Purdue wins 92-85. On to Sunday at home to IU, win and we go to the BTT, lose and he season is done. Jones 32 points on 11-21 shooting and 9-9 from the line. Swanson 29 points on 11-13 shooting, 5-6 from 3, and 4 of 6 from the ft line. McCarthy with 11 off the bench. Bass, Collier, and Lombard started, only Lombard played well though...... I know, shocking... VBG.
Purdue at Penn St
- Thread starter MichaelRR
- Start date
Good game; there are no bad gameswhen you win. That said, I don’t like to criticize coaches because I don’t have all the inside information. But I must say it seems baffling to me that your hottest player doesn’t start the third quarter. Two quick blinks and your big halftime lead is down to one possession. Again it looks like bad teams try ti find ways to lose… But a win is a win
Jones and Swanson have big games, Bass has her normal lazy half assed game.... first player CKG chooses to praise in the post game interview? Bass.........
If Rutgers loses, we are in the BTT regardless whether we win or lose.
Difficult to believe the team we just beat on their home court(somewhat comfortably), beat the team we just lost to by 52.
Negatives -
Late game turnovers - We were a little shaky at the end when PSU turned up the pressure, more turnovers.
Overall defense - gave up 85, allowed psu plenty of open looks from 3.
Positives -
Swanson - 29 pts on 10-13, 5-6 from 3 pt range. Career high in pts and her best game of her career. CKG said it in the post game, when Sophie plays under control, she takes her game to another level. I'd say she played under control for about 95% of the game, forced maybe 2 shots. She was feeling it all game, so it was good to see her composed and not fall into old habits(heat checks, bad shots, dribbling into trouble). She has a knack for reading passes and intercepting them for breakaways. She did a great job a few times of fronting Penn States Markle in the post, allowing Lana to recover. So much to like about her future... needs to string together games like this.
Spider Jones - career best 32 pts on 11-21. 8 ast, 6 rebs. Her mid range was on display tonight, continued to use her quickness to get to the bucket. She showed off some nice footwork in the lane for a left handed finish. 1 TO with about 2 minutes left before the pressure forced 2 more TO's.
McCarthy- 11 pts, 8 rebs. This was probably the first time this season she went up against a Big that was slower than her. She was able to maneuver around her(Markle) and hit a couple offhand shots. Lana also forced a turnover, dove on the ball, passed it to Lombard which led to a 3 for Swanson. She looked more comfortable/confident shooting her free throws as well.
Final thoughts -
Rough year, I'm glad the girls were able to experience at least one more dub late in the season.
Negatives -
Late game turnovers - We were a little shaky at the end when PSU turned up the pressure, more turnovers.
Overall defense - gave up 85, allowed psu plenty of open looks from 3.
Positives -
Swanson - 29 pts on 10-13, 5-6 from 3 pt range. Career high in pts and her best game of her career. CKG said it in the post game, when Sophie plays under control, she takes her game to another level. I'd say she played under control for about 95% of the game, forced maybe 2 shots. She was feeling it all game, so it was good to see her composed and not fall into old habits(heat checks, bad shots, dribbling into trouble). She has a knack for reading passes and intercepting them for breakaways. She did a great job a few times of fronting Penn States Markle in the post, allowing Lana to recover. So much to like about her future... needs to string together games like this.
Spider Jones - career best 32 pts on 11-21. 8 ast, 6 rebs. Her mid range was on display tonight, continued to use her quickness to get to the bucket. She showed off some nice footwork in the lane for a left handed finish. 1 TO with about 2 minutes left before the pressure forced 2 more TO's.
McCarthy- 11 pts, 8 rebs. This was probably the first time this season she went up against a Big that was slower than her. She was able to maneuver around her(Markle) and hit a couple offhand shots. Lana also forced a turnover, dove on the ball, passed it to Lombard which led to a 3 for Swanson. She looked more comfortable/confident shooting her free throws as well.
Final thoughts -
Rough year, I'm glad the girls were able to experience at least one more dub late in the season.
Bass got baited into two charges(flops by psu) where she was just running down the court then turned to post. A psu player did it again with McCarthy just jogging down but the ref called a block. Scummy play imo, but yeah I didn't think Bass provided much in this game.
I was pleasantly surprised with how we played. Normally this year, I get an ill-feeling and turn the station. Swanson was in a zone (29 pts in 26 minutes) and Spider made lay-up after lay-up. Funny how both teams mirrored each other with one large post and mainly scampering guards running around with the ball. Crazy how fast we can let a 13 point lead go down to 3. We did answer each time though. I guess I should be happy we actually had a 13 point lead in the BT this year. Nice game ladies.
Didn't see the game, but it's nice to hear that the younger players are contributing more. I guess at this point, I'm just happy that the team picked up a few February wins. I know December and January had to be very tough on this team, both mentally and physically.
The only other thing I can say is: put it all out there against Indiana, and let's see what happens.
The only other thing I can say is: put it all out there against Indiana, and let's see what happens.
