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22 GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED Defensively, Thompson showed some tenacity and quick hands pres- suring the ball a year ago and has continually impressed in the presea- son in that regard. Hill can bring an entirely different dimension to the table. He's all of 6-3, with Octeus-type length at point guard, dimensions he can use to be a defensive nui- sance and to get shots off in the lane as a slasher. Hill is not the shooter Thompson is, but he should be more of a pene- tration threat. The charismatic new senior has been a surprisingly vocal presence since his first day on campus, ap- pearing beyond comfortable in what would generally be considered an uncomfortable situation. "The situations I've been placed in, they've all been uncomfortable," said Hill, now at his third program as Purdue's fourth fifth-year transfer in the past three years. "Transferring from school to school is not an easy thing to do. I kind of put myself in a lot of positions to be uncomfortable, so I've become comfortable being uncomfortable." Point guard is a question mark for Purdue, really the only pressing per- sonnel question as long as everyone else is healthy. But all Purdue needs is comfort, an option coaches feel they can trust and teammates can depend on. Really, all Purdue should need from its point guards this season is for them to defend and make sound decisions. Anything else would be considered gravy, quite honestly. "We just have to take care of the ball, be composed at all times and just really facilitate and get guys in- volved," Hill said. PURDUE'S UP-SIDE … The quickest fix for Purdue that would automatically make it a better team than the one it was last sea- son: Shooting. Maybe the Boilermakers' greatest frustration — some would say mys- tery — of a season ago was just that, as they shot only 32.7 percent from three-point range for the season. That was an improvement of ex- actly zilch over the year prior, when Purdue could have been considered a deficient perimeter shooting team. In response to the struggles of back-to-back losing teams, Painter invested heavily in the element, not that it had been intentionally ne- glected before. High school marksman Dakota Mathias was signed to be paired with returnee Kendall Stephens for what projected to be a very good pair of three-point shooting specialists, though neither player wants any part of being labeled as just a shooter. Thompson brought a reputation to Purdue as a shooter who must be reckoned with at point guard, while Edwards also provided the frontcourt a shooting dimension. Yet, Purdue spent the season gen- erating better shots for better shoot- ers than it had the year before and wound up in the exact same place statistically. "There was no rhyme or reason to it," said Mathias, no fan of his 32.2-percent shooting as a fresh- man. "I know I put the work in and Kendall put the work in. Sometimes shots just don't go down. "You have to battle through it. We still won games when we didn't shoot well. At Indiana, we were terri- ble from the three-point line and we won the game. This team finds ways to win games and finds ways to out- tough people." Tom Campbell Matt Painter believes his team can again be very good defensively. It starts with Rapheal Davis, the Big Ten's best perimeter defender a season ago.