GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 69
BY KYLE CHARTERS KCharters@GoldandBlack.com
Ten underclassmen will
need to fill holes quickly
for Boilermakers
Women's Basketball
Youth
Movement
P
urdue is young.
Not much can be done to
argue against that, with the
roster consisting of only one
senior, a couple juniors and
10 underclassmen. But that
doesn't necessarily mean
the Boilermakers are inex-
perienced. Purdue has several key
returnees — senior Andreona Keys
and sophomores Dominique Oden
and Ae'Rianna Harris, to name three
— who were integral to the late-sea-
son charge that put the Boilermakers
into the NCAA Tournament's second
round.
So rather than shun the youth
movement, Purdue is embracing it.
"I don't feel like it's a problem,"
said Oden, a potential breakout play-
er in her second year. "When you're
older, yeah, you have more experi-
ence, but we still have more experi-
enced people on the team, and having
a young group that's eager to learn
and participate just makes you better.
They want to do better and it doesn't
matter that they're young. We're not
saying, 'We're a young team and
we're going to make mistakes.' That's
not our mentality, so we're going for-
ward as hard as we can."
Purdue has reason for optimism,
perhaps mixed with equal reasons for
concern. First the former: Keys has
been a steady contributor who can be
an excellent leader for a young squad;
the sophomores, led by Oden, Harris
and Lamina Cooper, should be able to
handle bigger responsibilities after
they were pressed into significant
action as rookies; and freshman Ka-
rissa McLaughlin, the Indiana Miss
Basketball, headlines a big incoming
class that Purdue hopes brings an-