I hope that Swanson and Spider sticks with the program. Would be a shame to see either transfer. Those two might help us turn the corner the next two years. We talk about player development a lot and it seems like these two are getting better and better as they play.
Swanson is up and down - as Spider was last year - but she also only played half a year her freshman season. She has essentially played a little over 1 full year as it stands today. After frustrating inconsistency marked her rookie campaign - Spider has become a consistent producer for us - night in and night out. That's really great to see. She can't do it by herself obviously - but if the two incoming posts can shore up our post play and Poole/Reynolds can develop at the point. The combo of Spider and Swanson on the wing may give us the scoring needed to potentially move up the ranks. Jones has averaged 12ppg/4 apg/3 rpg during Big 10 play - shooting 51% - as just a sophomore against some pretty stiff competition. She is the team's future and if she keeps improving may be All B10 by the end of her career.
Obviously this is what KG is hoping for to save her job.
Swanson is up and down - as Spider was last year - but she also only played half a year her freshman season. She has essentially played a little over 1 full year as it stands today. After frustrating inconsistency marked her rookie campaign - Spider has become a consistent producer for us - night in and night out. That's really great to see. She can't do it by herself obviously - but if the two incoming posts can shore up our post play and Poole/Reynolds can develop at the point. The combo of Spider and Swanson on the wing may give us the scoring needed to potentially move up the ranks. Jones has averaged 12ppg/4 apg/3 rpg during Big 10 play - shooting 51% - as just a sophomore against some pretty stiff competition. She is the team's future and if she keeps improving may be All B10 by the end of her career.
Obviously this is what KG is hoping for to save her job.
Come on ladies. Let's take the hoosiers down. You showed what you are capable of in this game. Do it again!
For me, the most impressive thing for Jones is she has developed a mid-range jump shot, and that makes her MUCH more effective. She is still a weak 3 point shooter, so there is still a lot of room left for development.
Another shout out for this game, Lana hit 5 of 6 free throws, which for her is huge, and her form looked smoother as well.
Probably not, we have the worst athletic director in the ncaa, Bobo the clown
She’s likely getting another year for sure, seemingly has 3 good recruits, I’m sure 2-3 will be brought in from the portal.
She has 2 good recruits and one project coming in. The two good recruits are both posts, an area that is not our greatest weakness this season. We will definitely bring in 2-5 portal players for depth and practice if nothing else, but judging by Gearlds coaching style so far, they will likely have 1-3 starters in that mix that will play big minutes while adding nothing to the team. She is addicted to that portal crack, just like the PSU coach Krueger, and both will likely miss out on the BTT this year AND next because they are two of the worst three coaches and programs in the Big Ten.
Not sure if the overseas girl is a project or not, none of us know. My point still stands though, pretty solid class. I’m no fan of Gearlds, just stating I think she’ll for sure get another year, do you disagree? My post wasn’t put up for debate really unless you think she’ll be fired, I don’t see that happening.
If the AD was half way competent, she would be fired and it already announced. I don't think Bobo is half that good though so she will get at least one more year, and it would not surprise me to get 5 more as he really only cares about football and men's basketball PERIOD FULL STOP.
The big problem with this scenario is it sends out a VERY CLEAR message that Purdue does not care about women's basketball, and that could really make it hard to find a good replacement for Gearlds unless the AD is replaced first. Of course if Bobo the clown cared any at all about women's basketball he would not have hired someone so completely unqualified to be our head coach.
I never got this whole portal "crack" storyline from people about gearlds. Outside of this season she's only brought in what? 4 transfers at the most? None last season, Petree/C.Harper in 22-23, Ellis/Terry 21-22. People make it out like gearlds brings in 3-5 every season. It's not the case. Outside of this season, the ones she brought in were multi year starters and good players(C.Harper, Ellis,Terry). L Petree was one year but she was the leading scorer and helped the team get to the NCAA's.
Ellis and Terry were in her 1st season(not knowing she'd be the HC that year).. anyone remember if CKG recruited those two or was that more of Versyp?
You should watch clips on Dounwstra, she's underrated and has competed against 20 year olds I believe. I think she'll be physically more ready than say a Jones was her frosh year.
Also how would you define project? More of a Amiyah, Mckenna kind of first season? If that is the case, I think dounwstra will exceed those two(stat wise) her first year.
Obviously there's alot of unknown, and we need to see who transfers in/out, but I think we'll all be pleasantly surprised by Dounwstra next season.
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So far we have brought in a half dozen foreign players under Versyp/Gearlds that were supposedly great finds, under-rated yada yada yada. They end up looking like junior high players when they get here skill wise and don't last but one year most of the times. Curry had a few great ones, but she was a FAR better judge of talent than what we have endured the past 20 years or so. Everything you have stated about this newest version sounds EXACTLY like what was said about Ainhoa Holzer, remember her?
