WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Friends since seventh grade growing up in Naperville, Ill., Tennessee’s Candace Parker and Purdue’s Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton often imagined competing against each other in college. Both starred in high school and played on the same AAU team.

Tennessee and Purdue did play each other in the second round of the 2005 NCAA tournament, but Parker was injured. They meet again tonight, but there’s one problem.

Wisdom-Hylton is injured this time, still recovering from a torn ACL suffered last July 7 while playing for the USA Basketball Under-21 World Championship team in Moscow. The injury is robbing women’s basketball fans of a great matchup, right?

“A lot of Naperville folks would think so,” said Wisdom-Hylton, who averaged 14.8 points and 8.2 rebounds last season and was voted Big Ten defensive player of the year. “It’s kind of sad. I thought we were going to be able to play.”

Parker and Wisdom-Hylton often exchange text messages, but one in particular shocked the Tennessee star last summer. It was the text Wisdom-Hylton sent after suffering her knee injury. Parker remembers calling back and saying, “I’m here for you.” Parker tore her ACL in high school.

“It’s disappointing,” Parker said. “I was hurt my freshman year, and she’s hurt now. It’s tough, but I watched her and she’s going to watch us. It’s tough for her, but I wish her all the best.”

And if they did match up?

“There would be no dunking,” Wisdom-Hylton said, referring to one of Parker’s trademarks. “That’s for sure.”

The century mark

A win tonight would give Tennessee coach Pat Summitt her 100th in NCAA tournament play. She enters the Purdue game with a 99-19 record in the NCAAs.

“I had no idea,” Summitt said when told of the potential milestone. “I’m not about numbers. I’m not about personal accomplishments. When you’ve done this for 34 years, you do it because you love the game, and I do it because I love to recruit these student-athletes and try and help them in so many ways.”

Doubled up

Purdue’s final nonconference regular-season home game was one to forget. The Boilermakers didn’t make a field goal until 9:06 remained in the first half and lost 100-50 to Connecticut on Jan. 6. Purdue made just one of 13 3-point attempts and trailed 53-14 at halftime.

“UConn was a special situation,” Purdue forward Natasha Bogdanova said. “They said themselves they had their best defensive game of the year. It’s not an excuse for us. We obviously didn’t play well at all, especially in the first half. We’ve grown a lot and into our roles. We’re a lot better since that game.”

The Boilermakers lost by 12 to Duke in the Virgin Islands and dropped a 90-72 decision at North Carolina earlier in the season.

Message sent

Summitt made the odd decision to bring Alex Fuller, Alberta Auguste and Shannon Bobbitt to Monday’s news conference instead of the usual trio: Parker, Nicky Anosike and Alexis Hornbuckle.

Her intent was soon evident. In her opening statement, Summitt said Fuller must understand her role, Auguste needs to play better than she did against Oral Roberts and Bobbitt has to play at a different level.

“Shannon did not do that yesterday,” Summitt said.

Finally given a chance to speak later, Bobbitt responded.

“First I’d like to say, ‘Thank you for the compliment,’” Bobbitt cracked. “She’s definitely a challenging coach, and I want to meet her expectations and get prepared mentally.”