games you shot 31 of 35 from the line. Coach: That’s what we talked about. When you go to conference play you need to shoot 80-85% at the FT line. You have to have the right people up there. When it gets down to TO’s and FT’s those are the key ingredients along with REB that we have to be very good at.
- Tim: We also talked all season about having your big 3 perform - McLaughlin, Harris and Oden. They combined for 46 of your 72 pts in that game so they gave you that base that you needed to pull out a game like that. Coach: Absolutely. We need scoring down low. We talk about the touches; we play through our posts. They’ll double team Harris quite a bit. We were able to get Farquhar quite a bit and she was able to turn and face. Harris has to score, Oden and McLaughlin too. There are other games where other people step up - Traylor & Hardin - who’s starting to do some good things - but you’ve got to score through the posts.
- Tim: It was a Big Ten game so it was different but you had a lead most of the way. It wasn’t that much that you could feel entirely comfortable but it wasn’t that close that it got real tight in the end either. Coach: That’s the thing. We had a 13 pt lead and then they made a little run and then we made a little run. In the Big Ten that’s what happens. It continuously goes back and forth. When you think you have a 6 or 10 point lead all of a sudden it’s a 2 pt lead.
- Coach: The conference is strong top to bottom and you have to be able to play every single game. A big key is that you have to get off to good starts and you have to set the tone whether you are on the road or at home. Those are the things that are going to allow you to be successful. Collectively against Wisconsin I thought we did some good things offensively. Defensively there are always some things. There are little dead spots and you don’t play perfectly.
- Tim: We have a fan bus going to the IU game Thursday. They’re drawing big crowds in Bloomington and we need to see some Black & Gold there. Coach: Definitely. They’ve done a great job of promoting WBB down there. Teri (Moren, Head Coach) has done a nice job there - every year continually getting better. Once they got their WNIT championship (2018) they kind of got everyone going. Anytime there is a Purdue/IU game there will be a lot of people in the stands.
- TIm: Sunday you go against Rutgers and unfortunately the first 80 seconds set the tone early. You got in the hole 0-7 and you stopped play and tired to get things corrected. Coach: Obviously it’s frustrating. You try to be prepared and be ready. We knew they were going to press. We went 7 on 5 for 72 hours. So it was disheartening how we started out - turning the ball over, not guarding the ball well, allowing off boards. The things they do well that we wanted to prevent we allowed them to do. We tried to stop the bleeding (at that timeout) but it continued. You can use all your timeouts in the first Q or you wait. Obviously it’s a good thing we waited but that first Q really hurt us. Got us totally behind. We tried to keep them calm and cool - that we would be fine and we are better than this and to keep fighting.
- Coach: Then obviously when Farquhar went down it became extremely emotional. You’re fighting like heck and then one of your teammates goes down. One thing I really love about our kids is that they stayed out there with her. A lot of people want to go to the bench and usually I tell them to go to the bench but I did not tell them to go to the bench Sunday.
- Tim: The Boilermakers were down 26-9 with 7 mins to play in the first half and after giving up 26 pts to that point you began to chip back. You only gave up 2 pts the next 7 mins. But during that run Farquhar was going for a rebound and went down injuring her leg. No announcement yet but later this week (after further tests) we will have something announced on her status I am sure.
- Coach: Definitely. Any time a kid goes down with any injury but especially when its their knee and they’re holding it, it’s a tough situation. We had to regroup. At halftime, I tired to mentally and emotionally regroup. We talked about not being able to control a lot of things in our life but we can go out there and fight like heck. I was extremely pleased with how hard we fought. It showed the character of our kids. We don’t know her status right now. She’s been here for three years, playing 35 mins a game, our best defender, our top rebounder and she’s really worked hard. We tried to pull ourselves together and I thought the second half we really came out and did some good things.
- Tim: It was really telling to see some of the chemistry of this team. You were out there on the floor with her and the trainer and the assistant coaches were trying to get the other 4 players to come to the bench and that was not going to happen. Coach: No, not at that point. I didn’t tell them that - Farquhar needed to feel the love and concern of her sisters at that point. (For them to go to the bench) was not going to change the outcome of the game. I think “Tam” really appreciated their being with her. Obviously prayers for her right now. It just talks about the resilience of our kids. That can go either way (when something like this happens). You can “step in it” or continue to fight. We fought. You get frustrated when you let one go but I was really proud of how they continued to fight.
- Tim: You’ve been in that situation before - both as a player and coach - when you have a player go down with a potentially serious injury. I saw two kids when they were over on the bench with tears in their eyes. What do you tell them to try to get them turned around that they have some business to finish here before they go to the locker room? Coach: Well, I talked to the whole bench but in particular Diagne was coming in to take her place. I remember that conversation with Diagne because because she had tears in her eyes and not sure of what’s happening. You’ve got to stay really calm and I was just telling her that she needs to go in to help and I can’t put you in if you can’t do that. I told her she can pull it together. I got her to look at me and was really positive. That moment I had with Fatou was important - you’ve got to lead. She finished Farquhar’s mins very well and then did a good job in the second half.
