For Purdue women's basketball, making the NCAA Tournament was on the short list of goals for the 2022-23 season. The program made securing a spot in March Madness a priority after missing the biggest event in college basketball for five straight seasons.
Purdue successfully ended the longest drought for the program since the 1980s and accomplished its biggest goal for this year. It was the players who made the goal a focus and then turned it into reality.
"Katie, you know, she put our goals in our hands," senior guard Abbey Ellis said. "We sat down as a team, we talked about what we wanted, and we achieved both of those goals."
Forward Caitlyn Harper entered the fold ahead of the season after transferring from Cal Baptist. From day one, head coach Katie Gearlds made sure Harper understood the task at hand.
"When I came in, that was always one of the goals that coach had talked about was that we wanted to get back to the NCAA tournament," Harper said.
Harper is one of two transfers that joined the program last off-season, along with Lasha Petree. The two newcomers were instrumental in getting the Boilermakers back into the Big Dance. Petree leads the team in scoring, averaging 14.5 points per game heading into Thursday's matchup with St. John's, while Harper was third on the team in scoring this season. Katie Gearlds has been outspoken about their impact on the program throughout the season and shared a moment with each of them on Selection Sunday.
"I hugged her [Harper] like, hey thanks for choosing us," Gearlds said. "You know, [I] hugged Lasha because she took a fifth-year chance to get to the NCAA tournament."
Making the NCAA Tournament is the next step in getting Purdue women's basketball back into the national landscape. While the Boilermakers' head coach knows it is a process, Gearlds says sweating out Selection Sunday isn't in her plans moving forward.
"Something we talk about and think about is just like laying it brick by brick, you know to build this foundation," Gearlds said. "There's no more living on the bubble.. this ain't for me."
As the Boilermakers heard their name called during the bracket reveal, Gearlds was seen putting her hands to her face with relief as she knew what that moment meant for herself, the players, and the program.
"This is what you live for. This is what you play for. You go through every workout in the summer, every early morning grind in the fall, every tough practice in the winter. You do it to give yourself a chance to play in March," Gearlds said.
Abbey Ellis and Caitlyn Harper shared the same sentiments as their coach on Tuesday afternoon. Each of them has a different path and motivation for why the NCAA Tournament means so much to them.
Ellis, a native of Australia, signed with Cal Poly following her prep career down under. She dreamed of playing in March Madness when she was younger and now gets the opportunity to do so nearly 10,000 miles from home.
"All the hard work kind of paid off in this big decision, you know, go halfway across the world to follow your dreams, and it's here now in March Madness," Ellis said.
Harper also used to reside in California to start her college basketball career, spending four years at Cal Baptist. The standout forward won the WAC Tournament MVP in 2021 and was named the WAC Player of the Year in 2022.
While Harper succeeded in the Golden State, she did not make it into the NCAA Tournament. Despite winning the 2021 WAC Tournament, Cal Baptist was undergoing a four-year transition period to the division one level, which made them ineligible for postseason play. That was part of the reason Harper transferred into the Big Ten to play for the Boilermakers, which was a move that paid off.
"It's something I've wanted since I was little and started playing basketball, and so being somewhere where we can come together and compete in the Big Ten and a spot in the tournament is really special for us," Harper said.
While Purdue accomplished its goal of playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017, the Boilermakers are not satisfied with just being invited to the party. They want to have success.
The Boilermakers made it into the "last four in" part of March Madness, which is in only its second year in the women's tournament. Purdue understands the circumstances, but it has not impacted the preparation for their matchup with St. John's
"We have a play-in game, but it's an opportunity to be in the tournament. We're really just focused on one game at a time and doing the best we can to prepare for St. John's," Harper said.
Katie Gearlds has embraced that mentality and implemented it onto the practice court for the Boilermakers. Abbey Ellis has noticed a difference from her head coach, and the team has responded as they get ready for battle on Thursday night.
"She's been very, very positive, very intense, and you know, we hold ourselves to that standard, and she wants nothing less, so we do it every day," Ellis said.
Purdue knows the expectations from the public about being an 11 seed and one of the last four in the field of 68, but Katie Gearlds believes her team is hungry and doesn't feel the pressure of a National Championship contender.
"That group's competitive enough to know that we're going out there to try to win," Gearlds said. "We're gonna give ourselves a chance to play, and if we're there we might as well try to win. If not, we just stay here and enjoy the moment but this group is competitive."
Following a 17-15 season with a trip to the NIT last season, Purdue was not ranked in the Big Ten Preseason Poll (which only includes five teams) and was not represented on the coaches' nor the media's preseason All-Big Ten team.
The lack of expectations has allowed the Boilermakers to play free and find success throughout the 2022-23 season, something Abbey Ellis believes isn't quite over yet.
"I think we put the hard work in, and we surprised a lot of people," Ellis said. "We're super excited going in there with nothing to lose. No one really expected us to make it this year."
Despite not being seen as a contender in the national landscape, Gearlds and Purdue are primed to make some noise in the NCAA Tournament, beginning on Thursday evening in Columbus. According to Gearlds, that is due to how close the players are with one another.
