Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/463948
GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 21 • 4 T his is what good basket- ball teams do: They find a way to win. Uh, obviously. In the case of Purdue, what that means is not just finding ways to win, but find- ing ways to win differently. The constant has been defense — hey, what a novel concept after the past few seasons — and lately, A.J. Hammons' long-await- ed awesomeness. But otherwise, Purdue has been resourceful in masking deficiencies by creating different strengths. When it's turning the ball over too much — which it still does too much — then it rebounds better. When it doesn't rebound like it should, it protects the basketball like a newborn. When it was missing free throws, it made threes instead. Purdue got outrebounded by teams like Indiana and Rutgers when it shouldn't have, but Hammons offset it by blocking damn near every shot that came his way, or so it seemed. When Hammons, the Boilermak - ers' everything in recent weeks, was taken away at the offensive end by Ne- braska, the long-anticipated and much needed three-point breakout for Kendall Stephens and Da- kota Mathias came to pass. Finally. If it's sustainable, look out. Every game it seems like something different, and it's a central theme in Purdue riding a run of six wins in sev- en games, putting it position to play its way into the NCAA Tournament and maybe look up at only Wisconsin in the Big Ten when all is said and done. This season has unfolded almost remarkably, a cautionary tale about giving up on teams, players and peo- ple too quickly. Just before Christmas, Purdue was in hell. It had just lost three in a row and looked completely amateur hour in doing it. It was bad, grotesque, really. Someone in the know said to me at that time, "The break will really help them." BS, I thought, lipstick on a pig. Well, who was wrong? Since then, Purdue has gone from a defensive turnstile to an iron gate, buoyed by Hammons, who looms over opposing offenses like the Death Star with a newfound attentiveness that has impacted for the better every phase of his game and turned him into someone who's now playing like the draft pick he was always just supposed to be. You have to give Purdue's juniors a ton of credit. There were three sophomores last season. One ran away to get his elsewhere, the others stayed, knowing nothing but losing at Purdue, recog - nized deficiencies and made them- selves into players. Rapheal Davis used to be just a scorer who wasn't even all that effec- tive at it early on at the college level. Now, he's a very, very good all-around player and a bor- derline great defensive play- er, not to mention a leader beyond reproach. Hammons has gotten the light turned on and it hasn't burned out quickly like it has at times in past seasons. (I don't know what he's going to do after this season, but I will say this: The light at the end of the tunnel can be a very powerful thing.) He's so much better than he was and he deserves the credit. It's always been up to him, no one else. Coaches have done everything they can to help him, but in the end, he just had to do it. Looks like he's figured it out. Matt Painter and his staff deserve credit for keeping this group from coming apart. Having better people in the program now has helped, but a coach can lose a team, especially a young one, in difficult times like those seen in December. Purdue was picked to finish sec - ond-to-last in the league by a lot of people. It might finish second. If it hap- pens, that's Big Ten Coach-of-the-Year material if I've ever seen it. But it's only mid-February. The big- gest games have yet to be played, and when they are played, Mackey Arena can't help Purdue anymore. They'll be at Indiana, Ohio State and Michigan State. Purdue has five games left, includ- ing those three, of which it'll probably have to win at least one to solidify its NCAA Tournament résumé. Purdue still has non-conference sins that re- quire atonement. I don't know how this season is going to end up. But what I do know is that a hell of a season it has been to this point. j Neubert can be contacted at BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com F R O M E D I T O R B R I A N N E U B E R T Finding A Way