Battle of Indiana to Decide Who Will Carry the Nation

The Indiana state collegiate basketball championship is up for grabs tonight, a rematch of two old foes loaded with players recruited by each other.

Purdue (31-6) is bent on winning its second NCAA title in three seasons, while Notre Dame (33-2) is seeking its first.

If the latter happens, Coach Muffet McGraw said Saturday her players would hope the Notre Dame football team “can be a team the women’s basketball team can be proud of.”

During media sessions with players and coaches Saturday, much was made of the fact this is a rematch of a Dec. 9 game at Notre Dame, won by the Irish, 72-61.

Momentum might be a factor in this game, and the Irish had that in abundance Friday. In a stunning comeback, Notre Dame outscored Connecticut, 59-28, over the last 22 minutes to win that semifinal, 90-75.

McGraw, sporting her customary green nail polish Saturday, focused mostly on Purdue’s Katie Douglas in talking about the Dec. 9 game and today’s matchup.

“A lot depends on how we do on Katie,” she said.

“Late in that [December] game, she moved over to the point and she kept them in the game when we were 10 and 12 points ahead.”

McGraw said she recruited Douglas, the two-time Big Ten Conference player of the year, and Purdue point guard Kelly Komara. But at that time she also signed Indiana prep star Ruth Riley, and the 6-foot-5 center this season won the Naismith player-of-the-year award.

“Purdue pretty much owned the state of Indiana then,” McGraw said.

“Recruiting against them was very, very hard. It wasn’t until after we got Ruth that we started to get Indiana players.”

While it has been Notre Dame’s struggle to pull even with Purdue in the recruiting wars, Purdue’s was to maintain stability during a period of frequent coaching changes.

Since 1996, Lin Dunn (left for the ABL), Nell Fortner (left for the WNBA), and Carolyn Peck (left for the WNBA) all ran the program briefly. Current Coach Kristy Curry is the second coach in three years to be in the national championship game in her second season.

Peck’s Ukari Figgs-led Boilermaker team won the 1999 NCAA championship at San Jose.

Douglas talked Saturday about wearing down Notre Dame’s meal ticket, Riley.

“I’ve played against Ruth for years, even in AAU leagues,” Douglas said.

“She’s very talented and very dominating inside. Maybe we can wear her out by throwing a lot of defenders at her, maybe limit her touches. We definitely don’t want her to be a huge factor in the game.”

The 6-1 Douglas, who plays both inside and at the point, is the Boilermakers’ inspirational leader. During her term at Purdue, she has lost both parents to cancer.

Just before her mother, Karen, died of breast cancer last April, Douglas told her she was considering leaving Purdue and making herself available for the WNBA draft.

Nothing doing, her mother told her.

“She looked me in the eye with a serious look and told me I had to graduate,” Douglas said.

“One of the last things she said was she wanted me to graduate.”

She will, in December, with a communications degree.

Douglas is slow afoot, not quick off the mark--but she has superior floor generalship and wonderful passing skills. She shot only 34% from the arc for the season, but that number tends to climb in big games. In Friday’s 81-64 victory over Southwest Missouri State, she was three for five. Against Notre Dame in December, she was three for four.

In 37 minutes Friday, she had 25 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals.