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58 IllustrateD volume 24, issue 5 f m e n ' s b a s k e t b a l l : L o o k a h e a d BY BRIAN NEUBERT BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com P urdue is a last-place team, a fact it may or may not want to put out of its mind during this crucial offseason to come. "You have to embrace it," said junior-to-be Rapheal Davis, a returning team captain. "We're the 12th-place team in the Big Ten until the start of next season. We have to embrace that and know where we are (for moti- vation). But we also have to keep pushing forward and getting better so that we're back in the top division of the league next year." That's an ambitious goal for the Boilermakers after they lost their last seven games in 2014 and finished with their second losing record in as many years, dis- tancing themselves a bit further from a run of six con- secutive NCAA Tournament appearances prior. For the first time since 2006, the Boilermakers' season ended in the Big Ten Tournament. "You always second-guess yourself when things don't work. We try our best to set the table and make guys understand what it's going to take to be successful," Coach Matt Painter said, reflecting on a season gone very wrong. "I'm a big believer that you can outwork peo- ple and you're only as strong as your weakest link. We weren't good enough this year. Sitting around talking about why and what happened, I don't think it gets you anywhere at this point. "You move forward, learn from it and you work hard- er than other people and stick together through tough times and don't cave when things go wrong. You don't play the blame game. You accept responsibility and as a coach, you're always trying to do things to help your par- ticular team. As a team, we just have to be more funda- mentally sound, have better chemistry and get along. We have to eliminate things from an individual standpoint and do what you're supposed to do: Work hard and have a good attitude. You can control your attitude and your effort and try to dominate those areas." Purdue's small corps of returning players — it will have just five returnees on scholarship, just two of them upperclassmen — believes a swift turnaround is a rea- sonable goal, if for no other reason but there being no- where to go but up. Here's how it looks six months before Purdue even practices for the first time in the fall: Much will have to starting anew Young Purdue team's turnaround must start at basic levels Tom Campbell A.J. Hammons' decision to return for his junior season gives Purdue back a crucial player at both ends of the floor.