Purdue Women’s Basketball: Kendall Puryear, Lana McCarthy, and Jordyn Poole are officially Boilermakers

It was signing day for the men and women’s basketball teams around the country and the Purdue women’s team has added 3 more players to the family for the 2024 class. Gearlds is currently trying to rebuild the program in her third year as head coach and has been hot on the recruiting trail trying to find the right players for her program. Today they made it official as Lana McCarthy, Jordyn Poole and Kendall Puryear signed their national letter of intent for the Boilers.

Lana McCarthy

6’ 4” Forward

Bedford Highschool (New Hampshire)

McCarthy is a 6’4” forward out of New Hampshire that averaged a double-double her junior year with 20 points and 12.2 rebounds. Being the first-ever junior captain for her highschool team she helped lead the team to the title game before falling to Bishop Guertin.

She plays a more versatile forward role being able to post up in the paint but has been improving her outside game as well. Bedford head coach Kevin Gibbs boasted on her work ethic and continued improvement, “I see Lana as being a kid who they (the Boilermakers) will take her and teach her even more than we’ve been capable of teaching her,” Gibbs said. “She’s a good student of the game, she’s a hard worker and I can say that I think that she will be molded into a very strong contributing role at a very early point in her time there.”

McCarthy announced her commitment back in May after receving offers from Minnesota, Providence and New Hampshire.

Kendall Puryear

6’ 2” Forward

Blue Springs South High School (Missouri)

Puryear was the first recruit Gearlds landed for the 2024 class back in March. The 6’2’ forward from Blue Springs South High School exploded her junior season putting up 16 points and 9 rebounds per game and was on the watch list for the DiRenna Award which is given to the most outstanding athlete male and female in the greater Kansas City area.

Prep girls hoops rated her the No. 3 player out of Missouri’s 2024 class. Puryear is a great rebounder in the paint but can shoot from the perimeter as well along with good ball-handling skills.

Jordyn Poole

5’ 7”

Fort Wayne Snider (Indiana)

Purdue landed a huge one when they nabbed one of the best ranked recruits out of Indiana and only in-state recruit for the 2024 class. Poole plays for Fort Wayne Snider where she helped lead the Panthers to a 21-5 record and dropped 31 points in semi-state against Fishers her junior year.

She was also awarded the Tiffany Gooden Award which is given to the most outstanding player in the SAC; she averaged 16.7 points, 3.6 rebounds and 4 assists per game last season. Poole is a four-star recruit ranked by ESPN and currently the 55th best prospect for the class of 2024.

A highly sought out recruit Poole said she felt an instant connection with the Purdue staff; ”I really love coach Katie (Gearlds) — the entire coaching staff, really. The whole family, it’s just great. Gearlds is the type of coach I want, I like and that I feel comfortable around,” Poole said of the third-year coach. “She’s also cool and chill off the court. She’s just a really cool person.”