Players lost:

  GP/GS Min FG FGA FG% 3 Pt 3Pt A 3 Pt % FT FTA FT %
Stephanie White-McCarty 35/35 36.0 245 524 .468 62 142 .437 155 195 .795
Ukari Figgs 35/35 35.3 174 441 .397 69 202 .342 151 175 .863
Tiffany Young* 33/0 8.1 25 78 .321 5 22 .227 13 25 .520
Amy Shaffer 10/0 2.8 2 8 .250 0 0 .000 2 3 .667
Shayla Potter 1/0 1.0 0 1 .000 0 0 .000 0 0 .000

 

  Off Reb Def Reb Reb PF-D Assists Steals Blocks TO A/TO High Points Ave
Stephanie White-McCarty 68 119 187 69-0 156 78 17 116 1.34 33 707 20.2
Ukari Figgs 37 121 158 63-1 147 58 8 84 1.75 27 570 16.3
Tiffany Young* 10 27 37 18-0 11 11 1 13 0.85 11 68 2.1
Amy Shaffer 1 0 1 1-0 0 0 0 2 0.00 2 6 0.6
Shayla Potter 0 1 1 0-0 0 0 0 1 0.00 0 0 0.0

* Tiffany Young was killed in an automobile accident July 31, 1999

Players returning:

  GP/GS Min FG FGA FG% 3 Pt 3Pt A 3 Pt % FT FTA FT %
Katie Douglas 35/35 33.7 175 376 .465 22 63 .349 121 148 .818
Camille Cooper 35/33 22.6 149 232 .642 0 0 .000 43 86 .500
Kelly Komara 35/0 17.5 58 144 .403 26 63 .413 45 66 .682
Michelle Duhart 35/34 29.9 53 92 .576 0 0 .000 24 46 .522
Mackenzie Curless 29/1 8.4 30 63 .476 0 0 .000 18 25 .720
Candi Crawford 31/1 8.0 19 38 .500 0 0 .000 21 41 .512
Connie Murdock 17/0 4.4 7 15 .467 0 0 .000 7 12 .583
Mo-nique Langston 9/0 2.3 5 9 .556 1 2 .500 2 2 1.000
Danielle Bird 12/0 3.3 1 6 .167 1 2 .500 0 4 .000
Beth Lapaich 4/0 1.0 0 1 .000 0 0 .000 0 0 .000

 

  Off Reb Def Reb Reb PF-D Assists Steals Blocks TO A/TO High Points Ave
Katie Douglas 63 154 217 76-0 124 91 17 101 1.23 21 493 14.1
Camille Cooper 72 99 171 99-0 5 16 54 60 0.08 20 341 9.7
Kelly Komara 21 68 89 51-0 66 40 5 42 1.57 16 187 5.3
Michelle Duhart 94 105 199 78-0 25 56 6 53 0.47 11 130 3.7
Mackenzie Curless 17 17 34 31-0 4 5 1 15 0.27 12 78 2.7
Candi Crawford 19 23 42 37-1 1 5 0 11 0.09 6 59 1.9
Connie Murdock 8 8 16 15-0 3 5 4 7 0.43 6 21 1.2
Mo-nique Langston 2 2 4 2-0 1 3 0 5 0.20 3 13 1.4
Danielle Bird 2 0 2 1-0 3 1 0 2 1.5 3 3 0.3
Beth Lapaich 0 0 0 0-0 1 0 0 1 1.0 0 0 0.0

Additions:

Elisa Inman 6'2 F Wadsworth, Oh  
Shinika Parks 5'9 G Trinity Valley Community College #13*

 

* All Star Girls Report Junior College Rankings

1999 marks year one AS (after Stephanie) at Purdue.  In this year, the Boilermakers will be facing a major restructuring of their team.  For the past three years, Stephanie White-McCarty and Ukari Figgs have been the heart and soul of the team.  The two held their teammates together through as much off-court tumult,  including three coaches in four years, as any program around.

Kristi Curry who becomes Purdue's fourth coach in five years will attempt to keep the defending national champions on course.  She will do it with a team that looks very different from the 99 model.

With White-McCarty and Figgs leading the team, the Boilers were a guard oriented team that played extremely efficient, unspectacular basketball.  It was a team who's character carried them through difficult times.

This year's Purdue team will have to be a more well-balanced unit.  Katie Douglas proved to be an exceptional compliment to the senior duo.  She will now have to step into the leader's role.  She has had two years of training and she gives every indication of being able to fill a good portion of the void left by the departing seniors.

But Douglas will not be able to carry the team.  There are three returning players who each played a significant role in the championship run.  All three have the ability to step up their games and all three will have to do just that.

That still leaves one starting spot open.  In the past several seasons, whoever was coaching Purdue has used only six or seven players.  The result is that there won't be many experienced bodies in Purdue uniforms this season.  The development of the inexperienced players will go a long way to determining how the Purdue season goes.

Last season, Purdue led the league in defense and finished third in scoring and rebounding margin.  It appears unlikely that they will be able to duplicate the offensive effort of last season, so they will have to continue to be a power defensively.  This will be hard with so many new faces getting minutes.

Offensively, they look to be weak from three point land.  Someone will have to give them a consistent force from beyond the arc so teams cannot pack their defense and take away the drives Purdue, especially Douglas, depends on.

Rebounding is in large part effort.  The Purdue rebounding efforts in the past were reflective of a work ethic that was beyond reproach.  That ethic must continue, and all signs are that it will.

The Big 10 schedulemakers were kind to Purdue this year.  They play likely top three teams Illinois and Wisconsin only once but get bottomfeeders Indiana and Minnesota twice.  They will have to come out of the gate strong in Big 10 play, though.  Their key league games are early in the conference schedule.

By Position:

  Point Guard.  Komara was solid as a back-up last season.  She had a good assist ratio.  However, at 5'6 she is small and she needs help to get her shot off.  She can be shut down offensively, but she should run the team effectively.  The back-up position appears wide open.  In fact, unless Douglas also backs up Komara, it's unclear who will be the second string point guard.

  Swing Positions.  Douglas will be the strength of team.  Her only weakness is that she does not take many three point shots.  Who will take the other swing spot is unclear at this point.  JC transfer Parks may end up there, but jc players have traditionally not been impact players in the Big 10.  The other potential starter is Crawford who filled the back-up small forward role last year.  She would need to significantly improve her scoring output if she starts.

  Post Players.  Cooper and Duhart are solid players in the post.  Cooper seems poised to make a major contribution to her team.  Duhart is a good rebounder and defender.  She needs to improve her scoring.  This is the one area where there is some depth.  Curless has been a solid player in her three years at Purdue.  She should provide quality off the bench.

Strengths:  Douglas, tradition

Weaknesses:  Lack of experience, scoring

Key player:  Katie Douglas.  She's been anointed a pre-season all-American by various prognosticators.  She's had an excellent first two years at Purdue, but her play has not approached all-American caliber.  That's an enormous, almost unfair, amount of pressure to put on a college athlete.  But if Purdue is not going to drop too far, she may have to meet those expectations.

Key games:  Dec 30 @ Wisconsin, Jan 6 Penn State, Jan 20 Illinois

Question Boilermaker fans are asking:  Will the program stop making as many headlines off the court as on?

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