 Okay, Coach Gerald, thank you so much for being with us on This Is Purdue. I'm sure it's been a whirlwind this whole past year for you, but tell us how you're feeling right now, your first year as head coach of the Purdue women's basketball team. Wow, every day I walk down the tunnel or every day I walk into Cardinal this feeling of just pure joy. You know, like I'm a little kid waking up on Christmas morning to see all the gifts that Santa brought me. That's what it is. It's still surreal and I have this like inkling that that's the way it's going to be my entire coaching career here. Yeah, for sure. And you were Miss Indiana Basketball 2003, you're from Beech Grove. What does it mean to you to be back in Indiana, was that your goal to come back here after your playing career? I never really thought I wanted to coach until I started playing professionally and then I just thought maybe maybe this is a path I could do. Being from Indiana coming to Purdue, I went to play for the Seattle Storm for three years, played in Europe for seven years and then brought me back to coaching at Marion and Indianapolis. And I probably would have never applied for the job if it wasn't in for being for in in Indy. But my family is there and then I had it made at Marion. You know, I could coach a game, go out to dinner with my parents, my nieces and my nephews were always there. My siblings were there. Purdue was going to be the only place that was going to pull me away from that job and here I am. Tell us about how this job came about, how you went from Marion to come over here. Yeah, Coach Versup called me. They were in the Big Ten tournament last year and called me and I met with her and Nancy Cross. We had dinner and just kind of said, you know, hey, this is, I've got one more year left on my contract. We do this all head coach and waiting thing, the way Coach Painter did it with Coach Katie and just felt like, you know, this is, it was time for me. It was time for me to make that jump. I always was going to wonder if I was going to be good enough to coach at this level if what I believed in on the court and all of that stuff. So it just felt right. The timing was right for me. I spent eight years at Marion and we had won a lot of championships in the conference and in the national scene, but it was just time and, you know, we fast-tracked a little bit quicker with Coach Versup retiring in September and me taking over, but four months into the job as head coach, I'm just living my dream. And you know, at Marion, were you, did you always dream of a Division One coaching career? I always dreamed of coaching at Purdue. That was it. You know, I always wondered if I was going to be good enough to coach at the Division One level in the Power Five, but it was only going to be Purdue to pull me away from that job. You don't do this for the money. You don't do this. That's not why we do what we do. You know, I tell people all the time, my job might be to win basketball games, but my calling is to help empower and influence young women 18 to 22-year-olds and get them ready for their own life and for them chasing their own dreams. Yeah, and when you talk about that, were there any coaches that really impacted you and how did they impact you during your career? Yeah, Christy Curry, she was my coach that they recruited me here to Purdue and there was no way I was going to be able to say no to her. She just, the relationship, the bond we had right away. I knew I didn't want to play for another coach and it was it was heartbreaking because she she left after my junior year and I got to play for for coach versus my senior year. But it probably the best thing for me, challenged me in different ways. I didn't know I was ready for, you know, at 21-22-year-olds, we don't we don't we don't understand all of what's what's happening in front of us. But looking back, it was it was a really good thing to happen for me to have the opportunity to play for Coach versus my senior year. But those two I lean on heavily. I talked to to Coach Curry quite a bit once or twice a week during the season and just the impact she's had on my life is, you know, it's it's beyond beyond words. And when you talk about, you know, you played overseas, you played in the WNBA. Is there anything that you're bringing from that career when you played professionally into your coaching now? Yeah, I always like to say I'm a student of the game. And I think we all are and we're all we're all thieves. We all steal from, you know, different coaches and in different things we see. But I think there's probably a piece of all of the coaches I've played for. And I've made that my own style, whether it's it's Coach Curry or Coach Versa. Back to my high school coach with Coach McNew, my AU summer coach playing for Ann Donovan in the WNBA, Brian Nagler and a lot of European coaches. Just different styles, you know, what to do and what not to do. But at the same time, they've all helped mold me into who I am on the sideline today. Are there any favorite stories, you know, from this season about whether you're impacting these young women's lives or maybe it was something that happened on the court? Anything behind the scenes you want to share? Put me on the spot here. There's, you know, I think every day there's always something that happens. And you're just like, wow, this is this is what this is why we do what we do. You know, we've had some situations this year where you know, we've beyond basketball, you know, whether it's you know, a kid needing help off the court. You know, we live in a time right now where we're especially our younger people who they they're in college, but last year was it was a COVID year, right? So they didn't get to experience that. And now all of a