Purdue doesn't feel at home on CBS By Arun Gopal and Dena Beth Krischer Daily Sports Writers Although CBS is widely known as the Columbia Broadcasting System, residents of West Lafayette refer to it as the Choking Boilermakers' Show. The first-ever televised women's college basketball regular-season game was on Jan. 5, 1991 when CBS broadcast live Purdue's 75-65 loss to No. 7 Auburn. Since falling to Michigan on Saturday, the defending national champs are now 0-6 when being broadcast on CBS. The Boilermakers can't blame stage fright for Saturday's loss, since they post a 41-17 record while playing live on any other national or regional television station. They can't blame the 2,106 in attendance at Crisler since they average about 9,700 per game at their own Mackey Arena. They can't blame being being away from home since they're 5-2 on the road, losing only to No. 2 Tennessee and No. 4 Louisiana Tech. They can't blame their post game since 10 out of the 14 times center Camille Cooper took a shot, she scored from directly under the basket. They can't blame their forward Katie Douglas, who scored 30 of the Boilermakers' 67 points against Michigan. Purdue can, however, blame its bench - or lack there of. In Saturday's match-up, three of the Boilermakers' starters and their bench scored a combined 11 points. As in five field goals and one free throw. Purdue's bench has only scored a combined 139 of its 804 points this season. The Boilermakers are relying on two players - Cooper and Douglas, who have scored 224 and 158 points respectively - nearly 48 percent of Purdue's total points so far this season. The conference-season has only just begun, but already Purdue is showing signs that its depth is meak. So unless their bench provides more for the Boilermakers, their "Still the One" motto is, by no means, a reality. New Script: In winning 10 of its first 14 games, the Michigan women's basketball team displayed a glaring weakness: post play. Michigan's perimeter trio of Stacy Thomas, Alayne Ingram, and Anne Thorius more than held their own against some of the nation's top teams. Unfortunately, the Wolverines' committee of low-post players struggled to make a name for themselves while being dominated night in and night out. Vanderbilt's Chantelle Anderson (20 points) and Indiana's Jill Chapman (29 points) are just two of the players to put up huge numbers against Michigan's post defense. However, on Saturday against Purdue the script started to change a little. While Boilermaker center Camille Cooper stepped nicely into a starring role with her 26-point outing, Michigan's forwards finally decided to grab some of the spotlight for themselves. Alison Miller (12 points, seven rebounds) and Raina Goodlow (10 points) gave the Wolverines a much-needed presence down low to complement the perimeter exploits of Anne Thorius, Alayne Ingram, and Stacy Thomas. Add in the solid efforts of reserves LeeAnn Bies and Ruth Kipping and Michigan had a 74-67 win over the defending national champion Boilermakers. "We had a pretty good inside-outside attack," Guevara said. "We had contributions from kids off the bench in the post." Originally on page 8B in the 1-10-2000 issue of the Daily.