Is a contract extension coming for coach Katie Gearlds?
With the Board of Trustees scheduled to meet Friday, the agenda was released Wednesday afternoon. Here’s one of the items:
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Approval of Key Terms of Amendment for Women’s Basketball Coach
Gearlds’ current contract runs through the 2026-27 season. Her base salary during the 2023-24 season was $550,000. She was scheduled to receive increases of $20,000 in each of the next three seasons, according to the original contract.
Gearlds also has a retention bonus of $150,000 on April 30, 2026, if she remains the head coach.
As part of her contract, Gearlds also receives a $20,000 Nike Elite Allowance.
The board will also approve key terms of amendment for men’s basketball coach Matt Painter, who has a rolling five-year contract with automatic one-year extensions.
• Indianapolis is expected to host the 2025 Big Ten women’s basketball tournament at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The event returns to Indiana for the first time since 2022. The tournament was played the last two years in Minneapolis.
After 2025, it’s unclear where the tournament will be played. Indianapolis bid for the men’s and women’s tournaments in 2025 and 2027 since the city is hosting the men’s Final Four in 2026.
By the end of the decade, don’t be surprised to see the women’s tournament played in the Pacific Time zone.
• Noblesville’s Meredith Tippner, a 2025 recruiting prospect, visited Purdue on Monday. Tippner is a core member of the Indiana Junior All-Stars, which rallied to knock off the Indiana All-Star team on Wednesday in Kokomo.
Tippner met Gearlds for the first time during the visit. She had established relationships with assistants Mark Stephens and Kelly Komara when they were at Toledo and Marquette, respectively.
“For me, relationships are the biggest thing, and that’s a great coaching staff,” Tippner said. “They want to get to know you as a person, they want to get to know you as a player. I love seeing how they want to implement me into their program and how they see I can bring success. They want to win championships and I hope I can bring my talents and my skillset to them. They showed how that can work together.”
Tippner will visit Miami (Fla.) this weekend and start to narrow down her list, which includes Ivy League, Big East, and Mid-American programs.
“I would love to commit before July, but it’s not something I want to rush,” she said. “If I need to go into July, I’ll do that. I feel solid with the people I’ve started to build relationships with.”
Before selecting a school, Tippner has to “figure out what level I want to play at.”
She referenced her freshman season at Noblesville where Tippner played with standouts Ashlynn Shade, now at UConn, and Reagan Wilson, a member of this year’s Indiana All-Star team who is headed to Iowa State.
The Millers won the Class 4A state championship two years ago with Tippner making significant contributions.
“You could go to a school where you know you’re going to start right away and you’re going to make an impact, but you may not be playing at a school that’s consistently in the NCAA tournament,” Tippner said.
“Or, you go - I played as a freshman with Reagan Wilson and Ashlynn Shade - and I love that team just as much as any other. We won the state championship. I was surrounded by people that were better than me that year, but I was able to help contribute and get us to win.”
• Wednesday’s game saw the Junior All-Stars rally from a 23-point deficit early in the second quarter to knock off the Seniors 83-80. Tippner played a key role in the comeback, making an impact at both ends, including defending Purdue incoming freshman Jordyn Poole on the perimeter.
She totaled 22 points - hitting 3 of 4 from 3-point range - five rebounds and six assists in 29 minutes as the Juniors cut into the big deficit.
“We got on ourselves,” Tippner said. “We couldn’t hit jumpers. We couldn’t hit layups. Nothing was falling. The Seniors came to play. To get down by 20 in the first quarter, a lot of teams and a lot of players shut down but we have a strong group. It was time to flip the switch.”
Meanwhile, Purdue’s 2025 commitments - Kira Reynolds (South Bend Washington) and Avery Gordon (Brownsburg) - struggled on the offensive end. They combined to make 1 of 15 field goals and totaled 12 rebounds.
“Shots weren’t falling,” said Reynolds, who was 0 of 9 shooting. “Layups and stuff like that.”
Poole nearly recorded a triple-double, finishing with 16 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists. Poole and her All-Star teammates travel to Lexington on Friday to face Kentucky and play the final game of the annual summer series on Saturday in Indianapolis.
• Myah Epps is one of the program’s top in-state targets in the 2026 recruiting class.
The Homestead standout scored 17 points – on 7 of 20 shooting – in Monday’s Futures Game at Hamilton Southeastern. The 5-foot-10 Epps was offered by Purdue in February, and she’s picked up scholarships from Miami (Fla.) and Virginia Tech.
“Having that in-state offer and everything and knowing Katie Gearlds and their whole staff looked at me and thinks I’m able to play there is huge for me,” Epps said.
Epps, who guided the Spartans to a berth in the Class 4A semistate last season, wasn’t sure she would have the opportunity to extend her career beyond high school.
“It’s a dream come true,” she said. “It’s not something honestly … it’s something you can’t predict. I’ve had people tell me I’ve had the potential for a long time and just continue to keep my work ethic up and continue to work hard. That’s how I came to be.”
Epps is looking at scheduling a visit to Purdue this summer.
• Epps wasn’t the only Boilermaker recruiting target on display Monday.
Munster’s Gracyn Gillard (2026) totaled seven points (2 of 12 shooting), six rebounds, three blocked shots and one steal.
McCutcheon’s Lillie Graves (2027) had five points (2 of 8 shooting), three rebounds, three assists and two steals. Graves played inside most of the game, but her strength is on the perimeter.
Hamilton Southeastern’s K.K. Holman (2026) collected eight points (4 of 9 shooting), two rebounds, four assists and one steal.
Eastern Hanco*ck’s Kenzie Koch (2027) totaled seven points, two rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Silver Creek’s Brooklyn Renn (2026) had 12 points (2 of 2 from 3-point range), eight rebounds and two steals. Renn is a post player but can extend the floor and has a nice touch from beyond the arc.
Annie Drews, who played at Purdue from 2012-15, was named to the U.S. Women’s Volleyball National Team and will compete in the Olympic Games in Paris. Drews is one of eight returners from the gold-medal-winning team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Jake Amos, a former assistant coach with the Purdue men’s golf program, has been named the head coach at LSU. Amos guided East Tennessee State to four straight NCAA Championship appearances. Amos was an assistant under current Purdue coach Rob Bradley.
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