sudden they're they're thrown right back into it in the lives and in the pressure of the pressure that social media puts on young people these days and trying to empower them to mentally get through those things. I think that's the biggest challenge today in this coaching. The fear of failure, it's it's it's instantaneously, right? When I missed a shot when I played here, nobody saw it. If I turned it over, if I miss something, nobody saw it until the next day in the paper. Now it's instant. And I think that that social media aspect of of our lives today is in teaching young people how to be able to handle, you know, those mistakes and getting through those. That's that's a tough part of the job right now. Yeah. And do you think that that's the main thing that's different from when you played here at Purdue? Is that whole social media? Absolutely. Absolutely. If if I failed, like I said, you didn't know about it until the next day in the paper or unless you watched it on TV. But now you could be anywhere in the world. And if I airballed a free throw or missed a game winning shot or, you know, a poor defensive assignment or anything, you know, or even, you know, a game winning shot, it is instant. And someone around the world is seeing it at that very moment. And, you know, that's that's something that we all know that social media has changed our world for good and the bad, but teaching young people how to handle that, whether it's failure or success is a massive part of our job. And when you think about recruiting, you know, the right teammates, the right fit at Purdue, what what is the right fit for you and your team here today? We're going to be blue collar. You know, we're going to we're going to work our tails off every single day. I want to want a group of young women who bleed black and gold, who knows what it means to have Purdue on your chest. And what does that mean? It means that I'm going to do things the right way. It means I'm going to show up on time. It means I'm going to go to class every day. I'm going to do what's right in the weight room. I'm going to take care of what I put in my body. I'm going to be a great outstanding citizen in our community. I'm going to reach out in the community and I'm going to help young people help inspire our youth and never cut a corner, right? We're never going to find a way to we're never cheating here. We're always going to do things the right way here at Purdue. And then when you do win championships and you do have individual accolades, you know, it just makes it that much more meaningful because you know you've done it the right way. Yeah. And you talked a little bit. You guys just played IU Mackey. And I loved your press conference afterwards. You said, you know, we're not going to be we're not waiting around for three or four years. You know, we want to make make it happen now and be competitive now. I think it got a lot of response on social media. What is there anything else you want to expand on when you shared those thoughts? No, it was it was simple that in the the author. I hope everybody heard the author's authenticity behind that because it was truly authentic and it was exactly what I told our team. And that game against Indiana was January 16th. I took over seven September 16th. So that was our that was four months, four months together as a staff, as a team. And in four months, we were able to almost knock off a top five team. Imagine what we can do when we when we are together a little bit longer. But I told him in September, and I tell you right now, and I said it after the Indiana game, we're not waiting. We want to get Purdue back on the map when, you know, early 2000s, late 90s. I mean, this place was it in the Big Ten. You know, we held the barn burner trophy. It was never down in Bloomington. And it is our job to make sure we get that back and it never goes back down there. Do you think there's any secret key or ingredient that, you know, you can start getting competitive in those Big Ten championships and winning those again? I think it's just hard work. You know, it's it's hard work. Obviously, you got to be a little lucky along the way. You got to be injury free. You got to do all those things, especially now in the COVID world that we live in. You've got to get lucky in that in that regard. But for the most part, it's hard work. It's it's stuff done behind the scenes when no one's watching. You know, we we we talked yesterday about the everybody saw what we did from two to four against Indiana. But nobody saw what we did the day before. Nobody saw what we did the day before. And and everybody that sees the two to four, that's the kind of effort we have to get in and we have to put in all every every single day. And that's the next step for our basketball team in our program, is making sure that we're working as just as hard as we did in those two hours of the game. And when we do that, it's not going to be an eight point lead with three minutes ago. It's going to be about a 15 to 20 point lead because we know we have done the work and we trust and we have we will have trusted that. What do you think the biggest challenge has been so far in in these past four months? Who the biggest challenge probably is just we have a group that that hasn't been together. You know, they they're still learning my language. The staff is still learning my language. The players are we're still learning each other. And we really hadn't been in a moment like that together in a crucial game so far yet this season and trying to learn on the fly. I've heard other coaches, you know, at the other end of the sideline say to her team. Hey, remember two years ago, we were in this situation, we're going to do this. Well, we don't have anything to