- Tim: You got it down to a manageable 9 pts at half time. You got it down a little further in the 3Q and then got the game tied a couple of times in the 4Q and it was right there for the taking. Coach: It was and we talked earlier about FTs. No one tries to miss FTs. You have Oden and McLaughlin who are around 90% in their FTs but it changes play-to-play. A few made FTs would have put us in the lead.
- Coach: But Guirantes is phenomenal although she hadn’t shot the 3 ball really well and then she comes in doesn’t miss that makes a big difference. She was open her first two and then she was feeling it. We did what we needed to do but we have to be better boxing out so they do not get second chance opportunities. We tied it up and then they came down and did a “double-up” and got it in to Guirantes and passed it over people and she made a great reverse layup. You call certain plays but if someone is not open they need to make plays and the ball just didn’t go in for us.
- Tim: It seems like the difference between this Rutgers team and one Vivian Stringer has had in the past is - they’ve always played great defense and they’re holding teams to about 50 pts a game - they got the B1G’s leading scorer now and at the end of the game when they needed 3 buckets in a row she got them. Coach: She did. I thought we did a good job - double teamed her a couple of times - but she still scored. She is a kid who is going to score the ball a lot. I thought Makolo did a good job after Farquhar was on her the first half and we had to adapt to that. But Guirantes scored the ball.
- Coach: I thought Wallace, their big kid (6’3”) hurt us early on and really set the tone. We should not have let her touch the BB that easy. We’re going to change the rules for Harris. Harris is so athletic we can’t allow that to happen. We’ll make that adjustment as coaches. But Wallace set that tone down low and Guirantes set the tone knocking down those shots. Once you’re feeling it then good things happen. The fight was great but we left one out there and we’ll have to get that back.
- Tim: You mentioned Makolo. Roxane is turning out to be a pretty good defender, particularly for someone who is that young. Coach: She just knows the game - she understands it. Being on the Canadian National team for 3 years she can watch something and jump in and be a 1-2-3-4. Her offensive skill set has to continue to improve. I talked to her today and be working on constantly is that early on she would look to shoot a little bit but now she is not looking to shoot. Now she’s looking to drive and when you get to the Big Ten people are going to know all you are doing is to look to drive and you’re never going to shoot a three. When she can get all the way to the hole that’s great but we’ve got to get her to take some jump shots. When you’re playing as many minutes as she does and now her mins will continue to go up we need her to have that repertoire of doing a pull-up jump shot and creating for others.
- Coach: But Makolo has done phenomenal. You can’t expect freshman to do everything for you but she’s got a huge IQ. She doesn’t play like a freshman; she has a big heart; she plays hard and you know she is getting after it every time she is on the floor. It’s great to see her as she is an amazing kid and she will do anything. At one point I put her at the point because McLaughlin and Oden were running a certain play and she knew exactly what to do. You’ve got to have players like that and Hardin is the same way. Hardin can play a 2-3-4. I had a conversation with her today about that. The more versatile you can be the more benefit you can be for your team.
- Tim: As the game gets more international you’re seeing more and more players come in with international experience. We talked about how the rise in AAU basketball in the 90s and 00s changed the players coming in and now the rise in international experience is changing the college game because you are seeing these players coming in and they’ve been on the biggest stages and played against world class competition.
- Coach: Exactly. So a lot of things don’t phase them. Farquhar played for the Canadian Notional team too like Makolo. And Diagne played for her country’s team too and you need to remind them of that feeling and bring back the same confidence they had. You’re playing for Purdue now and your team needs you. They’ve had experiences that none of our kids have and those experiences can go a long way in terms of leadership. Even Grant from London who came off an injury and it’s harder for her but she has to get her confidence back. Grant has so big a skill set and I think we are going to see that in the next few months and I’m excited for that.
- Tim: I’m thinking about how tough it is to play a 7PM game on Sunday at Northwestern but they’ve played all sorts of time zones and traveling half-way across the world and away from their family and they have to grow up in a hurry. Coach: They do and they’re just very mature. They see things a lot differently. I tell our U.S. kids “You get to see your parents all the time. Can you imagine not seeing them for a year or two?” I think the blend of having all our different cultures and different talents is a lot of fun… it teaches us “everything” every single day. We appreciate that and learn a lot from each other.
- Tim: Looking at the standings, IU at 3-0 is the only undefeated team in the B1G and then 7 teams including Purdue are tied for second at 2-1, 4 teams are at 1-2 and Illinois & Penn State are 0-3. In the RPI, even with Sunday’s loss Purdue is at 24th and you’ve got IU and Iowa in the top 20 and tOSU and Northwestern in the top 25. So you’ve got 5 teams in the top 25 from the Big Ten RPI. It’s a testament to the B1G but also some teams try to make their schedule a little more difficult.
