WEST LAFAYETTE — Cardinal Court was vacant in the days after Purdue women’s basketball had its 2024-25 season come to an end.
Left over from that campaign was sophomore forward Lana McCarthy, who had averaged 6.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per game while being named Big Ten Freshman of the Week between Nov. 19-24.
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Her team had finished 10-19 during the regular season, including 3-15 in Big Ten play, and missed the conference tournament.
McCarthy, a New Bedford, New Hampshire native had never experienced the kind of shortcomings that befell her Boilermakers.
McCarthy had been her state’s Gatorade Player of the Year both in basketball and volleyball a year ago. She won two state championships in basketball and four in volleyball.
Now, McCarthy was the last player left still able to train after former teammates Sophie Swanson, Kira Reynolds, Amiyah Reynolds, Rashunda Jones and Jayla Smith each transferred. Junior guard McKenna Layden and sophomore forward Kendall Puryear were each rehabbing injuries, leaving McCarthy alone with coach Katie Gearlds for 1-on-1 individual training.
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Graduate player Madison Layden-Zay hadn’t returned to the program and freshman center Avery Gordon was still finishing her senior year at Brownsburg High School.
McCarthy had just played against the bane of the Big Ten Conference while matching up with center Lauren Betts at UCLA, Kiki Iriafen — a WNBA All-Star as a rookie in July — from Southern Cal, Alexis Murkowski at Nebraska and Kendall Bostic of Illinois.
“Last year it was a humbling experience getting put in against the top 10 teams in the country,” McCarthy said. “I got taught a lot of lessons and even though I learned them the hard way, I’m carrying those with me into the season and carried them into the summer.”
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Rather than let the prior season’s disappointment linger, McCarthy went to work and began individualized training with Gearlds.
Gearlds and McCarthy focused on improving her footwork and expanding her range.
Simply put, McCarthy needed to become more skilled in her face-up game. Gearlds changed her shooting mechanics, helped her footwork so she was releasing the ball more accurately, become more elusive and less patterned in her individual moves to set up and knock down 3-pointers. McCarthy went 0-for-2 from the perimeter last season.
“I’ve been working on the transition 3 and that one dribble pullup,” McCarthy said.
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An expansion in McCarthy’s game that Gearlds believes her program will benefit from with her team scheduled to tip off its season against Fairleigh Dickinson on Nov. 3.
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“It’s been fun and took me back on the court a little bit,” Gearlds said. “She was the only one that could do it so we worked pretty hard. She naturally likes to shoot the ball from the left side of her body as did I, so I tried to put her in situations where she could get her shot off on the perimeter and give her some space to drive. It was fun to be on the court with a kid who wants to do whatever it takes to win.”
McCarthy shares the paint with Puryear who averaged 7.2 points, 3.7 rebounds per game and shot 55.3% from the floor while Gordon is the 6-foot-7 center Purdue hopes to utilize as a post scorer and rim protector.
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“The big theme with this year’s group is their willingness and their selflessness,” McCarthy said. “Everyone has that edge that a player needs to win and they’re willing to take the extra steps to be successful. Everyone is willing to take the steps to get there.”
Ethan Hanson is the sports reporter for the Journal & Courier in Lafayette. He can be reached at ehanson@jconline.com, on Twitter at EthanAHanson and Instagram at ethan_a_hanson.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Lana McCarthy trained with Katie Gearlds for Purdue women’s basketball
