ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 3 25
f
standards he's holding himself to and Purdue needs from
him, he's not.
"Very average," Stephens said recently of his play, "and
that might be pretty generous."
Not good.
The eye-ball test tells you Stephens is a better player
than he was a year ago.
But he's not playing better.
Sound familiar?
The eye-ball test — based on moments earlier this
season — tells you Purdue's a better team than it was a
year ago.
But it's not playing better right now.
The shot-selection albatross seems to be Stephens'
biggest issue, at least per his coach's explanation, though
Matt Painter has been very positive publicly about Ste-
phens even after benching him for a stretch of games.
It's the same story as past seasons, only with-
out a few now-departed notorious loose cannons to
blame. It's a story that's getting very old.
So is Purdue's mediocrity defensively, a multi-
year trend that just so happens to coincide with
physical man-to-man defense being made Public
Enemy No. 1 by various rules committees.
Very different Purdue team, very similar issues.
But Purdue has shown what it's capable of ear-
lier this season and there's no compelling reason
to say with certainty those levels can't be reached
again in a Big Ten that looks like this: Wisconsin,
followed by a bunch of darts thrown against a wall.
Purdue has to figure this out. Painter has to fig-
ure this out. Hammons and Stephens need to figure this
out.
Because this Boilermaker team this year has potential.
It's shown it.
But if the past few games are any indication, it runs
the risk of wasting it.
j
Neubert can be contacted at
BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com
For daily headlines on recruiting and other
Purdue sports news, check out
Download...
An updated
GoldandBlack.com
mobile App For the
Android and iPhone at
Google Play
and the App Store
