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GoldanDBlack express • volume 24, express 24 • 16 up over the years — that causes the emo- tional overflow on the court. Prior to this season, she had played only one year in the last four, and even during that 2011- 12 season at Maryland she wasn't very healthy. Two ACL surgeries and multiple other knee operations, which started when she was a high school senior, have largely kept her off the court. She was at Maryland for two seasons, playing only the second, then transferred, sitting out 2012-13 at Purdue. During her first season in West Lafayette, she was re- habbing yet again, first from the second ACL surgery then on a cleanup operation. All the complications left some doubt as to how good Bays, a former All-Amer- ican at Huntington (W. Va) High School could be. But she's delivered and then some. "Whitney is really hard on herself, noth- ing is good enough, she's never satisfied," Coach Sharon Versyp said. "I understand that, but I said 'You haven't played in two- and-a-half years. You need to remember the situation that you were in before you came here and the work that you put in and where you are now, and that you're just going to keep getting better and better.' "For her to have 10 rebounds, (six) straight games, and she's always going to score eight to 18 a game. What she has been able to deliver to us is probably more than what anybody thought." Bays has done her damage while com- ing off the bench. Early in the season, Vers- yp limited Bays minutes, trying to ease her back into action after the months of being sidelined. But even early, she showed promise. In the first three games of the season, she scored in double figures, playing only about 20 minutes per outing, including a 19-point, nine-rebound performance in a win at Toledo. A hyperextended knee suffered in practice in December gave her a bit of a scare, and she scored only eight points in two consecutive games, but following a few days off around Christmas she re- sponded with a career-high 24 points in a victory against Central Michigan. She started the next game, Purdue's Big Ten opener at Ohio State, but has been a re- serve again ever since. "People always say 'Well, why don't you start her?' " Versyp said. "Well, a lot of it (early) was just getting her into shape. Then, when I did start her she got in foul trouble a lot quicker, so we just kept with what we needed to. When you have that scoring off the bench, (it's good) and we just fell into a rhythm." Versyp's conservative approach leads to thoughts that Bays could be even bet- ter in a year. She's playing only about 21 minutes per game now, having hit 30 or more only three times, in- cluding vs. Iowa Friday. But if she averages about that next season, the production will likely follow. Then, maybe a bigger post- season award. Now that would be something for a player who didn't know what to expect following the series of injuries. "I'm just excited to play," Bays said. "When I first came out here, I didn't expect to be a starter, I didn't expect to be the sixth man, I didn't expect to play that much. It's amaz- ing how much I've grown and how much my team has supported me and where we are right now. "Every game, (my performance has) gotten a little bit better. I think I'm con- tinuing to get better. As you can see in the stats, my rebounding is getting more con- sistent — not so much the scoring — but in every aspect I feel like each game I get a little bit more information and knowledge to get better." j Tom Campbell Bays scored 14 points and had 10 rebounds vs. Iowa, her sixth double-double of the season.