PROVO, Utah -- BYU coach Jeff Judkins had just finished comparing Kalani Purcell's sixth sense for rebounding to that of NBA legend Larry Bird.
No one is better qualified to connect those dots than Judkins, Bird's former teammate with the Boston Celtics. But he wasn't done.
Judkins turned the conversation to the NCAA tournament game BYU played against Connecticut in 2014. The Huskies beat the Cougars 70-51 en route to an undefeated season. But it was also the only instance during that postseason in which Connecticut trailed in the second half, though the Huskies erased the deficit with a flurry of offensive rebounds and second-chance points.
It was a game played without Purcell, who would have been on the court for the Cougars had the complications of international recruiting not necessitated a stint at a junior college instead.
"I'm still mad," Judkins lamented. "She would have been a freshman when we played UConn in the Sweet 16. We'd have been good. We might have beat them."
So she has a nose for the ball like Bird. And she could have changed college basketball history.
That is quite the endorsement.
"I spent more time on that kid than with any recruit in my life. It paid off." BYU coach Jeff Judkins on recruiting New Zealand native and JC transfer Kalani Purcell
It is by comparison mild to suggest that Purcell is right now the best player that much of this country hasn't seen. Or at the very least that the senior is someone most haven't seen often enough to fully appreciate. But as a journey that began in her native New Zealand and meandered through the plains of Kansas comes to a close, she has BYU's season in her hands -- which one imagines is just fine with her coach.
"I spent more time on that kid than with any recruit in my life," Judkins said. "It paid off."
The difficult part about getting Purcell to Provo wasn't the initial step in the many thousands of miles from New Zealand. Initially skeptical of scouting reports from locally based members of the Mormon church about a can't-miss player from that faith on the other side of the globe, Judkins was sold after only the briefest of looks when she played in a youth tournament in Texas. And with two older sisters who played collegiately in the United States, Natalie Taylor (née Purcell) at Southeast Missouri State and Hailey at UT-Martin and Division II Alderson Broaddus, she was familiar with the American system and wanted to go to BYU.
But then academic requirements necessitated Purcell first attend a junior college. Judkins hoped she would go to Salt Lake Community College, a nearby program with which BYU had a working history. Purcell instead chose Hutchinson Community College in Kansas, in part because one of her sisters had gone there and therefore offered some measure of familiarity.
By the time she finished a standout first season, Judkins and his assistants weren't the only D-I coaches regularly making the trek to the school an hour west of Wichita. More than once, as her star rose, BYU was convinced it was about to lose her to the likes of a Big 12 power.
"I was a bit caught up in all the recruiting process," Purcell said. "It was like these big schools wanted me. I guess when I took my visit [to BYU], I came back down to earth and realized this is where I wanted to come."
BYU has in recent years proved a good place to look for talent at work beyond the spotlight of the biggest conferences. The team that lost to Connecticut in the Sweet 16 featured Jennifer Hamson, a 6-foot-7 standout who earned All-American accolades. Once Hamson shifted back to the volleyball court, Morgan Bailey earned conference player of the year and honorable mention All-America honors. Lexi Rydalch then matched those distinctions a season ago ranked fifth nationally in scoring.
Purcell could be the best of the bunch.
In her BYU debut season, she led the West Coast Conference and ranked fifth in the nation averaging 12.6 rebounds per game. That work on the boards put her in rare company (only Lehigh's Lexi Martins returns this season among the four players who averaged more rebounds). What leaves her without peer is that she also led the WCC in assists at 4.7 per game. No other player led a conference in those two such fundamental but fundamentally disparate statistical categories.
At 6-2, she is a true forward. Always one of the tallest in her age group, she learned to play in the post and is comfortable with her back to the basket. But she is also the youngest of seven siblings. All three of her older sisters played or still play international basketball, Taylor and Charmiam Mellars (née Purcell) for New Zealand and Hailey for Samoa. The youngest person on the court when playing with them or her older brothers and their peers, she learned a different game on the perimeter.
"Throughout my childhood, or my basketball career up to now, I've just played with a variety of different people and learned different things from watching and experimenting," Purcell said. "It just came pretty naturally for me to pick up different things. ...
"My family, they made sure I wasn't just one player."
Judkins hopes there is one more version waiting to appear: a selfish player. In addition to Purcell, BYU returns fellow senior Makenzi Pulsipher, a 3-point shooter with an ability to get to the basket and a tenacious defender. But as far as proven production goes, that is about it. No other returnee averaged as many as five points per game a season ago. For the Cougars to match last season's success, 26 wins and a place in the NCAA tournament, the 614 field goals and 239 free throws that Rydalch attempted need to be adequately dispersed.
"I feel like this team has a great opportunity to really play like a team should play," Pulsipher said. "I think that with Juddy's offense, there is a lot of freedom to do a lot of things. I think we have a very unselfish team. Now, sometimes that can go against you if you're too unselfish.
"I wouldn't say it's a horrible thing, but that's probably Kalani's weakness."
Purcell played more minutes than any BYU player last season but attempted barely10 field goals per game. Opponents and WNBA scouts alike will wait to see if that changes without Rydalch. She understands as much, all the more after the preseason sprints she had to run when she passed up shots, but she is who she is. The backdoor pass from the high post, the no-look find from the top of the key, the kick out to a hot shooter, that is the joy of the game for her.
"It just makes me happy when that happens," Purcell said. "I do enjoy scoring and the feeling of beating my man, but I think most times, when I'm on the court, my thought is, 'Who can I make shine right now?'"
It is why Judkins tells her to spend time watching another player who was at times criticized for being too unselfish. Maybe it is just one more bit of hyperbole, but he looks at Purcell and sees a lot of LeBron James.
"See what he does," Judkins said of his message to Purcell. "That's you."