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70 IllustrateD volume 24, issue 5 f mon from UNLV why it was so important to go to the Final Four. Johnson, meanwhile, showed him another way to approach basketball. Johnson played hard, but he wasn't a grinder like Scheffler. He had fun, whooping and hollering his way up and down the court, encouraging teammates, making a game of the game. That stuck with Scheffler, who from that point on ramped up his enthusiasm and chatter during practices when Keady became angry and put the players through punishment drills. Before long, the team would be back to basketball drills. He had fun off the court, too. He once duct-taped Richie Mount to a tackling dummy near the old tunnel leading out of Mackey. He tied assistant coach Tom Reiter's boys together and put them in a laundry bin. He picked up a vis- iting reporter from Indianapolis and gave him a bear hug, just for the fun of it. All the while, he visited local schools and talked to the kids about accepting "outcasts" and what "cool" really meant. Purdue's team of the 1989-90 season was one of Keady's classics, one of those predicted to finish low in the Big Ten but wound up challenging for the championship. A win in its final regular-season game at Michigan State would leave it tied with Spartans for the championship. It ap- peared to have the game in hand during the final minute when Coach Jud Heathcoate called for an intentional foul to stop the clock. Scheffler was hacked repeatedly after catching the ball in the post, but tried to rush a pass out to Tony Jones. He thought Jones would be a better shooter to have at the line for a crucial free throw, although the percentages disagreed. The ball was deflected and led to a crucial Michigan State basket. "I was a coward because I didn't like the pressure of go- ing to the line," Scheffler recalls. "I should have tucked the ball like a football and pivoted until I drew a foul." That team was a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and played at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis. After de- feating Louisiana-Monroe in the opening game, it lost to Texas by a point in the second round. Scheffler, who had hit .698 from the field as a senior to establish the NCAA record, missed some easy shots going just 6-of-17 from the field. There were reasons for that. His knee had been inject- ed with Novocain late in the season, limiting his mobility. Then, the day before the Texas game, he twisted his ankle while making a simple turn while jogging during a prac- tice. And, bone chips in his left shooting elbow had flared, causing a sharp pain at the end of his follow-through. Playing in a domed football stadium hadn't helped, ei- ther. Scheffler had struggled in Purdue's infamous loss to Kansas State in the 1988 tournament, when the Boiler- makers were the second-ranked team in the country, and wasn't much more comfortable this time around. It was a cruel finish to an unlikely college career, but hardly a spoiler. Scheffler has the memories of playing on two Big Ten title teams, and nearly a third. There were so many great moments during and after games, too, such as the reception from fans waiting for the team bus at Mackey Arena after the overtime win at Indiana in 1990 — a gath- ering so rowdy that he had to convince one of his team- mates, Cornelius McNary, that it was safe to get off the bus. And then there was his personal growth, from invisible freshman to conference MVP. "He made an incredible transformation," Lewis says. "I thought he'd become a legitimate Division I player, but I never thought he'd be the Player-of-the-Year." Beyond that, Scheffler provided inspiration as one of the unlikeliest success stories ever to come out of the con- ference, as well as the kind of stories that still bring laugh- ter from his teammates and coaches. Like the time the team was in the locker room, getting dressed for a game at Michigan or Michigan State, and Keady said something like, "I bet you're glad to be back in your home state, huh Steve?" And Scheffler said, "Not really, the state taxes are too high here." Or the time Stephens, sensing Scheffler's lack of com- fort in his new surroundings, invited Scheffler to join him and his girlfriend, Kay, to watch a movie, "Fatal Attrac- tion." Scheffler freaked out at the part when the rabbit was boiled, but then so did Stephens. Kay, now his wife, hasn't let him forget that. Speaking of rabbits, Scheffler drove a beat-up diesel Volkswagen Rabbit at Purdue, and kept it after he made the Charlotte Hornets roster as a second-round draft pick in 1990, much to the dismay of his NBA teammates. He finally got rid of it when he realized the amount of the fine he would receive for being late if the car broke down would be greater than the value of the car. He still scrimped though, trading his comp tickets for use of a car for a cou- ple of years. And then there was the time just a few years ago, when Kip Jones, a 1989 graduate, organized a fund-raising golf tournament in the Fort Wayne area. He called Stephens, Lewis, Tony Jones and Todd Mitchell to ask them to play.