My Notes Sharon Versyp Show 12/9/2019

[DocRon]

Sharon Versyp Show for Monday 12/9/2019
(with Tim Newton at 1910 hours)

1. Tim: Purdue WBB heading into finals week with a 7-2 record and Sunday knocking off Kent State 77-64 behind a record setting performance by Karisssa McLaughlin scoring 34 pts which is 7th on the list of individual scoring in Purdue WBB. On Sunday the Boilermakers will have a tough road game at Columbia South Carolina taking on #5 ranked South Carolina. The tip-off will be 2PM and the radio broadcast will start on WBOB at 1:45 PM.
2. Tim: First of all, “Congratulations on your 400th career win at the collegiate level.” Milestones are both individual and team accomplishments. Coach: Absolutely. A lot of people contributed to this. “I am extremely thankful and grateful.”
3. Tim: Last week you started with the B1G/ACC Challenge game against Virginia Tech. VTech had won 56 straight non-conference games on their home floor. They were very athletic. Coach: Yes, they were extremely athletic and we had been on the road for two straight weeks. You could tell - we didn’t have that bounce to our step and we were a step slow. We didn’t play exceptionally well and we weren’t sharp. They were sharp and focused. But we kept fighting back. We’d get it within one and then we’d go down and they’d get an offensive board up and we would go down. We had to keep fighting back. Then we’d fall behind and try to catch up again. We had looks but McLaughlin and Oden were 5/22 - that’s gonna be a struggle for us. VTech were energized and we were not. It is not something we are very happy about.
4. Coach: McLaughlin has struggled shooting the ball outside but she plays D, is the team leader and effects the game in o many ways.
5. Tim: You had foul issues and during the game when you didn’t have Harris or Farquhar (due to foul trouble) that’s when you really struggled. Coach: Yes, we struggled with fouls. Harris in the last three games has gotten in foul trouble and she can’t do that. She has to adapt better to the officials and how they are calling it. All players have to do that. After you get your first two fouls you need to be smart about it. You can’t “blow on anybody, maybe you can’t block shots.” Same with Farquhar - she has been playing so well getting rebounds etc and when both of those sit it is hard for us.
6. Coach: Of course, playing on the road you need to be 10 pts better in the first place. You have to act like you are always 10 pts behind and then if you get behind you have to be so aggressive. We have to get better in that area - just boxing out in general as a team. All five players. We have to get better at that if we want to be successful.
7. Tim: You got back late Thursday night and on Sunday played a Kent State team that had been averaging 73 pts a game and is picked to finish in the top half of their conference. Offensively they were a handful but your offense finally got clicking. Coach: Saturday we spent a lot of time looking at film. Obviously we had to get our offense going. We gave a certain number we had to achieve or we are going to be running all game. We’re better than that… we dribble the ball too much. We need to kick the ball ahead. In transition you have to hit your post player if they are open. In transition - that is the hardest time to guard anyone.
8. Coach: Kent State played a very good schedule - Michigan and tOSU. They were not intimidated by us whatsoever. We said we had to score over 70 pts. We scored 77. We said we need to keep them under 65 pts which we did (64). Our defense has been great but we need to rebound better. We’ve got to score pts - 3PT, 15 ft, and lay-ups. It obviously helps when we knock down our shots. It just opens up everything else and all of a sudden everyone else can relax (when hitting your shots.) If you’re not making your shots, then you’re tense and you are not your lay-ups etc. That is why we wanted to run in transition to make those easy shots. And it can go both ways - if the other team is making shots and it seems everything they throw up is going in, it can be a very negative thing.
9. Tim: Speaking of making shots, McLaughlin had been in a “mini-slump” at least from long distance. “In the last 3 or 4 games she was 2/16 from distance. She made her first two shots (Sunday) and winds up 6/10 from distance. You could tell early on it was going to be a special day for her. Coach: I could tell at Saturday’s practice - she has kinda been in a slump. We thought she might have an injury but that came back clear. Last week was dead week and she had 5 major projects due - 2 on Thursday and 3 on Friday. When I saw her on Saturday you could see the weight off her shoulders. “We keep forgetting these kids are student-athletes at Purdue University.” They have major projects due.