- Coach: Absolutely. They look at the RPI but also the strength of schedule. You can have a high RPI but if your SOS is 150 then you’re not doing what you need to do. I know tOSU’s SOS is 5, Iowa’s is like 10, IU’s is like 11, ours is like 19, and NW’s is like 22. We’re doing what we got to do but we need to win our home games. So we let one get away yesterday. But the fight we had it could have gone the other way. We won on the road at tOSU and we have 15 more games to go.
- Tim: If you want to look at how wild he conference is all you have to do is look at Iowa going to Northwestern Sunday and beats them by 26 on their home floor. The Hawkeyes year-in and year-out will have games where the basket looks like an ocean. Coach: Everyone wants to talk about doing X-Y-Z but if you are making shots everything is great. When Northwestern played Maryland, the Terps couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean and Northwestern looked like world-beaters. When Iowa played Northwestern the NW players had wide open shots and couldn’t make them and Iowa was hot from the beginning. IU has some great shooters as does NW. If you have open shots and make them, it changes things quite a bit. (And likewise if you miss them.)
- Tim: You’ve talked about trying to teach your young players that you can’t play through your shot. If your shot is not going down there are still some things you HAVE to do to help your team win. Coach: Yes, you’ve got to play hard, you’ve got to get the 50/50 balls, you’ve got to rebound both offensively and defensively. You’ve got to distribute the ball and just have energy for your teammates.
- Coach: The toughest thing is you’ve got to have great players - and zone is hard to get to the interior - but you’ve still got to have players to get the the FT line, If you’re not knocking down your shots you’ve got to somehow get to the foul line. You can’t just keep taking 3PTs and then there is a long rebound and they go down and score and all of a sudden it is a 12 pt game. It happens so quickly. Hopefully as we grow and fill in the pieces, if we don’t have Farquhar, we’ve had a dress rehearsal for a half. It will “take a minute” but we’ve got some good pieces to play a little differently.
- Tim: The Boilermakers and Hoosiers on Thursday night. So you’re playing against a very good Indiana team. Ali Patberg ( is a transfer from Notre Dame and has really helped them. She is healthy again and playing like the All-American she was coming out of high school. Coach: Patberg (guard 5’11”) is pretty much the key to their team. She has the confidence, the swag, the attitude and the toughness. She is a true point guard and wants the ball in her hands. She is their emotional leader and gets things going. When you have a kid that is that seasoned now - she is a senior (listed as redshirt junior??) - she is going to make things happen. That’s nice to have - seniors at the pt-guard position. That can get everyone on the same page who can do a good job of bringing everyone together on both ends of the floor. And she gets after it on D too. She is usually on the top player on the other team. She is really a good player.
- Coach: They’ve had that transfer and then Brenna Wise (senior forward 6’0”) transferred from Pitt. Those two transfers have really helped. Tim: And they have really good balanced scoring just as you have at the top. They have Grace Berger (sophomore guard 6’0”) who is actually their leading scorer, Patberg, Wise/ and Jaelynn Penn (junior guard 5’10”) all of whom are capable of scoring in that 15-20 point mark on any given night.
- Coach: Definitely. And they still run a lot of sets but now they are just more one-on-one because they all can take people off the ball - they can score. Berger can score at will right now. She has a great pull-up jump shot. She’s continued to improve on a lot of things. She is the back-up point guard now that they are in the B1G - they shortened their bench a little bit. They want to be physical. If you can break things down, rebound and get into transition - that’s what you want.
- Tim: Another tough game is coming up this Sunday and just a reminder that it says on the schedule it says it is a 5 PM game but that has been changed to 7 PM because it is being televised. Northwestern is a team capable of beating a lot of people and Lindsey Pulliam (junior guard 5’10”) is one of the top players in the B1G.
- Coach: Their whole group has been together for the 4th year now. They have very good guard play - their point guard (Veronica Burton, sophomore guard 5’9”) leads in steals. She is one of the best in the country in steals. She’s one of the best in the country in that. Pulliam is really good. Abbi Scheid (guard senior 5’10”) gets things going with her 3PT shot. And they’re pretty big. Where they have improved the most is in their D. “They always play their 2-2-1 press or their 1-1-2 and its a 1-1… its really a really a 2-3 zone but it looks like a 1-1-2-1.” They are just really pressing the ball. Their D was really stellar agains Maryland. They’ve always been able to score the ball and now that they’ve been playing together for 4 years - last year they went to the WNIT championship finals - and that just fuels your fire. And that just fuels your fire. And Joe (McKeown, Head Coach) does a good job. They’re always tough there. But like you said, it doesn’t matter if they are home or away, you are going to have to be able to compete.
- Tim: One of the things you’ve always said is that when you go on the road you’ve got to be 10 pts better. These two road games will be different atmospheres. There should be a lot of people in Bloomington on Thursday but probably not so many at Northwestern. So we will have to bring that excitement with us. Coach: Well we do and whenever we’ve played Northwestern we’ve always played during the day on Sat or Sun and a crowd would show up for us. But playing Sunday night we will need to create our own excitement.
- Tim: Anytime you go on the road and can steal one it’s great and if you steal two it’s even better. So let’s see if we can do that this week.