Portal players:
2024-2025 season: Bass, Lombard, Collier, and M. Petree
2023-2024 season: Mila Reynolds and Alaina Harper
2022-2023 season: Caitlyn Harper and Laisha Petree
2021-2022 season: Doumbia (Gearlds stated Versyp brought in Ellis and Terry on their senior night and how grateful she was they stayed with her)
That is 8 portal players the last 3 years, and only Lombard and Caitlyn Harper have made significant contributions. My problem with this string of portal players is they have added little and have seemed to contribute to younger players not getting the developmental minutes they needed and thus transferring out. I would be willing to bet CKG brings in 3-5 more next year as well. It also is hard to build/maintain a culture with a program when there are so many transients coming through the locker room all here to get theirs in their last year or two.
Totally forgot about Mila and Alaina haha. Good points. We'll see how it all plays out. Right now I think maybe only 1 transfers(not including Alaina, who most? assume won't be back).
Juniors - Jones - Layden - Swanson - Mila(RS)
Sophomores - Amiyah - Poole - McCarthy - Puryear
Freshman - Kira, Gordon - Dounwstra
So that leaves us with 11 as of now barring any transfers. I think CKG goes after another guard/wing, and a forward(guessing a 4 similar to a Bass frame wise 6'2ish that can move better than a traditional post).
That's 13 and my guess is she would try for one more player. Heck, we had 14 this season and are down to 9 playable players. Ideally a couple of these transfers could be multi year players.
All speculative of course. It'll be tough to convince players to come here after this season, but revenue sharing will help, and it still is a P2 team.
I remember Holzer but I wasn't following the team as closely as I do now, nor recruits. I never saw Holzer play in HS and didn't have an opinion on her. I could be way off, but from the clips I've seen, there is alot to like from Dounwstra. Good build, does a good job setting her feet on 3's, seems to have a decent 3 pt shot form wise. She seems to have good speed/explosiveness, I think she'll be a decent defender. I heard she made her national team. Not saying she's a four star that will be all big ten, just that I think she'll surprise some people.
I cannot see CKG taking less than 3 portal players and likely 4 to 5 unless she cannot get ANYONE who can fog glass to come. We are down to 9 in part because we have two healthy players not participating for whatever reasons there may be. ( I think its a team chemistry issue and having portal kids jump the line in front of them) ND rarely has had over 12 players on the roster for 20 years in large part to build a better team chemistry, same with UConn and UTenn back when Pat was coach.
Holzer was a high school star at Christ the King in New York , a perennial power house, but went home because of COVID. She also made the Swiss national team. The girl from Spain was on her junior national team. Holzer looked all world in her highlight tape, but got here and instead of the thoroughbred we thought we had recruited, we got a mule. Just looking at tapes unless you look VERY critically its easy to be fooled. Someone here thought McCarthy ran like a deer and handled the ball better than many Big Ten point guards with great shooting touch. We see what the reality is, and while I like Lana and I am glad she is here, she is not the player someone was trying to sell her as off highlight films.
Yeah ND, UConn can afford to have less players because most of them are ready to play right away. So when they do fall down to 8-9 players, most of them are all Americans.
As someone mentioned about post players struggling to adapt early on to the college game, I could see Gordon taking a year to adjust as well.
Kira seems to be more of a mobile 4 who could even defend some wing 3's with her length and shot blocking ability.. so at least defensively, I can see Kira helping out right away.
Gordon is a top 60 recruit and 6'6". She won't be at her best as a freshman, but she is probably further along in her development than Puryear or McCarthy even with them having a year of Big Ten experience under their belt. Gordon played against top level AAU teams, our froshies did not, they played with lower impact AAU teams. Gordon plays big school ball in Indiana, McCarthy played smallest class in New Hampshire, not a basketball hot bed. I expect Kira and Puryear to share time at the 4 and McCarthy and Gordon share time at the 5.
Lana McCarthy played at Bedford High which is a division 1 school. Division 1 is where the largest schools play, with 900 students or larger. Bedfird had around 1200 students when she played there. In fact Bedford was the best large school in the state the four years she played there going to the state division 1 (large school) state title game four years in a row in both of her sports, bb and volleyball. Bedford win 4 volleyball titles and two bb titles and 2 bb runnersup, with McCarthy starting in both sports. I don't know about her aau cerreer and I don't know how strong New Hampshire high school athletics is, but saying she played small school is not correct.
I think we're in agreement Gordon will be more polished than Mccarthy was as a frosh. I'm just saying as a top 60 recruit, some would expect her to come in and make a big impact right away, but I'm tempering my expectations because she is a post who I haven't seen enough.
The offers she had and the rankings are encouraging, but I like to see her actual game, and I haven't seen enough clips of her against other posts where she has to make a post move.. even the few clips I've seen against other AAU teams, she just catches, turns, and puts it right back up cause she's so much bigger and taller.
She'll be in the rotation though.
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Expecting anyone coming in while this staff is here to excel as a frosh is like building a house on sand, its bound to crumble around you. But I think Gordon has not only a higher upside, but starts from a much higher level coming in. I have virtually no expectations from anyone until we get a professional coach instead of the amateur hour we have going on now.
