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72 GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED never been on a losing team, so it was definitely an eye-opener and a wake-up call to be like, 'OK, this is not the way we're supposed to play.' And we went to Italy and it's like, 'We can win. We're a good team.' " There was caution, too. Although it was good to win, Purdue also found it had a ways to go, as well, and that's not a bad realization for a team looking to rebuild. "What I liked in Italy was that we really executed some things and were really successful," Versyp said. "You're doing it against teams that you don't know any- thing about and you're just putting it in, that boosted our players' confidence: 'This worked.' Because that's all part of it. If you have success at something, then it's going to build the confidence and they bought into it this summer, then had success and it's escalating, they're starting to see the bits and pieces. "You put the skeleton (of the new offense) in and show everything and now they're starting to under- stand the second and third options, the fourth options, but the timing has still got to get a lot better and con- tinuing to understand the purpose of each option, so we'll see. But we did like what we saw." If the Boilermakers are going to win this season, it'll likely come on the backs of its backcourt. There, Pur- due has veterans, particularly Wilson and Morrissette, the Boilermakers' top two returning scorers. But each will need to improve her efficiency. Wilson's been a steady point guard through her ca- reer, having a positive assist-to-turnover ratio (1.6-to-1 last season) and being a solid defender. But she's not BY THE NUMBERS 21.6 The average number of victo- ries per season in Sharon Versyp's first nine years at Purdue, before the Boilermakers won only 10 last season. Purdue's winning percentage of .333 in 2014-15 was its lowest since it went 5-23 (.179) in 1983-84. 21 Consecutive seasons with a postseason tour- nament appear- ance, including 20 in the NCAA tourney, which came to an end. Purdue set a few marks it'd rather not have, including 10 homes losses, the most since the '83-84 season. Purdue takes a seven-game home losing streak into this year. 7 Purdue's 2015 recruit- ing class ranking, per ESPNW HoopGurlz, the top-ranked group in Versyp's tenure. The group includes Domi- nique McBryde (No. 28 by HoopGurlz), Tiara Murphy (No. 30), Lamina Cooper (No. 44) and Nora Kiesler (122). Cooper left the program in August, before the start of the se- mester, but the guard could return. "The door is always open," Versyp said. 119 Career starts by Purdue's backcourt, including 52 by senior point guard April Wilson over the last two seasons. Junior Ashley Morrissette started 28 games last season. Junior Bridget Perry made 21 starts on the wing last sea- son, although she will play primarily the 4 this year. Sophomore Andreona Keys had 11 starts as a rookie, while senior Hayden Ham- by has seven in her career.