"We understand our limitations. We're not naive to what we have and what we don't have. We've got a group that's bought into playing for each other and playing with each other," Gearlds said.
Another factor weighing against the Boilermakers is their inexperience in the NCAA Tournament. Lasha Petree is the only player on the roster that has played in the Big Dance during her career, as she scored 33 points against No. 6 seeded Texas Longhorns in the 2021 NCAA Tournament when she played for Bradley.
The Boilermakers don't have the March track record in recent years, but they will lean on several veteran leaders heading into Thursday, and Abbey Ellis is one of them.
"I think it'll be really good because tournament time is big time, and a lot of us have played a lot of big tournaments ourselves," Ellis said. "So it's just gonna have [to be] those senior heads that kind of take control and have that leadership,"
Purdue's starting lineup of Ellis, Petree, Harper, Cassidy Hardin and Jeanae Terry might not have the best feel for what it's like to play in March, but the core group of Boilermakers has played a lot of basketball.
The starting five consists of all seniors or fifth-year seniors who have played in a combined 638 games during their college careers. The group's leadership has helped guide Purdue through adversity and into newfound success over the course of the season, and they will do so once again this week.
The Boilermakers will be tasked with beating fellow 11 seed, St. John's, in the First Four on Thursday to advance to the round of 64 against North Carolina. It will be no easy task as the Red Storm have put together an impressive season thus far. The Big East representative heads into the NCAA Tournament with a 22-8 record and finished tied for fourth during conference play with a 13-7 mark.
After starting the year with a 13-game winning streak, the Red Storm fell on hard times over the back half of the season. They appeared in the AP Top 25 Poll to begin 2023 following the fast start but went just 9-8 prior to the NCAA Tournament.
One of those wins likely clinched St. John's spot in March Madness when they knocked off No. 4 UConn on February 21st to kickstart a three-game winning streak leading into the Big East Tournament. The Red Storm then dropped the first game in their conference tournament to Marquette.
Like Purdue, St. John's has an experienced team as well. Big East Coach of the Year Joe Tartamella has seven players who average over 16.7 minutes per game, and all of them are seniors. Katie Gearlds is focused on the Red Storm backcourt as she and Purdue prepare for Thursday's game.
"[They've] got a couple of guards that can just flat out get it going," Gearlds said.
The duo Gearlds was referring to is St. John's high-scoring seniors, Jayla Everett, and Kadaja Bailey. The two have averaged a combined 29.1 points per game this season, which is over 44% of their team's 65.5 points per game scoring average as a whole. Everett's 15.8 points per game leads the Red Storm, as does her 42.4% shooting from three-point range.
Big Ten All-Defense selection Jeanae Terry along with underrated defender Madison Layden will likely draw the assignment of Everett on Thursday night. Katie Gearlds has used Layden as a lockdown defender and anchor for the team all season and could do the same to slow down the All-Big East First Team guard.
The St. John's backcourt also receives a boost off the bench as the Big East Sixth Woman Award winner Unique Drake has become the top option offensively in the second unit. The 5'7" senior is a high-volume shooter that can score on all three levels. Even if Purdue is able to slow down Everett and Bailey, Drake has shown the ability to assume a more prominent role within the offense, proven by her nine double-figure scoring performances this season.
Where the Red Storm really hang their hat is on the defensive end, however. St. John's is holding opponents to just 59.4 points per game, which was fourth-best in the Big East and 59th out of 350 division one programs this season. Purdue has only been held under the 60-point mark twice this year, both of which came in losses to National Championship contenders Indiana and Iowa.
The St. John's defense leans on the play of its frontcourt to make an impact on the game, where they average 4.2 blocks per game. That mark is tied for 43rd in the country, while Purdue, for reference, is tied for 123rd in the same category. Senior Rayven Peebles leads the post defense for St. John's, grabbing a team-high 8.8 rebounds and blocking 1.2 shots per game.
Purdue's Caitlyn Harper and Rickie Woltman have formed a nice 1-2 combo at the center position for Katie Gearlds and will be tasked with combatting the stellar interior play of the Red Storm on both ends. Harper's ability to step out and knock down shots from the perimeter is something to watch as the Boilermakers try to lure Peebles out of the paint. Harper is currently shooting 32% from three-point range on the season.
Katie Gearlds was impressed by the St. John's defense while preparing for Thursday and shared that the Boilermakers will have to push the pace to create scoring opportunities.
"We'll try to impose our will, push the tempo a little bit, but they're just so good in the halfcourt defensively," Gearlds said.
While Purdue's offense has struggled at times this season, the defense has excelled, as the Boilermakers were third in scoring defense in the Big Ten. Gearlds said the defense of both teams could turn Thursday's matchup into a race to 55 or 60. A defensive battle could bode well for the Boilermakers, who are 17-0 when holding opponents to 65 points or fewer.
Purdue's return to the NCAA Tournament presents a challenging test in the First Four, but the Boilermakers feel primed to make some noise in March Madness.
