Purdue at Nebraska game
- Thread starter MichaelRR
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More of the same on the road, unfortunately. Hope Swanson is ok.
Tuned in to Bob/FM for the last few minutes of the game - 4 freshman playing per Tim Newton. I guess why not, at this point.
Post-game comments from CKG: unhappy with officiating and unhappy with the team’s effort. “We got out-toughed” were her exact words I believe. Disappointing to hear that
After a couple of possessions where Nebraska got 5 offensive rebounds, KG called a timeout and came back with 4 freshmen and Mila Reynolds. Stevenson was ineffective in her first game with the protective mask, fouling out with only about 21 minutes of playing time and only 2 points.
Wow. Understandable tho’. Hope she heals up quickly. She’s a tough competitor and I’m sure this situation (injury / mask) is eating at her.
I could be wrong of course, but when CKG pulls her veterans with five minutes left and we are only down 11?? Five minutes is a lot of time left but her decision spoke volumes. That tells me she knows who isn’t returning (Ellis, Terry, Harper Sr., and Layden Sr.) and is choosing to play her freshman and Mila, in hopes of keeping them happy and remaining at Purdue. Huge move by CKG. Good for her.
Aren’t Ellis and Terry out of eligibility after this season? Not sure about Harper Sr
They only one who came back one more year is Madison.
I hope Sophie Swanson is ok. Looked like her foot slipped and it was bad from there. But she walked through the handshake line.
Watched the game on big plus. Stevenson had a couple of ticky fouls early that took her out of the game. Officiating was horrendous even by this years standards but was not the reason they lost.
Young players played hard at the end. Not a great metric to prove success but let them run. Maybe they walk into a win. Next year cant come fast enough.
Young players played hard at the end. Not a great metric to prove success but let them run. Maybe they walk into a win. Next year cant come fast enough.
Terry, Caitlyn, and Ellis are done after this year, Madison has the option of taking a 5th year.
I think it was less a youth movement and more about KG being very unhappy about the rebounding effort of the 5 on the floor and them not competing the way she wanted them to. I very much doubt this is the start of a trend unless we become mathematically eliminated from WNIT consideration.
Next year is likely to be less wins than this year.... The loss of two classes of recruits is going to loom large the next two seasons.
Interesting note to this game, we probably saw the freshman of the year in Potts and then Jones and Stevenson should make the all freshman team with Grocholski from UMinn and Jimenez from Wisconsin.
At least the men’s game was fun, this game had to be a nightmare to watch, the stat lines of some of the 5th/6th year players was awful, I’ll leave it at that.
Yes Ellis, Terry and Harper Sr are out of eligibility. Harper Sr. even was a 6th year due to injury which doesn’t happen often. Madison wont be taking her fifth year. Too much pressure if she did. Getting married is an easier path out of the game. CKG’s decision to give the young ones valuable minutes, when she could have kept veterans in, was clear to me. Five minutes is an eternity in the Big Ten when we were only down 10-11 pts. Gutsy move.
We shall see I guess because she pulled the 5 at MSU and now again at Nebraska. And I’m not against it at all. Put the players in who are coachable, give great effort and want to win! How the veterans respond to that, tells you where their hearts are. They obviously didn’t mind with the MSU game and likely didn’t this evening. Hope Swanson’s ankle is ok.
Hopefully it continues, team isn’t going anywhere, give some younger girls some minutes and see if you got anything with a few of them. If Layden doesn’t return (50/50) Purdue would have 10 girls on scholarship if all return (likely at least 1 probably 2 leave). The portal will have to be used, guessing 2-3 girls are brought in, no way 8-10 girls will be it for next year.
Just nitpicking here, but purdue went down 16 with 7:36 remaining when CKG pulled the upperclassmen and put in Harper along with the 4 freshmen mentioned earlier. Reynolds came in once Stevenson fouled out and I believe was the first time we've seen reynolds and alaina playing together. I think that was just further evidence CKG was frustrated with the upperclassmen and wasn't going to sub them back in. Ellis was the only senior who came back in after that timeout.
As you mentioned though, it was definitely a message to the upperclassmen and hopefully they respond to it and get a win on Monday.
