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IllustrateD volume 24, issue 5 73 f "I wish I was a little more consis- tent," said Bays, who had foot sur- gery following the year, forcing her to miss summer conditioning. "But I liked how aggressive I was and how intense I was. I played with my heart, so I liked that I did that. "We didn't even know at the beginning of the season whether I'd make it through. It's definitely comforting to know my knee made it through, but my foot was feeling the pain, I guess." Bays will be the centerpiece of a roster flip next season, as she anchors an interior that should be a strength after the perimeter, because of Moses and Houser, was featured a year ago. Bays, Liza Clemons, Camille Redmon and Torrie Thornton, the top four posts from last season, return next year, although Versyp says Thornton could move more to the wing. She has that luxury because the Boilermakers, at least as it looks now, will be deep on the interior. InjurIes LImIt BoILermakers Individual workouts are very individual for the Boilermakers this spring. Of its eight returnees, Purdue had only four healthy as of late April, with Whitney Bays (foot) and Hayden Hamby (ankle) having postseason surger- ies, and Liza Clemons (leg, back) and Torrie Thornton (sore knees) sitting. Bays and Hamby will be sidelined the longest. Bays had surgery on April 18 on a stress fracture in her foot, which de- veloped late in the season and only started hurting during warmups for the Oklahoma State game in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. She'll be out until late July/early August, an unfortunate turn for a player who had battled through knee injuries much of the last four years. "We're not rushing it, we have time," Bays said. "(Being injury-free for the season) was almost too good to be true. It felt like something was about to come. "It's frustrating. I want to work on my game instead of my body, and this whole time I've been working on my body. But it's nothing I haven't been through before." Hamby also had surgery earlier in April, tightening up an ankle ligament that had loosened over time. She was able to play last year only after taping up the ankle to help hold it together. "As soon as the season was over, I knew I was going to have surgery," she said. "… I get the boot off (in early May) and can jog in (late May). As soon as the boot is off, I can do light shooting, and for basketball it's around three-to-five months." The injuries leave Purdue with four healthy bodies: April Wilson, Ashley Morrissette, Bridget Perry and Camille Redmon. "We're trying to get ev- erybody that has a setback right now to be full-go June 16," Coach Sharon Versyp said. "The healthy players, they'll start doing more in May. But we should be good to go at the beginning of the season. If we have 13 players, we need at least 11 always working out (in the offseason). We've had six people doing this, six people rehabbing and it's not good. Our charge is to get them as healthy as pos- sible." — Kyle Charters