Purdue got out to a good start, up 22-12 at the end of the first quarter with ZERO turnovers. Second quarter not going nearly so well as we've gone cold on shooting, turned it over twice and NE got within three but Harper scored to move the margin back to 5 before the media timeout.
Nebraska at Purdue
- Thread starter MichaelRR
- Start date
Final NE 77- Purdue 65. That ends any hopes for the WNIT unless we win out, and no way in hell we win at Ann Arbor.
Unable to watch, listen, or follow .. was there any adjustment made after this run by Markowski?
So frustrating that the team can’t seem to put 4 solid quarters together against any kind of decent competition. There is more than enough veteran experience on this roster to hold it together and at least play solid defense and minimize unforced errors. Just head scratching times for sure
There were once again no EFFECTIVE coaching adjustments orher than Alaina was yanked right back out. This game was winnable. Potts had a terrible night, Shelly had an off night, but Markowski nearly outrebounded Purdue all by herself, 21 to 24. NE got nearly every loose ball and 50/50 ball. We were outhustled. NE locked up 4th in the BT, and we are making it tough to get out of 12th.
There are three parts to being a good coach. Recruiting, Gearlds gets an A for that part. Player development, KG gets an incomplete tending towards an F as I see NO improvement year over year that didn't look like just a player being older. Game planning and in game adjustments, KG gets a D or an F there as well as we are out coached and beat on halftime adjustments every game against P5 teams but TxA&M, Rutgers, and Northwestern this year IMO.
Guessing - only a guess, since I didn’t follow - that Alaina was subbed in for Caitlyn to give her a breather maybe.
Obviously didn’t work out at all…. Geez.
Thanks for the reply. Can’t disagree with any of the above points. MA Stevenson is a bright spot though - steady improvement from her
Fine to put Alaina in, but not on Markowski, slide MA onto her, and if MA and Caitlyn were both on the bench at the same time, that's just dumb coaching.
I haven't followed this team as closely as some, but a senior-heavy team seems to be stuck in neutral or even regressing. That can't be a good sign.
How likely is it that the younger players will stay with the program, especially Stevenson and Jones?
How likely is it that the younger players will stay with the program, especially Stevenson and Jones?
I think with the top 4 all leaving we should not have much if any loss to the portal, maybe Alaina, McKenna and Monson if they feel they won't see the floor next year much. Jones, MA, and probably Swanson are looking at starting time with two of the freshmen or Mila next year.
That’s why time and time again I’ve told Michael that it’s time for all to go, this group doesn’t have it. I realize Terry does some good things, however, in the women’s game (men’s as well) the girl with the ball in her hands 90% of the time on offense needs to be able to score, she can’t, teams sag off her and it’s like playing 5 on 4 hoops. I’m not saying Purdue needs a Clark, however, they need a lead guard that can score, they don’t have it. Also, just not on her, the rest of the experienced players aren’t that athletic, the offense often is a Terry pass to a wing for a launch from the outside, brutal basketball to watch really. I’ll be honest, I don’t know how one can watch, for me it’s like getting a tooth pulled.
I have never argued Terry being able to score would not be a plus, but in the women's game, you can get away with a quality playmaker that only puts up a handfull of points.
You are completely wrong about teams playing off of Terry, when they do, that is when she goes for 12 to 14 points. Also only a complete idiot of a coach gives the opposing teams point guard a completely unobstructed view of the floor by not guarding her with the ball in her hands, and you don't make head coach at most programs without knowing at least that much about basketball. Tonight she moved up to third all time at Purdue in assists in 3 years, passing Katie Douglas. She will set the assist to turnover record for Purdue career so far above its current record it likely won't be broken in my lifetime. Her rebounding is often one of the main things keeping us in games as no one else on this team is anywhere close to her rebounding, which is mostly about effort, intelligence, and hustle.
While you are excited about losing (these percentages are all approximations off of my memory) 80% of our scoring, 75% of our rebounding, and 85% of our assists of this years team, you have not really thought about who is picking up that load next year. Do you really think a starting freshman point guard is going to average 6 assists per game with only 3 turnovers a game?
As far as our offensive scheme (which I agree with you on BTW), that won't change with new personnel because that is the only offense KG knows or has ever coached. Additionally she made her career at Purdue standing out there on the perimeter waiting for the pass to shoot so she didn't have to move much or get down there and get her hands dirty in the paint, so why do you think she is going to change it now?
Well, at least the plan doesn't require the next Caitlin Clark! Just kidding. It does look like this team could use an infusion of athleticism.
Negatives -
We still can't shoot/score enough against good teams.
Rebounding hurt us again, need some athletes that can jump for a board. No disrespect to Terry, but when your best rebounder is your point guard...
Positives -
Stevenson's free throws and her fight.
Terry had only two turnovers and was her usual self which is a plus for us.
