The 2005 season was going along quite well for the Boilers until the wheels abruptly fell off. They have been put back on, but the repercussions will be felt for years to come. After a 2004 season that was subpar only by the high standards Purdue has earned for itself, the Boilermakers finished the regular season as the second best team in the Big 10. The team was led by Katie Gearlds, who returned from an injury plagued sophomore season to become the conference’s second-best player. Lyndsay Wisdom-Hylton stepped up to become a defensive monster in the middle. Cherelle George was named the conference’s Six Player of the Year after establishing herself as a defensive stopper and solid point guard off the bench.
More importantly than the individual play was the fact that the team was competing the way Purdue teams traditionally do. The 2005 version did not, but the 2006 team fought and scrapped in typical Purdue fashion.
The Boilers looked poised to make their usual post-season run.
But then the wheels came off. They came off not just this season, but the entire program. First it was announced that Cherelle George and assistant coach Katrina Merriweather were suspended for violations of academic rules. The school stated that no NCAA violations were involved and the two could return shortly. That isn’t quite the way it played out. Before the dominoes stopped falling, George and Merriweather were dismissed, the school self-reported 6 violations to the NCAA, Kristy Curry had resigned and Sharon Versyp replaced her, two of the three recruits scheduled to arrive in 2006 had backed out, and the high school who had committed for the 2007 season was again looking for a college. Despite the internet rumblings, it’s not at all clear whether or not Curry’s departure was related to the George/Merriweather situation. Regardless of what caused what, the events will affect the Boilers for years.
It would by silly to assume that they can’t recover, but 2006 will go down as a watershed year in Purdue history.
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