10. Coach: Saturday she was making shots on 5-on-5 practice. She had not been doing that as much before. You can shoot by yourself as much as you want to but when you make shots 5-on-5 that is the proof. You can work on your shot as much as you want by yourself but until you do it 5-on-5 it doesn’t help. You could see it on her face and body language that there was a difference. She was communicating and light and when she hit her first two distance shots you could tell it was going to be a good day.
11. Tim: She hit a shot with a half second to go before the half. She was underneath her own basket. I saw her look over to the bench to you and say “Do you want me to shoot?” And you said “Sure.” She got a perfect pass on inbounds and she let it fly from 65 feet. It rattled around a little and then went down. Coach: When they were trying to figure out the clock I told the kids to just throw it in… end the half… we were cool. But then I looked and Kent State was at half court kind of on the sideline. So she looked at me like “Should I shoot it?” And I said “Yeah.” Hardin gave her an amazing in-bounds lead pass to her to help her get energy and when it left her hands I thought OMG it has a chance. But at that length there is a lot of velocity required and it has to be the right angle and the right arc. It was an amazing shot. Any time you can make Sports Center Top 10 (it was #4) and put your university and your team out there, it is incredible. A highlight for them, a highlight for Purdue University. We got a boost. Got our legs back.
12. Tim: It was a momentum changer because instead of going in with an 11 pt lead you went in at 14 and you look at Kent State’s faces as they go to the locker room and look like they got hit by a truck. Coach: I was just shocked they did not come out and guard her. We tell our team “You can’t let the other team see you sweat. You can’t put your head down. You can’t show poor body language. Because then that team knows they have you. That they are inside your head and they’ve got you. We try to work on our non-verbal communication. Always be real solid/even. Obviously that was a dagger going into the 3rd Q.
13. Tim: Looking at the list of top scoring performances in Purdue WBB history - McLaughlin is tied for 7th on the list at 34 pts. What is surprising to me is that 10 of the 12 top individual scoring performances have been on the road. And the only other one at home is the performance that Karisssa tied which was Camille Cooper who scored 34 in a Purdue loss to Oklahoma in an NCAA home game. So yesterday we saw history in that it was the most pts scored in Purdue WBB at a home game in Mackey that Purdue won. Coach: Like I’ve said, we like to keep our Indiana kids home. It helps our fan base who is our 6th player.
14. Tim: There were a lot of kids at the game yesterday and one of the players they flock to is Harris. We have a hard time getting her to the locker room. Here is a kid whose nickname in HS was “Block Party” because of her talent in that area. She already is the all-time shot blocker in Purdue WBB history and will leave as the all-time rebounder. What surprises some people is that she has turned into a pretty good offensive player as well.
15. Coach: “Well, it’s one thing we’ve really worked on. There’s not many kids that want to rebound, set screens, block shots and not worry about scoring. I’ve never seen it.” She is special that way. A lot of times when you are a post player you are never going to touch the ball in high school. She had all the intangibles - toughness, grit, all those little skill sets. A lot of kids don’t bring those to the table. Now we can help to coach and teach her how to score the ball. She is tough. She is so quick and athletic. She can do reverse layups, she can do hooks, she’s working on her 15 ft shots. She is working on those aspects of her game because obviously she wants a chance to play in the WNBA. You got to be able to defend outside. She is very undersized for the next level and that is why we are working on the 15 ft shot and 1-on-1 moves and spacing under the basket. She has really worked hard on those and is trying to take those to another level. She is really, really special.
16. Coach: She’s a 6’1” All-American and right now two other kids who are like 6’7” and 6’6” last year had a few more blocks than her. But she is one of the top defensive players in the country. Again, that is something instilled in her and she is a very unselfish player. That is why she has been so good for Purdue.
17. Tim: As Bill Russell said once, you don’t have to block every shot every time but if they think you are going to its just as good. You can see sometimes she may not block a shot but she sure changes a lot of them. Coach: She does. You can see when they go in they’re hesitant and they just throw up something and then expect that maybe she will foul them. She will help the opponent up and they will laugh and say “Oh God, you so got me.” And we like when the frosh come in and the first time they go in for a layup and she swats it and they go “OMG.” You can’t emulate that. Welcome to Purdue. Welcome to being on this team. You need a few head fakes to get around her.