Final thoughts -
Another double digit loss, this time at home. Maybe it's a 22 point loss instead of 12 if we play the frosh/Mila more but I would of liked for some of them to get a little more run(personally Mila, Swanson more in this game). How many wins above .500 to be WNIT eligible?
We still can't shoot/score enough against good teams.
Rebounding hurt us again, need some athletes that can jump for a board. No disrespect to Terry, but when your best rebounder is your point guard...
Positives -
Stevenson's free throws and her fight.
Terry had only two turnovers and was her usual self which is a plus for us.
Final thoughts -
Another double digit loss, this time at home. Maybe it's a 22 point loss instead of 12 if we play the frosh/Mila more but I would of liked for some of them to get a little more run(personally Mila, Swanson more in this game). How many wins above .500 to be WNIT eligible?
Last edited:
I assumed Geralds would need a few years to grow into this job when Purdue hired her from an NAIA school. Do you think she can turn this program around?
A lot is on Coach, Terry is a warrior, playing her 35+ minutes isn’t fair for her. I got no problems with her as a player, she’s just not someone that is worthy of 35 minutes a game, her at the SF for 20 minutes a night would be fine.
I dont know if Amiyah and Poole will be able to replicate Terry's Rebounding numbers, but I think together they will come close in assists. Alot of Terry's assists seem to be transition or part of a play where she's the designated passer for the shooter. She can create for others a bit but I think Amiyah and Poole will be better at breaking defenses down off their dribble and quickness. It might not even be direct assists they get either from breaking the defenses down, but hockey assists.
This is my hope that it will lead to more open shots which should help our shooting numbers even though I think we both agree we won't necessarily have better shooters next year. If that makes sense.
I agree on playing Swanson more, but Mila shows so very little most games I am ready to send her to the end of the bench and make her a player assistant coach. Mila is slow footed, dis-interested in defense or rebounding and not especially skilled in scoring. Her only good moments come when she is paired with Jones running a two man game like they did in High school. But really outside of Swanson, Jones and MA, I don't think there is another freshman/reserve that has shown she deserves or can even play extended minutes at this time, including Smith despite her getting 12-15 minutes a night.
We have to be at or above .500. We are 11-14, 3 games below .500 with four games left to play. That means we have to win EVERY GAME from here to the BTT starts to be WNIT eligible, or win the BTT to be NCAA eligible.
Last edited:
I don't think Monson, Swanson, Jones and McKenna NEXT year will be the shooters Ellis and Madison are this season, so other than feeding the post, assists might be a lot harder to come by next season.
Unless there is a change in offensive scheme you won't see that much of the freshmen getting the chances to break down defenses because that is not in our philosophy on offense at this time. Drive on occasion, but the point guard is expected to be the first one back on defense to prevent breakaways under the current philosophy.
Ok I wasn't sure if we had to be like 2 or 3 games over .500 to be eligible for WNIT.
Mila is a bit slow footed but Alaina isn't much better, and between the 2, I think Mila has more skill. She has good form on her shot and has shown she can hit from distance. Shes good at drawing charges. Her post defense definitely needs improvement but that's why I'd like to see her get minutes to learn and grow.
It was interesting hearing CKG talk yesterday about C.Harper being the most vocal on defense. That is something that can be hard to pick up on watching from a TV and doesn't get mentioned enough to why some players might play more than others. I wonder if Alaina has better communication in games/practice thus giving her some PT over Mila. It's happened a few times this year where Mila gets the first crack then Alaina comes in.
Alaina is a much better defender and rebounder than Mila, but still not great at either. Mila is a better scorer, but until she loses the baby fat and shows a strong desire to want to improve (IMO), giving her minutes is not going to help her learn to be a better defender and rebounder.
I have said that I think Bobinski did her a great disservice hiring her to a job she was in no way prepared for. I am holding to the statement I have frequently made, you have to give a coach 5 years to show what they can do, but if year 5 is not a strong season, I would support moving onto a coach that has D1 experience and is prepared to lead a P5 school.
There are a lot of disturbing things about this season that are indicative of poor coaching that make me believe we have already seen the high water mark for the Gearlds coaching tenure. Year 5 needs to be better than the NCAA play in game to convince me KG is the right person to keep coaching this program. Unfortunately I have no faith that Bobinski cares enough to make a change, because if he did, KG would have never been hired.
Ellis was never that great of a 3 point shooter. In her career by season - 32.4 - 36.2 - 33.3 - 37.2 - and 31.4 this season. Jones alone is only 2 points below abbey this season and it's her frosh year. That said, I don't think Jones will ever be a 40% 3 point shooter, just hoping she can be around 36% and she can contribute in other areas. Madison's number's will be hard to replace but Swanson is already shooting 38% and is a frosh playing at like 85%(knee). I'd expect her around the same number or better next season, her volume will probably go up but 38% is still good.
