Making Peace With Lauren Ross
7/15/2025 3:46:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Should Lauren Ross be in the conversation for the greatest shooter of all time?
For a single season, there's absolutely an argument.
In a 36-game women's basketball season that saw Purdue Fort Wayne win 27 and earn a berth to the WNIT Great 8, Ross shot 47.6 percent from 3-point range and 94.8 percent from the charity stripe.
No player in NCAA Division I history has ever led the country in 3-point percentage and free throw percentage. Or rather… had. Until Ross.
Both of those marks led the country in the 2024-25 season.
Pretty good.
"I would never imagine I was going to be the best shooter in the country," Ross said. "It's something you always dream of when you're shooting in the gym. To see the numbers play out and for it to become a reality was pretty surreal.
To take it one step further, Ross' 3-point clip ranked as the 26th-best and her free throw percentage was the 13th-best in NCAA history. Her 111 3-pointers were also the fourth-most that any player in Division I made in 2024-25 and set a Horizon League record.
Again, pretty good.
Clearly, Ross was pretty good at the whole basketball thing in her final year of eligibility.
"There's a lot of people that helped out along the way, but especially my rebounders in practice," Ross said. "They saw a lot of the misses that most people didn't see on game day.
"What I want to be known for isn't the numbers. I want my legacy to be about my journey and the challenges I've overcome."
Yet despite all the success on the court, basketball was Ross' third priority.
In order, Ross cares about family, academics, then athletics.
"Both my parents are educators and that's the standard and that's what's been required of us." Ross said. "At some point the ball is going to stop bouncing. Athletics are cool, but academics are what's going to take you far in life."
She checked the box on athletics. You'll have to ask her family how she does in the first category. If you ask her dog, there's only resoundingly positive things to be … barked. So, let's call that a check.
Let's see how she fared in academics.
Ross finished her undergraduate program and graduate work with a 4.0 GPA. She was named an Academic All-American twice and a Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association Scholar Athlete once.
Check.
"It's super special to even be nominated for those kinds of awards," Ross said. "It's a testament to the work I've put in both on and off the court. To be great in both is really special."
***
At the end of every game day shoot around, Purdue Fort Wayne head coach Maria Marchesano tells the team to "make your peace."
In that context, it's a reminder to end practice with a good shot to get in the right mindset for the game ahead.
For Ross, when she was making nearly 50 percent in live game action, it didn't take long. When the team came back to the arena for the game, however, Ross was always the first one back out on the court. Two hours before every game, she was there and ready to go.
"I was on the top of everyone's scout, so I needed to go into every game being comfortable to take every shot on the court."
Ross' career looked a bit like a game day practice might. Get stretched out, hit a road block, fight through it, hit another, then finish strong and make peace.
Just four games into her collegiate career at Western Michigan, Ross tore the ACL in her left knee in practice. She sat out the rest of the year.
A year later, she returned to play for the Broncos and earned a Third Team All-Mid-American Conference nod.
The season after, she tore the ACL in her other knee in a game against Buffalo in nearly the exact same place on the court in Kalamazoo.
She had averaged 21.8 points per game that season, on pace for an All-American level season. College Sports Communicators thought so regardless, naming her an Academic All-American.
After a year at Michigan State that did not go according to plan, Ross decided to transfer again to Purdue Fort Wayne for her last year of college ball.
"I started watching PFW's last 10 to 15 games of the season the year before," Ross said. "It was a program I thought I could fit well in, and the success of the team was something I wanted to be a part of."
Shoved onto a team with eight other new players, a trip to Italy the summer prior to competition forced Ross and the others to get along quickly.
Thankfully, there was never an issue in that department.
"A lot of teams can say they're super close, but we had to get close as soon as we got on that plane," Ross said. "We were so close and we were able to win so much because of our friendship. We always had each others' backs."
When the regular season rolled around, Ross visited a familiar foe at Purdue. She had played against the Boilermakers before, but in her game against them in a Mastodon uniform, it wasn't ideal.
She finished the game with 11 points on 3-of-11 shooting, a 2-of-8 mark from beyond the arc, and a 3-for-4 effort from the charity stripe.
She even airballed the first 3-pointer and missed the first free throw she ever took as a Mastodon.
Pretty wild for someone who was later described by a broadcaster in the Horizon League championship game as "the leading 3-point shooter on the planet."
If she had to pick a favorite shot of her career, she would pick the game-winner over Cleveland State on January 12, 2025. She hit a straightaway 3-pointer from the logo with 2.5 seconds left to go up 78-75 and beat the Vikings.
Two and a half months later, however, Ross' career came to an end at the hands of Cleveland State in the WNIT Great 8.
"Finishing my career at Purdue Fort Wayne meant everything to me," Ross said. "I couldn't have finished any better individually. We didn't hit our end goals as a team, but we set so many records and lots of success.
"Everything I did and the things I could control led me to be the best person I could be throughout the last five years and I have no regrets in any of it," Ross said. "There will be what-ifs, but I was the best person and best player I could be, so I'm at peace with it."
Ross has made her peace with her time playing basketball. The allure of playing professionally has faded and she's ready to move on.
But, not past basketball entirely.
Ross was recently named an assistant coach for the Purdue Fort Wayne women's basketball program, where she will look to foster the next generation of great shooters.
In her first month as an assistant coach, Ross was presented with the two statistical champion plaques from the NCAA in front of her team. She posed a simple question her new protégés after the presentation.
"Who's next?"
~ Feel the Rumble ~
