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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 82 you need to say and get your peers going. After the Penn State game, they stepped up to the different level and you felt the change. "Obviously winning helps. When you win, all those great things happen. But we went through so much finding ourselves because we were so young, and that's what will probably happen this year. We're so young, we'll still find ourselves, but I think we saw what can be. And so we have a good bulk of our team back, except five new pieces, which is a lot. Yet, I think Fatou (Diagne) is very, very ma- ture, an incredible leader and like a momma figure for everyone. And then we have two kids who are 20 who are freshmen (Tamara Farquhar and Léony Boudreau) and then Dani (Lawson) and Karissa (McLaughlin) who are 18. So there's more maturity than I've ever had with a young team." Gold and Black: The sophomores, particular- ly Dominique Oden, Ae'Rianna Harris and Lam- ina Cooper, are going to have to carry a lot of the weight for this team, much like they did as freshmen last season, right? Versyp: "They do. Our whole sophomore class is really going to have to help us. You have 10 players (as underclassmen), then Nora (Kiesler), Abby and Keys, but you want that eight to 10 (core) players. "(The sophomores) have matured quite a bit and now their mentality is different, but also as I've told them, everybody in the Big Ten now knows what you're capable of doing. You've got to be better and work on different facets of your game, because we want you to still be good at a high level. You can't just be good at where you were last year. "This (current) freshmen class, they've got to be able to play as well. It's a great opportunity. The freshmen really have that green light that, 'Hey, I really think I can help this team.'" Gold and Black: Oden was great as a fresh- man last season, but now won't have Morris- sette to take away some of the defensive atten- tion. Can she still be improved in Year 2? Versyp: "I think she has the work ethic and the mindset. She has to get stronger and continue to get better with decision-making, but if you're a worker and in the gym, she's been good at one skill An Offseason Victory Sharon Versyp has seen others go through the struggle. Now, she can count herself among cancer survivors. The 12th-year Purdue coach is feeling good after offseason treatment for an early stage of a type of breast cancer, ductal car- cinoma in situ (DCIS). "It's been a long journey," she said, "but it's gone very well." Versyp has seen others close to her go through similar battles, with her mom dying at the age of 34 from leukemia and Terry Kix, Purdue's director of operations, surviving stomach cancer in 2012. "You always know (of others') stories or journeys and there's a lot of that when you're coaching young people. Now this is another big one I can add to my hat. You have young people who have family members who go through cancer and I've always been able to help them before, but now I can educate them even further because of my education and going through it. A lot of people fear what's going to happen, but when you're educated and know, I think that actually eases people's minds." Versyp carefully educated herself on DCIS, seeking opinions from multiple sources in the spring before deciding on a treat- ment plan. Because the diagnosis came at the end of last season and treatment over the summer, Versyp didn't have to miss much recruiting or preparation time. For that and her health — she said he was nearly 100 percent as of late September — she feels blessed. "I was fortunate," she said. — Kyle Charters Charles Jischke Sharon Versyp was back running workouts, then official practices starting Oct. 1, after knocking down cancer in the spring.