I don't really expect Monson to get much PT next season unless she makes a big jump. Hopefully she proves me wrong. She's known to have a good work ethic.
I'd expect McKenna's number's to go up as well. Sure she probably won't shoot 44% like her sister but mid to high 30's is serviceable and I think she can do that.
All that said, we aren't going to be the hoosiers hitting 15 3's a game, but I'd expect a slight uptick in our overall team 3 pt %
It will be interesting if our offense changes at all next season.. one would think it would. We'll still give Stevenson plenty of post touches, but besides her I don't think we'll consistently go to anyone else in the post so maybe more actions for the wings or pick and rolls for our guards. We do run some flare screens for Madison but they normally don't seem to get her open.
It appears to me Painter relies a ton on his top assistants for player development and even critical game strategies on many occasions. Although I watch most games (even though it is torture to watch this team), I'm not close enough to make an intelligent assessment of the performance of her assistants. The fact that Komara was part of the disaster at Vanderbilt does not give me a warm feeling that she is a quality assistant coach. While there are other differences in this year's team compared to last year's (such as the loss of Petree), one of the big changes was the coaches supporting KG. What are the opinions of the current assistants?
Last edited:
I think its too early to make judgement on the assistants or CKG for that matter. As has been said throughout the year we sorely miss a make-your-own shot player like Petree and a do anything for the team player in Hardin. The four seniors just havent stepped up from a production or leadership standpoint.
I'd agree the seniors peaked and there hasn't been much growth. I do think each of the freshmen have come a long way since the start of the season. Theyre still prone to mistakes but the development is there. The benchmark will be how much do they grow during the summer.
Admittedly im a Komara fan since I saw her in high school. Knowing more about the Vandy situation that Balcom left (who CSV for some reason hired) were unwinnable circumstances. I think theyre doing the best with the roster they have. Stephens has been phenomenal on the recruiting front. Guyton always seems like the best coach to connect with players. It seems like a good coaching staff still getting their feet under them this year. Ill be an optimist.
With a wedding planned for September, I think the chances for Madison coming back are about the same as my chances to hit the powerball. That would be after the semester started, trying to plan a wedding while taking grad level classes and forgoing a honeymoon and then most likely living apart from hubby the rest of the year. All signs point to her planning on this being her last year same as Woltman did last year.
Just putting together a depth chart of who I would play where I think Monson gets minutes next season unless everyone but her takes a huge leap forward and depending on if McKenna gets and minutes at SF and plays well at it. This season she has played mostly the 4 when she has gone in. A lot for Monson also depends on how many minutes keep being given to an ineffective Smith.
1: Amiyah, Poole, Jones
2: Jones, Smith, Monson, Swanson, Poole, Amiyah
3: Swanson, Smith, Monson, McKenna
4: MA, McKenna, Alaina, Mila
5: Puryear, McCarthy, Mila, Alaina
I was excited when the new assistants were named, but after this season, I am now wondering how much Couture was covering up some of KG's inexperience with her presence and possibly game preparation. I feel the coaching staff as a whole this season is not as good in:
Game planning and preparing the team to play
In game adjustments
halftime adjustments
time management
getting the team ready for road games
And I think those factors are the reasons for at least half our losses this season and why this team is woefully under performing from everyone's expectations.
Jones played better at the beginning of the season than she is now except for 3pt% and assist to to ratio.
Swanson improvement is most likely health related as she continues to heal from the injury.
MA improvement is just from being in the trenches night in and night out learning OJT. Not sure there is any way to determine if/how much of that improvement is coaching and how much is just battling Holmes, Makowski, et al and learning the hard way.
Monson, McKenna, Alaina, and Mila have shown no improvement this season IMO beyond Mila is in slightly better shape than at the start of the year.
Yeah I think I'm with you on Madison bypassing her covid year, but we'll see. I couldn't agree more with your depth chart besides the 5(still think gearlds goes to the portal for one).
CKG recently talked about the 3 incoming freshman, and maybe I'm a bit biased towards Puryear based on my own amateur scouting, but CKG seemed to speak with more enthusiasm when she talked about Puryear compared to McCarthy.
That is why I have Puryear at the starting 5, Seeing just a little of her in videos and pictures of her body, she already has a Big Ten body, in better shape and musculature than Mila as a sophmore. I am excited to see how Puryear adapts to college play, but I think if she focuses on defense without fouling, rebounding and a couple of putbacks she can be a valuable cog next to MA.
I think KG might look at the portal for a post, but with so many teams with better results than we have this year in the midwest will also be looking for a post and the dearth of good posts available in the portal each year, I don't have much belief we will land one that can contribute and we don't need another Alaina/Mila type post just clogging the bench and practices.
