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Gold and Black Illustrated, Vol 27, Digital 2

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66 GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED BY KYLE CHARTERS KCharters@GoldandBlack.com P urdue took a punch from Oklahoma to end last season. A figurative punch, but a punch nonetheless. In March, the Sooners out-muscled an undersized Boilermaker team, ending Purdue's comeback season — it had returned to the NCAA Tournament after a one- year absence — in the first round of the tourney. Now, half a year later, the Boilermakers hope they're ready to respond, not against the Sooners, who aren't on the schedule, but against others who might think they can push them around. "To play in this conference you have to be tough," junior captain Andreona Keys said. "We know we need to be tougher than last year. "… We have been harping on that all summer, the culture of our team and what we want to be known as. We've also kind of taken that and ran with it and we make sure, 'This is who we are, this is what we're going to be this year, so let's do what we have to do to get to where we want to go.' "We want to be tough, hard-nosed and in shape." The Boilermakers have worked toward the change this offseason, and judging from their look, it's starting to pay off. Sophomore forward Dominique McBryde is stronger, perhaps better able now to be physical with opponents; a year ago, as a rookie, she called herself "scrawny," an apt description of the then-skinny-yet-ul- tra-talented 6-foot-2 forward. "I'm definitely not as scrawny as I was last year," she said. "I'm still an undersized post player but I've come a long way. "I feel completely stronger." Center Bree Horrocks has added muscle in her up- per body and shoulders, likely to give her better balance when trying to push opposing posts out of the lane. Keys and Bridget Perry have seemingly made strides as well, knowing that even out on the wing, Purdue could stand to be more physically imposing. The backcourt is slight, with senior Ashley Morris- sette and sophomore Tiara Murphy slotted as starters, but they'll try to make up for their slender builds with quickness. Part of the story also is personnel, mainly the addi- tion of freshman forward Ae'Rianna Harris, who gives the Boilermakers a shot-blocking power forward option that it lacked last season. Then, Purdue had to play un- dersized, with Perry frequently at the 4, and 6-footer Torrie Thornton, who is now graduated, at the 5. "We've talked a lot about our physicality," said Coach Sharon Versyp in early October, just after the start of Purdue's official practices. "If you come into our prac- tice you will see it right away and I think part of it is we've had 13 weeks of preseason conditioning. So we worked on a lot of things that we needed to take a clos- er look at … (and that) was physicality, being tougher, working on rebounding, our movement. I think we did a lot of those things. "And our freshmen bring a lot of that, too, just in their body types and athleticism. It's just who they are. Adding them to the puzzle has helped, along with seeing the upperclassmen change their bodies." The Boilermakers hope that the change can help them build off of last season. In many ways, it was a success, with Purdue winning 20 games, finishing sixth in the Big Ten and returning to the NCAA Tournament, a year after it had won only 11, including just three in finishing last in the Big Ten. But last season didn't end well, as the 11th-seeded Boilermakers were beat- en soundly by sixth-seeded Oklahoma in Lexington, Ky. It was only Purdue's second first-round NCAA loss, the first since 1996. "Our motto is 'Why Wait?'" Perry said. "We had a great season, but we shouldn't wait until tomorrow to get better. At the end of the season we got right back to it and brought the freshmen into that culture. We got there last season, but we don't want to just get there again. We want to go even further." Whereas Purdue was reliant on its perimeter for a bulk of its scoring last season — mainly because April Wilson, who is now playing overseas, did so much for the Boilermakers, like scoring, distributing, defending — it could have better balance now. McBryde is the reason why. The sophomore is a bud- ding star, with an array of offensive post moves that proved difficult to handle for a lot of opponents last sea- son. As a rookie, the Indiana native averaged 7.3 points while shooting better than 52 percent from the field. But she had dominant stretches, like when she scored

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