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ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 2 45 f Cuonzo Martin that not only effective broke the press, but helped Foster get fouled by Ryan Bowen. With a fraction of a second left, Foster hit one of two free throws and the Boilermakers had an improbable 84-83 victory. "Sometimes a season can change in a moment," recalled Foster, who still works with Boiler- maker student athletes in academ- ic services. "It probably did for us in Iowa City." From that point forward, Purdue went on a tear, winning 15 of its next 16. It did what few thought it could do by successfully defending its Big Ten championship without "Big Dog" Robinson. Not only did Purdue struggle in the early going of league play, but it had three hiccups in the early part of the non-conference schedule. The slow start to the season wasn't really a surprise. Captains Martin and Matt Waddell were coming off knee injuries, Waddell an ACL and Martin an MCL that was suffered in late Oc- tober. After winning the Big Island Invitational in Hilo, Ha- waii, Purdue dropped three straight games away from Mackey Arena. Waddell and Martin were coming around, but after early-conference season losses to Michigan and Illinois, things looked bleak. "Once you step on the floor, you aren't injured, you are playing the game," Martin, now the coach at Cal, said in late October. "For me, that was what it was about, and it was the same for Matt, too. He had further to come back from than I did. "I have learned in life that you have to go through some- thing to get to something." Robinson's early departure for the NBA, the early-sea- son injuries and no one thinking that the team could win molded one of the closest-knit teams in Purdue basketball history. "We did everything together," recalled junior forward Justin Jennings, now a principal in the Ypsilanti, Mich., school system. "We genuinely liked each other and it showed on the court and it helped us get through some difficult things." Keady was his usually demanding self. He would not al- low excuses for the early-season losing, even though the Boilermakers had one. "After we lost at Western Michigan, he made us watch Ready to tak e t h e plu n g e? David and Sonnie Boudia obtained their home loan at Lafayette Savings Bank. We're the Indiana community bank with local decision-making. When you are ready to take the plunge into home ownership, see Lafayette Savings Bank.www.lsbank.com | 742-1064 E v E r y A n g l E . E v E r y P o s s i b i l i t y . Olympic gold medalist David Boudia and his wife Sonnie Purdue Keady called this trio of captains — Martin, Waddell and Ervin (left to right) — as good as he ever had in coaching.