18. Tim: Coach, I saw you at Holloway over the weekend and congratulations to Dave Shondell’s VB team who won two games over the weekend and is going to the Sweet Sixteen. Tremendous wins. Swept Wright State on Friday and then on Saturday, a tremendous win over #16 ranked Marquette losing the first set and then rolling over the next three. Just like you, Dave Shondell feels he has a special team this year. Coach: Yes, Dave & I are very close and we talk a lot. Best of luck in Waco playing Baylor (#1 team in nation.)
19. Tim: You have Jael Johnson who did not play int he first game but came into the Marquette game (young player from Avon IN who does not play very much) on Sat and was a huge contributor and then in your game on Sunday, Woltman came in off the bench and she had to give you quality mins in the first half off the bench.
20. Coach: You never know when your number is going to be called. We went to Florida and played teams with three different styles. Three different conferences - they play totally different. You have to match your roster and do different things. Woltman came in and gave us great minutes. She got some boards, she scored, she felt more comfortable and that’s as a freshman which is very difficult.
21. Coach: When we went to Australia we had 15 kids all part of a puzzle. Against Drake it was more offensive. Against ASU it was more knock-down & drag-out and who’s the toughest kid on the floor. We only went to 6 or 7 kids. Against Gonzaga a different group there. So when your name is called you got to be ready and that is going to help your team.
22. Tim: You have basketball and you have families. One of your players, Lyndsey Whilby, lost a family member and missed the game against VTech and got back during the game Sunday. Our sympathy and thoughts go out to her - very difficult to go through something like that especially at this time of the year. Coach: People don’t understand they are just kids and life gets in the way. She lost her grandmother and went to be with her family for the ceremony. She was supposed to be back Sat night but her flight got canceled and we were on the phone with her but she couldn’t get back until probably the 4th Q Sunday. But we are her family away from home and, especially in college, we are there to support her. Condolences to her family.
23. Tim: We talked about Ae’Rianna Harris from the Indy area and she gets a lot of attention - deservedly so. But there is another player from the Indianapolis area who doesn’t get a lot of attention but really has a great story - Ajah Stallings. Tell us about how she came to be a Boilermaker and the things she has had to overcome in her life. Coach: Ajah played at North Central and she would come to our games and team camp. When she was born her right arm was not functioning. (My note: Coach could not remember the condition but it was due to a brachial plexus birth injury.) She has had multiple surgeries to try to correct it but it never got corrected.
24. Coach: She is really playing BB with one arm. She is good enough that she could have gone to a mid-major on full ride scholarship but she really loved Purdue. She wants to be a pharmacist and Purdue’s school in pharmacy is one of the best in the country. So we told her “We’d love to have you but as a walk-on and if you get a full ride at a mid-major you need to decide what you want to do to live your dream.
25. It was just like Abby Abel - this is my second kid like this. Great teammates, great students, compete on the floor etc. And Abby came and I was able to reward her with some scholarship money and it went year to year. Ajah has done an amazing job. Your freshman year is always tough. Through this year she has shown such maturity and sacrifice for the team. In the spring I was able to reward her with a full-fide scholarship - of course year to year - and the team was so ecstatic for her. We all want to be valued. But she is contagious energy, she gets after it, she is so physical. We have amazing human beings and that effects you in so many ways. And she is a very good basketball player. Her and her family are absolutely amazing.
26. Tim: Obviously you need great basketball players to be a good basketball team but you also need some good program kids and if you don’t also have that glue you get into that situation where you have 15 players and 15 cats (??) and it doesn’t work out. Coach: No it doesn’t and Ajah is one of those. And Leony Boudreau who is in Biomedical Engineering - she’s one of the hardest workers. She’s been hit in the head a couple of times and keeps trying to fight through that. She is a game-changer, a locker room kid, she does everything in the community like the Wheel Rise Event. You have to find kids that are glue kids. We are real fortunate to have Ajah.
27. Tim: We talked about a couple of players from Indy but you signed a couple of Indiana’s top players this year - one from Marion and one from Kokomo. It’s very important year after year to build a wall around Indiana and keep the best players here at Purdue. If you do that you have a chance to be a pretty good BB team year after year. Coach: Yes it is important. We have Traylor, Hardin, McLaughlin, Harris… and now we have Madison Layden and Ra Shaya Kyle so you have the top top players and you want that. You want to win a National Championship with Indiana kids and everybody else. You have to protect your boundaries. That is what it is about.
