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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 23 • 10 BY GOLD AND BLACK STAFF R apheal Davis followed Purdue basketball long before he committed to play for Matt Painter, so he's plenty familiar with the program's recent his- tory of rugged, tough, special defensive players. It just wasn't Davis' goal to be one of them. When he came to the Boilermakers as a fresh- man out of Fort Wayne, he was a scorer, pure and simple. He'd had four coaches in four years in high school, so there was little hope of grasping defensive principles and rules, especially consid- ering one of the coaches didn't even coach defense, Davis said. But it didn't take long once Davis arrived in West Lafayette to know he'd have to change. "When I first came here I didn't play defense at all," Davis said. "I would describe myself as a non- defensive player. Coming here to Coach Painter's system, it was all new to me. "Once I realized I wasn't going to play unless I played defense, I started focusing more on defense and trying to put more into it. I knew I couldn't play here (if I didn't) — it was either play defense or transfer and I would rather play defense." So, about midway through his freshman sea - son, Davis started to hone in on defense more and more. And more. And, now, in his third season with the Boiler- makers, Davis has become one of the Big Ten's best defensive players. "Rapheal Davis has M E N ' S BA S K E T BA L L : N E W S A N D N OT E S Tom Campbell Rapheal Davis has emerged as one of the Big Ten's best defensive players after admittedly coming to Purdue as a "non-defensive player." Evolution: Davis Transforms Into Defensive Stopper For Season Stats Click Here www.MeetYouAtArnis.com LAFAYETTE • INDIANAPOLIS • GREENWOOD Visit one of our 18 Indiana locations Meet You At Arni's TM Celebrates Purdue's Student-Athletes SERVING BOILER FANS FOR 50 YEARS World Famous Pizza, Salads, Sandwiches John Strauser RS Freshman, Major in Organizational Leadership and Supervision Strauser, a defensive end from Champaign, Ill., was one of 20 football players to be named Academic All-Big Ten on Dec. 10. Seventy-one Purdue student-athletes received Academic recognition eclipsing last fall's total of 64 and 2012's total of 46. To be eligible for Academic All- Big Ten selection, student-athletes must be letterwinners, in at least their second year at their institution and carry a grade-point average of at least 3.0. Women's cross country was second only to football with number of honorees with 19. Women's soccer followed with 16, men's cross country had 11 members recognized and the volleyball team had five. PRESENTS vertime