Your count is way off. Madison, Jayla, Alaina, Mila, the 6 freshmen turning sophmores, and 3 incoming freshmen make 13. Even with/if Madison opting out and losing 2 of the others that is 10 at minimum. If we do have some losses, I expect KG will dip into the portal just to have enough players to practice 5 on 5 and have 1 or 2 out for injuries. I would love to get a couple like Ellis and Terry again, but I view it as unlikely.
Yeah I think your right about us having to use the portal next season. We need a portal post player in the worst way. I know we have two incoming frosh but their unranked and I don't think they'll be ready for starters minutes. Mila seems to be more of a pick and pop 4/5 and we really need a strong rebounder, especially with Terry graduating.
I'd guess at least 2 portal players as well, especially if Madison doesn't come back. I know we don't want to stunt the growth of our younger players, but maybe another one year player in the ilk of a petree that can provide some scoring from the wing.
Hey Michael, what's your opinion on our post situation next year? Do you think we need a post from the portal? Maybe a 1 year player.. What caliber of player do you think we could attract?
IF we can get two higher quality portal players, 1 post 1 wing, that can start and give 30 minutes a game to lead us in scoring and rebounding we MIGHT make the play in game again next year. But we would also likely lose half this years freshmen to the portal seeing they have no path to starting here. Or, we can take our lumps, play the underclassmen and hope that in two years with (nearly) everyone back we can step up big and finish in the top half of the conference and get into the field of 64. Also if we do take a post from the portal, that will be almost half the team(6) as posts... with another coming in 2 years. That seems awfully unbalanced and unsustainable.
I was apparently psychic as I was answering your question at the same time you were posting it!!! LOL
We are not getting an Angel Reese or Sydney Parrish type player from the portal. You have to have bait to land big fish, and we have none at the moment IMO. As to a 1 year or 3 year post player, there are few Power 5 level posts in the portal each year, and there are a lot of teams that will be looking that are in a better situation than we are, including IU. So if we go in only looking for a 1 year post, we are very unlikely to get one that can come in and be any better than Caitlyn, if we do that well. We will have to be willing to take the best of what we can get and not worry about how many seasons they have left IF we are 100% committed to getting a post portal player. You see the quality of the two posts we got from the portal last year. A scoring wing seems more likely, but probably will be bringing a lot of baggage with them, as did Petree or Owusu at PSU. But every minute a portal wing player gets is taken from Poole/Jones/Amaiyah/Swanson/Monson/McKenna and slows down/drives off whoever is at the end of that chain of underclass wings and guards. And if Madison and or Smith comes back, it really makes it hard to give meaningful developmental minutes to the underclassmen.
Good points, I'm just trying to imagine a starting lineup next season that gives us a chance to be competitive and make the ncaas but I have no idea who would fill caitlyns spot. If I had to pick one of the two incoming frosh posts to garner minutes it would be Puryear. From the limited highlights/games I've watched, she has an aggressiveness about her when it comes to rebounding.
My best uneducated guess of starters next season
Amiyah
Jones
Senior Layden/swanson?
Stevenson
Portal/Mila?
Poole/Mckenna/Mila/Puryear off the bench.
I'm not entirely sure it would matter if smith comes back when it comes to taking minutes from our current frosh class, she seems to already been passed up as it is.
Monson I hear has a great work ethic and seems like a great teammate(watching her energy from the bench) so maybe she makes a jump for consistent minutes.
My guess for depth chart for next year, barring any defections or portal additions (or at least how I would do it):
5: Puryear, McCarthy, Alaina
4: Stevenson, Mila, Alaina
3: Madison, McKenna, Swanson, Smith, Monson
2: Swanson, Monson, Poole, Amiyah, Jones, Smith
1: Jones, Amaiyah, Poole
But I strongly suspect that if she comes back KG will play Smith 15 minutes a game whether she produces or not, same as this year. One problem with my depth chart is 3 of the 5 best players by rankings all fall into the 1 slot, which is why I think they will also get a lot of minutes as 2 guards and maybe 3 guard/SF.
I don’t take that as nitpicking. Valid point. I think you are actually correct. I saw them in with only down 10-11 points and thought they had just come in.
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