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GOLD & BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 4 61 Offensively, Weatherford's operated at a five-a-game clip in the assist col- umn and been efficient when picking his spots to shoot, making 53 percent of his two-point field goals, trying just 13 threes (making two) and averaging a team-best 1.7 points per shot. Matt Painter doesn't shy away from the Chris Kramer comparison that is so blatantly obvious with Weatherford. Their skill sets are similar, their ways of impacting games the same. Their personalities are almost identi- cal, and their mannerisms even align, as if Weatherford has been studying the former Boilermaker great in or- der to best emulate him, like an actor preparing for a role. The same sort of productive cockiness that made Kram- er what he was, and drove the Big Ten crazy, oozes from Weatherford. Kramer was maybe the most piv- otal figure in the "culture" Painter so often talks about, the bedrock el- ement coaches believe Weatherford will strengthen from his first day on campus. Purdue recruited Weatherford for all the same reasons it recruited Kramer: For toughness, intensity, selflessness and a score of other in- tangibles that have very little to do with putting basketballs through an iron loop. But scoring is what so often draws eyeballs, though, and serves as the most common, however flawed, gauge of players' value. And because Weatherford isn't that player, maybe it shapes perception. He relishes being told he's not "good enough," laughs when high school student sections pick on him during games — in fairness, he does bring it on himself, like a heel in professional wrestling — and uses it to get the best of opponents who run their mouths, like the Twin Lakes kid Weatherford said told him he should "go to Ander- son" instead of Purdue. "I believe they're all wrong, but at the same time I always tell myself I have a lot of work to do to play at a higher level," Weatherford said. "I hate saying, 'I'm fine now. I'm OK where I am.' I can't stop doing what I did to get me there. … When I hear that stuff, it just motivates me to work even harder and motivates me to be- come a better player." Gamesmanship is another of Weatherford's things — theatrics, mind games, psychological warfare, any game he can play to get an edge, he's all in. And he is not above taking the occa- sional dive. Against Twin Lakes, an oppos- ing player tried to back Weatherford down. When he lowered his shoul- der, Weatherford went flying, then tumbling, from the middle of the lane until his entire body was lying out of bounds. The student section called him a "flopper." They might have been onto some- thing there. Their target wouldn't even deny it. Then, the students called Weather- ford "over-rated." "I thought, 'I guess I'm rated some- where then,'" Weatherford said. "It just made me smile and makes me play better." j