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| 07-23-2004 | Previous edition: 07-21-2004 |
        
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Printer-friendly version Advice to incoming freshman: shoot the ball
Summer Editor Katie Gearlds needed herself a year ago. She needed the person who tells a freshman to shoot. That’s what she’s doing for guard Tyeisha Jackson. At times, Jackson has shown some trepidation about taking her jump shots. Nonsense, Gearlds says. "I said, ‘Shoot the ball as much as you want,’" Gearlds said. "I wish someone would have told me to shoot the ball. "I think Tye is definitely a player we didn’t have last year. Tye is quick as can be. She’s kind of like Shereka Wright in the way she can get to the basket. She’s also got a nice pull-up jumper. She can shoot the ball so well." Jackson is part of the five-player freshman class that has improved so much in the summer that Gearlds calls it "amazing." To help the newcomers develop, Gearlds has been holding back her offensive during scrimmages. While the team plays, it’s obvious that Gearlds is passing and deferring more often than she’s shooting. "I think it’s important for me when we play pickups to really understand everyone’s game," she said. "When I do that, it helps me pick my spots." The team has been scrimmaging throughout the summer; at first, they played Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday. But that wasn’t enough, so the Boilermakers are now playing everyday after they get done with their workouts. One player, junior forward Carol Duncan, isn’t with the team — she went home to Nappanee, Ind. "I talk to her quite a bit," Gearlds said. "She just felt like she needed to get a break from everything, rekindle her passion for the sport. A lot of us were kind of disappointed that she was going home. "But we respect her enough to know that she’s working hard up there at home. We trust that she’ll be in shape and ready to go." Senior forward Hannah Anderson is also elsewhere, working at NBC at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions this summer. The rest of the team, however, is in West Lafayette. And if you ask sophomore forward Erin Lawless, the rest of the team is improving. She noted senior forward Emily Heikes for improving her jump shot, sophomore forward Indi Johnson for her condition and junior guard Sharika Webb for simply improving her confidence after time with the Big Ten Foreign Tour Team. "(Sharika) has improved immensely," Lawless said. "I think that has a lot to do with Australia, as far as more confidence in her game, as far as going to the hole." Lawless herself has been working on finishing more with her left hand. Gearlds wants to become more adept in driving to the basket to help make up for the loss of the program’s second all-time leading scorer in Wright. She knows her high school free-throw percentage — 91 percent — off the top of her head and knows that getting more to the free-throw line can help her team. But, perhaps more importantly after Purdue’s loss to Georgia in the Sweet 16, she’s working on her defense. Gearlds remembers the closing seconds of a game that you can tell she, at least partially, blames herself for. "Every time I play, I think, ‘Seven points,’" she said. "That’s what Georgia scored on me." When the players aren’t working on their games or sitting in class, they spend a lot of time together. Popular time killers include cookouts, Super Nintendo, PlayStation and Uno. Gearlds spends her non-basketball time working on her golf game. Her video game golf game. Her virtual golfer, wearing her high school colors on her headband, just won a major after shooting 47-under par for the tournament. Her golf game has come along over the course of a summer, sort of like the new players she’s now working with. Come next March, she hopes her team can compete like her golfer. "We’re going to be young, inexperienced," Gearlds said. "I definitely think we’re going to be fun to watch. We’ll have our ups and downs. Come March, we’ll jell together. That’s when you want to be your best. "We’re going to shock some people." Printer-friendly version |
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