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22 ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 3 f and Kendall Stephens is the team's primary perimeter threat, though freshmen Dakota Mathias and P.J. Thompson could emerge there, too. That leaves Octeus in the sometimes tough spot of finding opportunities to be aggressive, whether it's hitting the lane hard when one opens up or at least driving to facilitate a kick- out option to shooters. He's still working on that, he said, to find the right mix of looking for his shot while being cognizant of his teammates. That's meant his scoring is down — he averaged 6.6 points per game through mid-December — from last season. So are his minutes (23 mpg). But Painter said he hasn't heard a single ABOVE THE RIM Every week, Jon Octeus was part of the grind without much reward. He'd have to go through Larry Eucstachy's rebounding drill at Colorado State in which the goal of the defense was to keep the offensive players off the boards, and the goal of the offense was to get the rebound. If the offensive players didn't, they ran. "Coach Eustachy preached, 'Offensive rebounds could win the game for you,'" Octeus said. But during games, Eustachy wouldn't allow Octeus to actually crash because he was the team's safety and had to get back on defense. At Purdue, though, Coach Matt Painter has encouraged his new point guard to be aggressive. And it's shown up — Octeus had a two-game stretch in early December in which he had 19 rebounds. Eight of those were offensive. And not all of them were the typical point-guard-chasing- a-long-rebound. Octeus has serious hops — he doesn't know his vertical but says "it's pretty high" — and has gone into traffic to grab boards. "Having the opportunity to go now, I take full advantage of it because I begged them at times last year to let me go to the offensive glass and let somebody (else) get back. I kind of use that now because I can actually go," Octeus said. "When it's in the air, it's a 50-50 ball. You've got to get the 50-50 ball. I just go. Especially with the point guards, I'll stand there, they'll check and then they'll turn around and as soon as they turn around, I'm full speed ahead, ready to go." Painter says it helps that Octeus, who was averaging 4.4 rebounds through the first 11 games, has played more than the point guard position and also that most point guards don't do a good job boxing out. But, regardless of the matchup, the results have been good for Purdue. "He's got a great nose for the ball," Painter said. "It's a huge boost for us, being able to have a guy like that get in there and get rebounds." — Stacy Clardie When I say "good," you say "neighbor." P097313.1 State Farm, Home Office, Bloomington, IL Call me for your insurance needs and see how it feels to be on a #1 team. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. ® CALL ME TODAY. Now that's teamwork. Trent B Johnson, Agent 249 E State Street West Lafayette, IN 47906 Bus: 765-743-9595 trentismyagent.com complaint from Octeus. "He just wants to win, and I think that is refreshing, any time when you coach guys that (personal statistics) don't matter, they don't have hang ups, they just want to win," Painter said. "And things aren't ideal for him. This has been hard for him at times, and he doesn't voice that. When you're used to being in the game and staying in the game, and now he plays a lot of minutes, but it's still not as high as it was there, it's hard because now you don't have quite the same feel of the game. "I think he's done a great job. He came in as a low-turnover guy and that's stayed consistent, and that's what we need from that position. … He's really helped us in a lot of areas." j