Valparaiso's Cassie Kerns, a 6'3 junior post player, plans to make an unofficial visit to the Purdue campus for the January 2nd game against Penn State. Schools that have visited Valpo to watch Kerns include Arkansas, Ball State, Indiana, Indiana State, Iowa, Michigan, and Notre Dame. Iowa visited this past Tuesday when Valpo defeated Crown Point. Kerns is averaging 14 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks per game.

Teammates become rivals

The Friday night game between the Purdue Boilermakers and the UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos will make two current high school teammates temporary rivals. Purdue signee Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton and Neuqua Valley's Brittanie Taylor-James, a UCSB signee, have Neuqua Valley off to a 7-2 start.

Texas comes to Chicagoland

If Kristy Curry chooses to again dip into the talent pool of the state of Texas for a junior guard, she won't have to use her frequent flyer miles to do it. The top shooting guard in Texas last year, TK LaFleur, has moved with her family to suburban Chicago. The 5'8 guard, ranked No. 43 by All-Star Girls Report, averaged 21.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.6 steals and 4.1 assists for Langham Creek (TX) as a sophomore last season. LaFleur now calls Warren her home court. While we have yet to see Purdue mentioned on any of LaFleur's lists, it is hard to ignore when a top guard moves into the area. Schools showing obvious attention include Arkansas, Baylor, DePaul, Florida State, Illinois, Louisiana Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Tulsa and Vanderbilt.

It should be noted that Curry recruited a shooting guard in the class of 2004, and already has a verbal commitment from nationally-rated junior shooting guard Jodi Howell, who can also hold down the small forward position.

WBCA All-American game nominees released

All of Purdue's Class of 2004 commitments, except for Natasha Bogdanova, have been nominated for inclusion in the 2004 WBCA All-American game. Pollack, Wisdom-Hylton, Freeman and Jackson are among 130 nominees -- so far -- for the game. Nominations will be accepted until January 13, 2004. High school coaches who are WBCA members can nominate players if they are within their district. Each district consists of a five to six state region.

In early February, a 10-member WBCA panel will chose 20 players to compete in the All-American game, and 20 additional players to be honored as honorable mention all-americans. Representing District 4 that covers Illinois and Michigan will be Maine West (IL) High's Derril Kipp. Representing the stomping grounds of Brina Pollack will be Mary Klinger of Rutgers Prep. And representing Texas will be Teri Morrison of Poteet (TX) High.

The 2004 WBCA All-American game will be held during the Final Four weekend, April 3rd, at Tulane University.