ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 2 29
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BY BRIAN NEUBERT
BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com
I
f Purdue's going to be good this season, its fresh-
men will have to be.
There are simply too many of them — five rookies
make up roughly half the scholarship-recruited roster
— for success to not be inextricably linked to their
team's.
But for forwards Vince Edwards and Jacquil Taylor,
center Isaac Haas and guards P.J. Thompson and Da-
kota Mathias, it won't be easy.
College basketball programs nationwide are being
impacted — for better and worse — by freshmen
more than at any other point in the game's history, for
countless reasons, including high school players' per-
ceived increased readiness and skyrocketing transfer
rates and early departures to the professional ranks
leaving holes in depth charts for incoming youngsters
to fill.
But even though freshmen are excelling all over in
M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L F E A T U R E : T H E F R E S H M E N
Tom Campbell
It'd be hard to find a more physically prepared freshman
than new Boilermaker center Isaac Haas, who's 7-foot-2 and
300 pounds or so. Conditioning will be key to his success,
though, same as it would any first-year player.
'THE PROCESS'
Past Boilermakers discuss what lies ahead for Purdue's freshmen