28. Coach: Our next game is at South Carolina and that is what (HC) Dawn Staley did there. She showed those SC kids the dream and kept them there and made it happen. That’s what we need to do here. We need to get those Indiana kids and we need to get them early. We need to build around them. In 2021 we already have a commitment and we are fitting the pieces of a puzzle together. As we say “Make that decision because everyone wants to come play with you.”
29. Tim: Speaking of a puzzle, you need to fit one together every year around finals weeks because you have kids taking exams morning to night. What is the schedule like this week for this weekend? Coach: We played Sunday and we have been nonstop the last two weeks traveling. It was rough but we practiced this (Monday) morning just because how it all laid out. I can’t go two straight days without practicing - you gotta keep their bodies moving.
30. Coach: This (Monday) morning we practiced 10-12AM just a lot of shooting, going through plays, FT’s etc. Then we will have tomorrow (Tuesday) off. Wednesday we will go from 2-5 PM, Thursday we will be off and then Friday from 12:30 to 3:30 PM and then Saturday a short two hour practice before we take off for South Carolina. We leave at 3PM that day.
31. Coach: I have to look at this big puzzle - these people have these exams and these other people have these exams - how do we get a practice in. Like on Wednesday Farquhar, Diagne and Traylor have exams from 1-3 PM so hopefully they will not need the full two hours but they will be late for practice. What’s hard is that on Sat we leave at 3PM but we have three kids who have finals that day. So that’s tough. We no longer have Sat classes like when I was here but still Sat finals.
32. Tim: The next two home games have special times - both at noon - with Western Kentucky on Wed 12/18 and Bowling Green on Saturday 12/21. Bring your earplugs because there will be a lot of kids there and they tend to shriek a bit. Coach: Yes, we always have an “Education Day” where we bring in a lot of school kids. We have about 1500 elementary kids coming on the 18th. It’s great. They get there by 11 and have their lunches. Two of the players talk to them and so does our nutritionist and Purdue Pete. So it’s kind of cool. It’s been a big hit.
33. Tim: Before that, our road game at South Carolina - a team that won the NCAA two years ago. You look at who they lost (off their team) and say it is a great time to play them and then you look at their recruiting class. I’m not sure there is ever going to be a great time to play them. Coach: On any given day anything can happen. They have 3 freshmen that are playing really, really well. One of their big post players… if we could get her out of the game with fouls it would be a good thing. That has caused them problems. But they have a lot of talent. It will be good for our kids to go play in that environment. We have that environment at our place but we don’t always have it everywhere we go in the B1G.
34. Coach: We have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Last year we had them on our court and missed one FT at the end which otherwise we would have had it. Then we lose in double OT. So we are pretty anxious to get through finals and get out there.
35. Tim: Just to show you never know what you are going to get with a team like South Carolina, IU beat them in a tournament (Paradise Jam) and then SC turns around and beats Baylor. You just don’t know what you will see from game to game. Coach: No, when you play on a neutral floor. When you play them on a home court it’s different. When you play teams early and on a neutral floor, anything can happen. But when you have two kids foul out and four kids with four fouls I am sure that Dawn Staley was not real happy.
36. Tim: What are the points of emphasis for these last 3 non conference games? Coach: We will talk a lot about boxing out, taking care of the ball and FTs. We have to do a better job on those three things. If you do, that always allows you a chance to be successful. Our FT % was 78-75% last year and this year it is like close to 70 % or a little bit under. That is not good. There are things you cannot control but you can control those things.
37. Tim: Lastly, congratulations to the B1G conference because for the first time they win the B1G/ACC matchup pretty convincingly by 9-5 games. Coach: Yes, we’ve talked about the B1G top to bottom. Last year there were 8 teams that received votes in the Top 25 rankings. It is the best conference top to bottom in the country. I am just glad for that outcome.
38. Tim: A reminder that the next Coach Versyp show will be 3 weeks from tonight, Dec 30th. And Coach Versyp, good luck down in South Carolina.

 

[jindy]

Thanks again Doc. One point that was mentioned by Coach in the discussion about Karissa's shooting slump caught my eye - the mention of having projects due. I think that all of us have a tendency to forget that these kids are student-athletes, with the accompanying pressures therein. It's part of why I'm a fan of Purdue's kids(across all sports) and would never trade a better record or even championships for having kids who represent the University in an honest manner.