With all the height - and length - on this Boilermaker team this season, Purdue expected to be able to win consistently on the glass.
That's yet to happen. And in fact, Purdue's too often losing significantly on the boards, a disturbing trend early this season. Overall, opponents are outrebounding the Boilermakers (3-2) by 1.2 per game, placing Purdue ninth in the Big Ten. In the loss to George Washington Saturday, the Boilermakers were beaten 43-24 on the glass; Green Bay had 13 offensive boards in its double-overtime upset in Mackey Arena; and Purdue was out-done by Toledo and Texas Tech in rebounding, yet won those games.
"No question," Coach Sharon Versyp said, "we should be a better rebounding team. Whitney Bays is doing her job; nobody else is doing their jobs. And our guards are very, very, very poor at rebounding offensively and defensively. But you can't just have Whitney rebounding, it's got to be collective. You should have four or five or six people averaging those type of boards. It's only five games, but it's going to be a key for us to do what we do well."
Bays is averaging 10.8 per game, far and away the tops among the Boilermakers. Only fellow senior forward Liza Clemons also averages better than four, at 4.2, yet even that is down from her 5.5 last season. Point guard April Wilson averages 3.8.
Clemons says the Boilermakers simply need to box out.
"Because if you go out and look at film, yeah we were in front but were we actually using our bodies to push them back and get them on our backs and get us from underneath the basket in order to have an advantage to get the rebound?" she said.
The answer, more often than not, is no. The Boilermakers are frequently allowing the opponent to push them too far under the basket, then grabbing the offensive boards. Purdue ranks 13th in the Big Ten in defensive rebounding, an indication of how many offensive boards it's allowing.
"If everybody has the focus of 'My player isn't getting the rebound,' then we'd be a great rebounding team," Clemons said.
It needs to be a collective. Purdue's 2 and 3 spots, the latter where the 6-foot-2 Bridget Perry has started four games, aren't contributing much to the glass. Perry is averaging only two rebounds per game, not enough considering she position and height.
"They're not doing anything," Versyp said of the 3 spot, regarding rebounding. "And obviously that's a key. Our expectations of Bridget are exceptionally high because she played some last year - (Andreona) Keys is a freshman, no excuse, but she's trying to figure things out - you've got to box out, put a body on somebody and go get the board."
• Purdue's looking for consistency as it hosts Florida State Wednesday night in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
It was excellent vs. Texas Tech in the opener of the Junkanoo Jam over the holiday, assisting on 21 of 26 field goals to roll the Raiders. But then, it had only 10 assists, vs. 17 turnovers, in a 20-point loss to GW.
Versyp says the Boilermakers didn't execute vs. George Washington, setting for shots rather than running an offense.
"I think we're still trying to put the pieces together," she said. "But we've learned that if we're executing and we're really understanding the game plan and from the get-go if we're performing pretty efficiently the first four minutes, then we usually will stay solid."
Clemons says the players see it; they were set to watch film on it Monday afternoon.
"How many times we passed the ball against Texas Tech vs. how many times we shared the ball vs. George Washington," the senior captain said. "You can see everybody moving and sharing against Texas Tech and against George Washington is was a lot of one-on-one things. It was pretty much relying on ourselves to get the job done instead of relying on our team."
• Versyp says she wants to see more leadership, especially vocally, when things go against the Boilermakers.
"When things get tough, what's it going to be?" she said. "And no one on the court brought people together to say 'This is what we need to do. This is the focus. We need to calm down in this situation.' So we're still looking at that and it's a demand. You have to have somebody who can settle us down and keep our composure."
It starts at the point, Versyp said, and trickles down.
"It was on all of us," she said. "Somebody, any of us, could have tried to step up and get it calmed down, but that didn't happen."
That's yet to happen. And in fact, Purdue's too often losing significantly on the boards, a disturbing trend early this season. Overall, opponents are outrebounding the Boilermakers (3-2) by 1.2 per game, placing Purdue ninth in the Big Ten. In the loss to George Washington Saturday, the Boilermakers were beaten 43-24 on the glass; Green Bay had 13 offensive boards in its double-overtime upset in Mackey Arena; and Purdue was out-done by Toledo and Texas Tech in rebounding, yet won those games.
"No question," Coach Sharon Versyp said, "we should be a better rebounding team. Whitney Bays is doing her job; nobody else is doing their jobs. And our guards are very, very, very poor at rebounding offensively and defensively. But you can't just have Whitney rebounding, it's got to be collective. You should have four or five or six people averaging those type of boards. It's only five games, but it's going to be a key for us to do what we do well."
Bays is averaging 10.8 per game, far and away the tops among the Boilermakers. Only fellow senior forward Liza Clemons also averages better than four, at 4.2, yet even that is down from her 5.5 last season. Point guard April Wilson averages 3.8.
Clemons says the Boilermakers simply need to box out.
"Because if you go out and look at film, yeah we were in front but were we actually using our bodies to push them back and get them on our backs and get us from underneath the basket in order to have an advantage to get the rebound?" she said.
The answer, more often than not, is no. The Boilermakers are frequently allowing the opponent to push them too far under the basket, then grabbing the offensive boards. Purdue ranks 13th in the Big Ten in defensive rebounding, an indication of how many offensive boards it's allowing.
"If everybody has the focus of 'My player isn't getting the rebound,' then we'd be a great rebounding team," Clemons said.
It needs to be a collective. Purdue's 2 and 3 spots, the latter where the 6-foot-2 Bridget Perry has started four games, aren't contributing much to the glass. Perry is averaging only two rebounds per game, not enough considering she position and height.
"They're not doing anything," Versyp said of the 3 spot, regarding rebounding. "And obviously that's a key. Our expectations of Bridget are exceptionally high because she played some last year - (Andreona) Keys is a freshman, no excuse, but she's trying to figure things out - you've got to box out, put a body on somebody and go get the board."
• Purdue's looking for consistency as it hosts Florida State Wednesday night in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
It was excellent vs. Texas Tech in the opener of the Junkanoo Jam over the holiday, assisting on 21 of 26 field goals to roll the Raiders. But then, it had only 10 assists, vs. 17 turnovers, in a 20-point loss to GW.
Versyp says the Boilermakers didn't execute vs. George Washington, setting for shots rather than running an offense.
"I think we're still trying to put the pieces together," she said. "But we've learned that if we're executing and we're really understanding the game plan and from the get-go if we're performing pretty efficiently the first four minutes, then we usually will stay solid."
Clemons says the players see it; they were set to watch film on it Monday afternoon.
"How many times we passed the ball against Texas Tech vs. how many times we shared the ball vs. George Washington," the senior captain said. "You can see everybody moving and sharing against Texas Tech and against George Washington is was a lot of one-on-one things. It was pretty much relying on ourselves to get the job done instead of relying on our team."
• Versyp says she wants to see more leadership, especially vocally, when things go against the Boilermakers.
"When things get tough, what's it going to be?" she said. "And no one on the court brought people together to say 'This is what we need to do. This is the focus. We need to calm down in this situation.' So we're still looking at that and it's a demand. You have to have somebody who can settle us down and keep our composure."
It starts at the point, Versyp said, and trickles down.
"It was on all of us," she said. "Somebody, any of us, could have tried to step up and get it calmed down, but that didn't happen."
