Safe to say expectations are high for Purdue University Calumet (PUC) Women’s Basketball this year.
After a strong 2014-15 campaign that saw the Peregrines make it to the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) tournament semifinals, the team is coming into the 15-16’ season ranked #11 in the NAIA Div. II Preseason Coaches’ Top 25 and picked to finish second in the CCAC.
And with a quality exhibition opener against NCAA Div. 1 Valparaiso University under the team’s belt, PUC comes into their season opener against Indiana Tech with goals of a National Championship.
But Assistant Coach Stephanie Beck says the march towards National Championship aspirations can only come one game, and one step, at a time.
“This can definitely be a special season but we’re controlling our own destiny,” Beck told IIMM. “The only thing we need to worry about this year is us.”
And Beck adds that the opening exhibition game against Valpo was a perfect example of just how good this team can be this year, but also a great reminder that getting better means getting back to the basic fundamentals of basketball and playing within themselves.
“We definitely took some good key points from Valpo,” Beck added. “But there were also many areas we slacked on like rebounding, free throws and guarding the arc.”
“If we can just play our game and the level each girl is capable of, we could be quite dangerous.”
Getting to that level of playing to each other’s ability, Beck says, is a matter of sticking to the Peregrine way of learning from every game and staying hungry and focused on getting better each day.
“We will work on things until we perfect them. We will never perfect everything so we will continue to work towards our goal of a National Championship and putting all the pieces of this puzzle together.”