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62 IllustrateD volume 24, issue 4 f BY ALAN KARPICK AKarpick@GoldandBlack.com C oach Lee Rose doesn't have any problem being direct. Or going directly to the source. So soon after Rose was hired as Purdue's new coach in 1978, he headed to the "source" — 7-foot-1 rising junior named Joe Barry Carroll. Carroll was in Lexington, Ky., playing for a United States team against international competition and was eager to meet his new coach. "After that horrible '78 team, I was eager to improve my game," Carroll said, referencing the team that failed to make the NCAA Tournament after being among the pre- season top 12. "Coach told me 'We are going to bring the ball to you,' and that had been made clear to the others players. I was going to be made the focal point of the of- fense and the defense. It was good for my development, made me put on my big boy pants." It was a conversation and decision that helped shape a Big Ten championship team. Carroll and Rose understood one another. And Rose, who had led upstart UNC-Charlotte to the Final Four two years earlier, was wise beyond his years to go along with his prematurely gray hair. "I asked him very pointedly what he really wanted out of basketball and he backed off and he thought for a couple minutes," Rose said. "Then he said, 'I ultimately I want to play in the NBA.' I said, 'That's great because if that is what you want to do, I can help you get there.' We developed a great relationship, and I told him it wasn't just when we were on the floor." It shouldn't come as a big surprise that coach and player still talk often 35 years later. In fact, Carroll serves as Rose's financial advisor. The rest of the team in 1979 was not void of talent. But there was a problem: The Boilermakers best guards, Jerry Sichting and Brian Walker, stood just 6-2. That was not the prototypical size Rose desired. In fact, Rose had snagged 6-5 guard Keith Edmonson from San Antonio in his initial recruiting class, thinking he might start from Day 1. That was before Rose learned on the practice court how compet- itive Sichting and Walker were. "Coach Rose came in and told us 'I will not play two 6-foot guards at the same time,'" Walker said recently. "Jerry and I made him eat his words." Walker, a Lebanon, Ind., native who had sat out a season after transferring with his brother Steve from North Car- olina State, wasn't about to sit out again. And either was Sichting, another homegrown talent from Martinsville, Ind. Rose rounded out the '79 starting lineup with a pair of talented forwards in Drake Morris from East Chicago and Arnette Hallman, a junior college transfer from Chicago. Morris was an elite high school talent who sometimes struggled with consistency and focus. Hallman was a 6-7 athlete not seen often, if ever, on a Purdue roster before p r e s e n t s : t h e 1 9 7 9 b i g t e n c h a m p s It All Started With A Meeting Carroll was center of attention on conference title team Tom Campbell During his visit to Mackey Arena for Joe Barry Carroll Day in mid-February, the No. 1 NBA draft pick showed off his sense of humor and self-deprecating style that wasn't evident during his playing days when he never spoke to the media.