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32 ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 2 f Not every freshman is going to get his minutes right away, though. The process is different for everyone. To this day, Smith's is the face Painter sees in his mind with every decision he has to make whether or not to redshirt a player. He wishes he had in Smith's case. He did not, and the shooting guard spent his 2008- 09 season totaling 19 points over 18 game appearances, playing an average of 5.3 minutes in those games. Smith, now a high school coach: "It's definitely tough (barely playing) but it takes a mature per- son to realize that what you do in practice — working hard and work- ing the starters; guys like Mark Wohlford, Bobby Riddell and me never let up on those guys in prac- tice — helps the team. We ended up winning the Big Ten Tournament championship. I had to understand I had All-Americans in front of me. It's tough to see at the time, but in the long run, it makes you feel good to know you were part of that. "When you're 18 and 19 years old, sometimes you're going to look at things in a negative light. You have to have the right people around you to tell you everything's going to be all right and that it's a process and having success isn't a destination. It's a journey." A difficult one, not only as a basketball player, but a person. Hummel: "You're away from home for the first time in your life and your parents aren't there to tell you what to do. You're on a Big Ten campus and there's things to do ev- ery night. You have to do the right thing and prepare yourself to play the best you can and I think the four of us (in 2007-08) were really good about doing that. You have to be willing to sacrifice for the team and sacrifice to be good. Coach Painter says it all the time, 'If it was easy, everybody would do it.' It's not easy. It's really hard. "You're dealing with things you've never done before in your life, the conditioning, the weights, the practice and the level of prac- tice, because it's just a whole other animal from what you've done be- fore." When Purdue runs 19-year- olds out on the floor this season, very often the odds are going to be stacked against them playing a game that's faster than they're used to, more complex and ex- ponentially more physically de- manding. Boilermaker center A.J. Ham- mons went through it. He took to it quickly in some capacities, but struggled badly in others. After the season, he used the term "stress" to explain some of the forces that weighed on him. Hammons: "One big (adjust- ment) is just the mentality. High school is way different. Every day in practice I've got somebody with two or three years more experience on me. Getting through practice and Tom Campbell Forward Vince Edwards could be the freshman Purdue asks the most of this sea- son, as he seems positioned to play an extensive role in the Boilermaker front- court and be an important ball-handler and decision-maker.