Purdue Ladies a Quiet Dynasty

First appeared on April 1st, 2009
in The Lebanon Reporter

Unbeknownst to many, despite a 12 point loss to the UCONN Huskies, Purdue actually advanced to the Elite 8 over the weekend. Of course, in this case, we are speaking of the Lady Boilermakers who are busy commemorating the 10 year anniversary of their 1999 National Championship by making some noise in the Women’s Tournament. In dispatching of Rutgers 67-61 Sunday evening Sharon Versyp’s team advanced to the program’s 8th Elite Eight appearance. Overall, Purdue’s women have made 16 straight NCAA tournaments which is a streak that ranks them 4th nationally.
When March arrives if there is anything Hoosiers crave, other than more cowbell, it’s having a team to cheer on in the NCAA Tournament. On the whole, this year’s NCAA Women’s Tournament saw more in-state teams making appearances than did the men’s. Purdue came in as a 6 seed while the Notre Dame Lady Irish earned a 7. Ball State and Evansville also made the tournament as 12 and 15 seeds respectively.
Of course Ball State made some history of their own with a first round win some are calling “the largest upset in NCAA Tournament history”, the Lady Cardinals handed Pat Summit’s Tennessee Lady Volunteers that program’s first ever first round loss in NCAA Tournament play. To put this into perspective one must imagine a 16 seed upsetting a number 1, that’s how huge Ball State’s win was. If that doesn’t clear it up for you picture the windshield and the bug analogy, only in Ball State’s case the bug broke the windshield.
After suffering a trio of first round losses, Purdue was the only in-state team left standing in the women’s tournament at press time. With 25 wins on the season, the Boilers are in the midst of a great year. They are led in scoring and rebounding by Lindsay Wisdom Hylton while Attica’s Brittany Rayburn is third on the team in scoring while Jodi Howell (another Indiana product) poses a long range threat for defenses. With only four in-state players on the bench, Purdue’s roster is a hodge-podge of recruits from all over the U.S. and the world. In fact there are two Lady Boilers who hail from foreign countries in Spain and Russia, three if you count the girl from Arkansas.
In order to make the Final Four, which is in St. Louis by the way, the Lady Boilers will have to get by Oklahoma and their powerful center Courtney Paris. Paris set an NCAA record with 112 straight double doubles and averaged 16 points and 14 rebounds on the season. While I’m busy tooting her horn for her, Paris also holds 140 NCAA records (and after seeing her play I’m pretty certain one of those records is for elbows thrown).
Versyp’s team is comprised of a cast of characters who share the ball and compliment each other well, but it remains to be seen if they’ll have what it takes to get by the closest thing to Shaquille O’Neal you’re ever going to find in women’s college basketball (my apologies to Rebecca Lobo). Of course you know the outcome of this game now and I don’t, which is one of the quaint aspects of the printed paper; that along with Frank and Ernest, free inserts and black fingers of course. So here’s to hoping the Lady Boilers were able to survive Courtney Paris and both her elbows to make it to the Final Four. If not, consider this a celebration of their outstanding season.