Sharon Versyp Talks Boilers, Big Ten

The Boiling Point: Transcript from coach Sharon Versyp’s Big Ten Media Day Press Conference.

Some excerpts from Purdue coach Sharon Versyp’s press conference today in Chicago at Big Ten Media Day. For the full transcript, follow the jump.

Q. Just a quick overview on some of the injuries and where they are since the last time we saw you guys. 
SHARON VERSYP: Well, KK Houser, again, tore her ACL first three minutes of our game, our first game last year, and she has recovered extremely quickly, very well. She was able to practice all summer as well as play in Europe, so I mean, she’s still trying to get all her rhythm back, but her quickness and her just being back on the court, she’s the catalyst and the key for our team. She was when she was a freshman, as well.
Drey Mingo now is totally physically, emotionally and mentally very, very healthy. She has 85 percent of hearing in her right ear. She only has 20 percent in her left ear. It’s still very difficult for her to hear out on the basketball court because of the sound and acoustics. So we’re doing what we did last year with her communication. She feels obviously like this is really her time to shine because of all the things she’s gone through, and I have to say she is above and beyond playing, practicing, mentally tougher than I’ve seen a kid in a long time.

Q. Parity is the term that’s been used with this conference for a very, very long time. This season in particular what’s your strength? What sets you apart? 
SHARON VERSYP: I think our depth and experience can separate us a little bit. We’ve always been a defensive team. If we haven’t had people that can score the basketball, I think our defense has always been a positive. And I think this year we’re going to have about five or six scorers that we haven’t had before. So other teams have the same mix, but I think with our experience and different players in different slots, I think we have some good things going for us.

SHARON VERSYP: Just really excited about this group of players coming back. We have six seniors and a well-balanced underclassmen, and just really trying to rebound off of our season last year. Had about a month and a half taken away from us, so we’re just very anxious to continue really what we felt we started at the end of the year. And obviously being able to go to Europe in August, having ten practices and being able to play some games with injured players coming back and some freshmen, we’re just really excited to get underway.

Q. How much of a leg up does a trip like you made to Europe give you going into the season?
SHARON VERSYP: Well, I think it can be extremely beneficial because we had all of our players returning. We obviously had some key injuries last year, and then now they allow freshmen to be able to travel with you, so I think it’s a big advantage if you plan it correctly. You know, and we’ve been kind of pushing the trip back many years because of just certain injuries and certain things. Just being able to gel and be somewhere else and really depending on each other going into different areas of the country I just thought was just a very, very big springboard.
We got to do some different things, defensively do some different things, offensively got to be able to experiment a little bit more, and we want to push the ball a lot more. We finally have some players that can put the ball in the hole, so we were able to do a lot of up tempo with a 24-second shot clock over there, so the pace of the game and the conditioning of our game is going to be very different this year.

Q. Just a quick overview on some of the injuries and where they are since the last time we saw you guys.
SHARON VERSYP: Well, KK Houser, again, tore her ACL first three minutes of our game, our first game last year, and she has recovered extremely quickly, very well. She was able to practice all summer as well as play in Europe, so I mean, she’s still trying to get all her rhythm back, but her quickness and her just being back on the court, she’s the catalyst and the key for our team. She was when she was a freshman, as well.
Drey Mingo now is totally physically, emotionally and mentally very, very healthy. She has 85 percent of hearing in her right ear. She only has 20 percent in her left ear. It’s still very difficult for her to hear out on the basketball court because of the sound and acoustics. So we’re doing what we did last year with her communication. She feels obviously like this is really her time to shine because of all the things she’s gone through, and I have to say she is above and beyond playing, practicing, mentally tougher than I’ve seen a kid in a long time.

Q. I’m going to probably ask this to every coach: As you look through the personnel in the conference, very, very guard heavy in terms of where the bulk of the talent is. Speaking of Drey Mingo, where do you see her or push her to kind of dominate, take over from an interior position?
SHARON VERSYP: Well, for her, I mean, she’s our go-to player, there’s no question. I think by the end of the year last year she really was able to have a variety of moves down low. She can use her right or left hand. She can turn and face the basket and attack, and she’s one of our best three-point shooters. If somebody that has great size is defending her down low, then they’re going to have to guard her away from the basket with that confidence.
But right now she’s so physical that it’s going to be very hard not to allow her to even catch the ball, and she’s just — again, has that mentality that scoring is first for her, passing is second.

Q. With the high expectations of this team having everybody back, how competitive has practice been to this point?
SHARON VERSYP: It’s probably been the best since we’ve been at Purdue. Our staff, we have 14 players, and right now every position is competitive, three-hour practices are always intense. There’s no let-down. I think it’s the hardest working group. So you’re going to continue to get better because of those things.
And then there’s some times you obviously can put a really small lineup on the court and a very large lineup. So I think the only way you get better is being competitive every single day in whatever drill you’re doing, and every single player doesn’t like to lose.

Q. What’s the impact been of the facility? I know you have some festivities going on of late, letting people in on what it looks like, just for your team and what it makes them feel like and you feel like?
SHARON VERSYP: Well, the Mackey Rededication will be 11/11 weekend. It’ll be an amazing festivity obviously for myself, being on Purdue’s campus when I was about 10 or 11 and seeing all the changes and kind of being a part of it right now. It’s wow, it’s awe — you walk on the campus and it’s just so different. You know, you walk into all the areas and you just — there’s just a different mentality. We always had history and tradition, and we always appreciated everything that everyone had during their era, but now it’s obviously at a different level. You have a championship mindset.
And I think the locker room for our players obviously is one of the biggest things that they enjoy the most, because when they walk in there they’re going to see the National Championship trophy, they’re going to see all the former Big Ten championships, they have to walk through an area where they’re going through history and tradition and everyone that played before them. So it’s just a different type of pride and tradition that’s in their minds every time they step into that room.
And then Mackey is just different. The court is totally different, has more black to it. One side where the media was has leather chair backs and then some gold on the bottom, gold chair backs, and it looks bigger, it’s exciting. So every time when people do come back, I just think they’re going to be so amazed and so proud.

Q. Parity is the term that’s been used with this conference for a very, very long time. This season in particular what’s your strength? What sets you apart?
SHARON VERSYP: I think our depth and experience can separate us a little bit. We’ve always been a defensive team. If we haven’t had people that can score the basketball, I think our defense has always been a positive. And I think this year we’re going to have about five or six scorers that we haven’t had before. So other teams have the same mix, but I think with our experience and different players in different slots, I think we have some good things going for us.

Q. Courtney Moses was kind of thrown into the fire last year playing the point guard position. Where do you see her game now in year two and where do you see her playing with KK on the floor?
SHARON VERSYP: Well, I think her mentality of the entire game has grown, which that’s what we needed. She’s a scoring point guard, and I think that was very big for us last year, and now she’s starting to understand that she needs to set up other players and how to get the ball inside to a Drey or Antionette or Alex, and now playing side by side with KK, KK is the quickness, the excitement, the defender, and now Courtney can play some two. So Brittany Rayburn doesn’t have to play 35, 30 minutes. Courtney can get up and down the court. And right now when you just start practice, she’s our best three-point shooter. I think anytime you have that much experience as a freshman and have to play a point guard position, then you just understand everybody’s role, and you can see that she continues to build off of that.