reflect on that. We've only got four months of practice and and I think that's been the most difficult thing for me is not having all of that time with them. And but when when it's there, it's it's going to be really special. You know, you referenced how you're following in Coach Painter's footsteps a little bit. You are doing what what he did with Coach Katie. How does that make you feel? It's really cool, really cool. I think I was here my senior year was when Coach Coach Painter and Coach Katie were doing that transition. And it was really cool to be a part of, you know, from from the outside looking in. And he was he was huge for me this summer and helping me. You know, we was we were all under the assumption that that Coach Versup was going to be the head coach. And I was going to just be on the sideline waiting my turn. But he was great for me to I leaned on him. I leaned on Elliot Bloom and they really helped me through that through the process and, you know, when when Coach Versup retired, I was anxious and nervous and excited, all different kinds of emotions. I knew that I was ready. And and honestly, those two guys, Elliot and Matt really did a good job of, you know, this is the best thing that can happen for your program. Stay with it, trust the process and take every little win that you can. And and we're doing that. And we'll probably win more ball games and people thought we would. And I love how, you know, we see on social media the men's team is really successful. You know, you're coming in and and having this awesome, exciting season, the volleyball team, the football team. What does this community mean to you? You know, when you look at all these different high level coaches and supporting you and tweeting at you and admiring you. Yeah, it's really cool. You know, Coach Chandel came in the office yesterday and just to talk to us. You walk by the men's the men's office and, you know, the paints there and Terry and Paul and, you know, all those guys. They're they're the family here, right? It's just different. It's just different. You know, Coach Brown's excitement for our basketball team. What they did in the fall, I think with football, women's soccer, volleyball and obviously the hype around our men's basketball has. I think it's helped lift our women's basketball team because we don't want to be the one, right? We don't want to be the doormat of Purdue athletics. And it's helped lift the entire our entire our entire basketball team to try to make sure we're chasing those guys and we're staying up with them. But the the the love for each other's programs is true and real and genuine. And we we can't I mean, anytime I can turn on any Purdue athletics morning event and see us winning, it's you know, it's it's everything. It's it's what makes Purdue so special. Did you have any times in your career at Purdue where you guys were also kind of trying to keep up with the men's or, you know, both enjoying that success? Yeah, we were we were actually the one probably everybody was chasing because we were really good. We were really, really good. And I think the men were starting to struggle. And then then Matt came in and got that the baby boiler group in and really really just catapulted the the men's basketball program. But, you know, Coach Hondel was was young in his career when I was here. I think at the time, you know, Joe Taylor was here leading the team and Kyle Orton was our quarterback and probably a fumble away from going to the Rose Bowl against Wisconsin. And, you know, I just remember going to all those sporting events, going to the volleyball games were some of my favorite times with my teammates out at the football games when we're chasing a Rose Bowl championship that it just it's always been about the black and gold. And and you don't know it until you come on campus and you become you truly ingrain yourself into being a Purdue Boilermaker. But once you do and you live it every single day, it's just it's a different kind of life and it's just a really special family. Yeah, do you have any top maybe two moments of whether it's on the court or like you said, you enjoyed going to volleyball games? Gosh, volleyball games were probably the most the most fun. And they're still because it just hollow is so small and so loud. And there was no air conditioning back then. So it got really, really hot in there. But those those were always fun for us. You know, my my freshman year, we won the Big Ten tournament, my senior year. We won the Big Ten tournament and in those two moments really stick out. We as good as we were, we never won a Big Ten regular season title. So I've got I've got my work cut out for me as a coach. But we're going to make sure more banners fly. I like your shoes, too. Thanks. Well, I want to talk to you about shoes. OK. I know or I heard that you have an extensive shoe collection. Tell us tell us more about that. Well, my mom and dad get well, my mom, especially you don't need to buy any more shoes to show you don't have a lot of space in my house. But I've always liked them, right? And honestly, it's one of the first things I do when I see people I always look at their shoes because who do I need those pair, right? Do they match the black and gold? But I I just feel like, especially nowadays, shoes really resonate with young young recruits. Yeah. And because we're in this era where of covid era, where we were allowed to kind of like dress down on the sideline, right? So you just got to produce shirt and maybe some some sweats or some some casual pants on and makes it easy to throw on a pair of Jays. And anytime I see a black and gold pair, I am most likely going to find a way to get my hands on them. Do you have a favorite pair? Yeah, my mid ones, the shoes I