Gold and Black is a multi-platform media company that covers Purdue athletics like no one else.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/99573
w o m e n ' s b a s k e t b a l l f e a t u r e : s a m o s t a r e l l o Moving The Bar Never satisfied, Ostarello keeps working BY STACY CLARDIE SClardie@GoldandBlack.com S am Ostarello has the routine down. She'll hop on her bed, seize her favorite Spiderman blanket, wrap up, have a snack of chocolate close by, laptop propped on her lap, favorite black pen with green-colored composition notebook in one hand and get comfortable. Depending on what time of the day she's watching game tape — via an Internet program streamed to the laptop or sometimes hooked up to the TV in her room so she can watch an enlarged version — she may use the lamp on her nightstand as the only light, the glowing computer screen reflected in her eyes, intently studying. Sometimes, Ostarello is examining Purdue's opponents, looking for the smallest of tendencies of players she's set to guard. She breaks it down to the release of their shot, how their feet are positioned. She does the same for her own teammates, too, trying to figure out the slightest tendency that will give her an edge. When KK Houser misses a three-pointer from the right wing, where does the rebound go? The left wing? The knowledge helps her to be in the right position to get the rebound. But the most attentive, beady-eyed focus goes to watching her own play postgame, regardless of what happened. Following a career-best 23-point game against Central Michigan, Ostarello was consumed with the four turnovers she had and the nine rebounds. Why not 10? She pulls out the notebook. She fills one every season, about 80 pages' worth, critiquing her movements, her decision-making, how she followed the scouting report. "You need to front. Why aren't you fronting?" she'll write while watching film, breaking down execution on defensive philosophies. "Be on the high side," she'll write when watching her close outs, knowing she's not supposed to allow players to drive middle. "It's a constant, like trying to solve it," she said. But she can't. At least never to her liking. Even when there's progress in one area, there's always something else to critique, another nuance she's trying to perfect. Living up to everyone's expectations, finally fulfilling her potential of being a double-double player as a senior, isn't enough for Ostarello. Even if that type of production has helped Purdue win all but one of its first 11 games to start 2012-13 and achieve a No. 13 ranking. "I'm still developing," she said, countering a statement touting her arrival as one of the league's better players. "There's just a lot of facets to the game, I feel like. Even though I'm good at rebounding, some days it's like, 'Yeah you can rebound, but can you rebound?' Maybe I play a lot of mind games with myself with that to keep getting better because I never want to be complacent with that, but there's just so much, you can never perfect it. "I think that's my drive. I never think I'm as good as maybe I play." Already in 11 games, she averaged 9.2 rebounds per game, only four-tenths off the best average in the Big Ten. Purdue hasn't had a player lead the Big Ten in rebounding in 22 years. Already in 11 games, she had five double-digit rebounding efforts after having 19 in her first three seasons. Already in 11 games, she had 26 assists, more than halfway to her career single-season high (48). Already in 11 games, she's had four double-digit scoring games, nearly halfway to her career single-season high (10). "I think she's always had it in her," teammate Chantel Poston said of Ostarello's boost in production this season. "That's something I've always seen in her: 52 • Gold & Black IllustrateD • volume 23, issue 3 Tom Campbell Sam Ostarello rarely is satisfied. After scoring a career-high 23 points, including converting a pair of critical three-point plays in the second half, against Central Michigan, Ostarello focused on her four turnovers and nine rebounds. work ethic. She works hard all the time. But speaking as a fellow senior, definitely, when you finally realize like, 'Whoa. This is my last go-round. I'm going to give it all I've got.' I definitely think that has something to do with it. "The kid's a beast, an integral part of our team." That didn't happen easily, though. Ostarello always has made basketball a constant battle since she started playing organized basketball as a seventh grader. Though she wasn't even intent to do it — she'd messed around in a Y league that essentially was just a "mob" of girls moving from one end of the court to another, brother Dan joked — she was talked into attending an open gym in seventh grade. Her and Dan had always gotten dropped off to school early and just waited outside, with open gym happening. Then she accepted an invitation to enter from then-math teacher and later-AD Guy Hunter and was challenged to return the next day. She loved it immediately because every day was a challenge. A fight to rid the "chicken wing" shooting form. She was so skinny, so had to launch just to get power, elbow flailing out. A fight to make 10 consecutive "Marburys," swishing shots just in front of the basket. A fight to conquer a ballhandling routine in under seven minutes. By the time she had reached high school, she'd been given a key to the gym so she didn't have to constantly bother others to let her in early, close it late. "Everything Sam's ever had, she's always worked for," Dan Ostarello said. "When it comes to her being a basketball player, she was that person that was alGBIprint.com GoldandBlack.com