The Purdue Exponent


Monday, 4/02/2001	5 day quick link 3/30 \| 3/29 \| 3/28 \| 3/27 \| 3/26

Rebounding woes hurt team in loss

Liz Nicol/Senior Photographer

GET OFF: Irish guard Niele Ivey dives on top of Purdue’s Katie Douglas while going after a loose ball on Sunday. Ivey led Notre Dame to a 68-66 victory over Purdue to earn an NCAA national championship for the Irish.

By Anne McLaren
and Kyle Charters

ST. LOUIS — Despite Purdue’s early advantage on the boards against Notre Dame Sunday, the Boilers weren’t able to get a big enough lead in the first half to hold off a second half Irish comeback.

Notre Dame (34-2) beat Purdue (31-7) 68-66 in the NCAA title game Sunday.

The Boilers held a 29-17 rebounding advantage in the first half as they built their lead to 32-26 at intermission. In the half, Purdue had 13 offensive rebounds.

"We were doing a great job," said Katie Douglas. "You’ve got to credit the posts that were picking up the loose balls or the missed shots inside. That’s what was really giving us the advantage."

In the second half, though, the Irish outrebounded the Boilers 21-12 to spark the Notre Dame comeback. During that time, Purdue had only four offensive boards.

"I’m sure (Coach) Muffet (McGraw) gave them a little talking to at halftime and they started being more aggressive on the boards," said Purdue coach Kristy Curry.

Future Changes?

At the United States Basketball Writers Association brunch Sunday in St. Louis, representatives from ESPN and the NCAA talked about possible format changes to the women's tournament.

ESPN has the broadcast rights to the tourney and is looking to sign an additional 11-year contract.

Some of the changes include moving the regional format from two days (one day for all eight Sweet 16 games and one for all four Elite Eight games) to a four-day format similar to the men. Another considers moving the women's Final Four from Friday/Sunday, a day before the men's Final Four of Saturday/Monday to either a Sunday/Tuesday format or possibly the weekend after or before the men.

"We'll try to let the NCAA decide things and then we'll televise it," said an ESPN representative.

He also said that ESPN tried to show more competitive matchups in the first round this year by not televising the top seeds. However, in the second round it did televise top seeds such as Connecticut and Tennessee at the expense of showing matchups between four and five seeds, such as Rutgers and Southwest Missouri State.

The most highly viewed championship game was two seasons ago, when the Boilers defeated Duke to win their first national championship.

Another All-America team

Douglas has been named to the United States Basketball Writers Association All-America team. She joins Connecticut's Svetlana Abrosimova, Vanderbilt's Chantelle Anderson, Tennessee's Tamika Catchings, Oklahoma's Stacey Dales, Georgia's Kelly Miller, Notre Dame's Ruth Riley, Duke's Georgia Schweitzer, Southwest Missouri State's Jackie Stiles and Iowa State's Angie Welle.

Riley was named player of the year while Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw was named coach of the year. Duke freshman Alana Beard was named freshman of the year.

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