wore against Indiana. They're the Jordan ones. They're just mid-high. But the gold, the gold really, really pops there. I know. And I saw these shoes. I was like, I have to get these. Yeah, I'm a big fan. Thank you. You know, when we talk about social media, other, obviously, we talked about the coaches are supporting you and this whole athletics community is supporting you. But the fans are really excited and, you know, people that might not have been paying attention to women's basketball are really excited and paying attention. What does that mean to you? It's it's special. It's humbling. But what makes it so exciting is I'm excited for our team. I'm I don't know that I've ever seen a student section like that. Not when I played here. I remember when I turned the corner and walked down the tunnel to go into Mackey and I saw the students. I mean, I can't say on camera what I mumbled to myself because I was just I was so taken away by by that in the atmosphere. And my biggest hope is I understand that the women's, you know, sometimes people can misjudge the women's game and what it can bring because we don't dunk. We don't fly around. We don't do that. But one thing about our basketball team is that we kind of do fly around on the defensive end and we play really, really hard. And I think we can be pretty entertaining to watch because we do those things. My hope is that those students think, man, this this group is fun to watch and if we get just some of those guys to come back and maybe bring a buddy and just really fall into to watching our basketball team. But it's it's it's really, really cool for our team because I know how hard we work every day and to come out there and with that kind of crowd and that kind of support, whether it's in a game, in the community, social media, whatever it is, this group really deserves it. What do you tell the team, you know, after a rough loss, you know, but it was such a great game, right? What what are they feeling in the locker room and what do you have to kind of tell them to get them ready for the next game? Yeah, I mean, they feel hurt, right? And they're they're heartbroken. And I'm not so sure that's how it's been in the past. But you I walked into the to the locker room and you could just feel the hurt each one, whether they played or not, you could feel how much they poured into that game and how hard it was to walk away without a win. That's that's when you know, you've turned the corner, right? When when something like that really hurts you. And, you know, the message was it was, you know, hey, guys, we're right there. It's one play here. It's one play there. We're right there. It's right now in front of us. You know, we would take the rest of the day and let it hurt. We took Monday off after the game and, you know, let it hurt. But but we came back to work the next day and we got after it. The message was, you know, let's let this be the one that fuels that fire when we when we don't feel like we can practice when we're when we're sore when we had a when we have a big exam and we're stressed about something, you know, off the court. Let this be the one that every time you walk onto the court. This is the one that motivates you to the note that there's a loose ball. We're going to jump on it. There's a rebound that has to be had. We're going to jump on it. And I have a feeling that we're going to respond the right way. And it's going to be a fun rest of the way. Do you have any games that you're looking forward to most for the rest of the season? Always the next one, always the next game. But I'm always looking forward to going down to Bloomington to see if we can get those guys. That'll be a fun game, I'm sure. Is there any trait that defines you as a player throughout your career that you would also, you know, say that you're bringing into your coaching now? I think two things calm and confident. I think if anywhere anyone watched me play, I was I never got rattled, you know, you know, I would get excited. And, you know, there was some fire underneath me, but always stayed calm. Things are never as good as they seem, and they're never as bad as they seem. Just trying to live in that moment right then and then confident, confident that I know that all the work that I've done as a player was I felt good about. And then as a coach to all the film that I've watched, all the preparation we put into our team, just confident in what we're doing. And you see that right on the sideline, it's, you know, a stressful situation. And I'm going to be calm over there and confident. I want the team to really feed off of that. And I think those two things really sum up who I was as a player and who I am as a coach. And I guess finally to sum it up, you've been talking about it the whole time. But what does this Boilermaker spirit and this community mean to you? The Boilermaker spirit is is everything. You know, every time I every time I walk down the tunnel and the the chills I get, every time I turn on Northwestern to see Macchi Arena, the chills I get, the environment at Rase, the crowd at Holloway, the 14,000 strong at Men's Games, there's just something different about the black and gold. And like I said, once you're in it and you become a part of that family, you know that you are in it for the rest of your life. And really, there's nothing better than being a Boilermaker. Do you have anything else you want to share with our listeners? Oh, this is awesome. This is great. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Just I'm so thankful for the support. And I know that, you know, we're not we're not a few years away. It's right here in front of us. And we're going to get this place back. We're looking forward to it. Thank you. Thanks, Coach. Thank you.