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Gold and Black Illustrated, Vol 26, Digital 2

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VOLUME 26, ISSUE 2 71 lored more toward everyone's individual skill sets, so it definitely highlights each person in the offense well. You can play through it, not super set. We have rules, but it's more (about) making reads, making the right pass. It's fun." The Boilermakers need offensive help. Last season, Purdue was near or at the bottom of the Big Ten in most scoring categories, averaging only 63.2 points per game (13th in the league). It shot only 39.2 percent (last), including only 26 percent on three-pointers (13th). And it loses a combined 24.2 points per game from Bays and Clemons, the duo ac- counting for about 38 percent of Purdue's scoring last year and about 85 percent of the production from tra- ditional posts. To make that up and improve from last year, the Boil- ermakers put up 600 shots a day during the summer, not including free throws. "People are knocking down shots from the perim- eter, mid-range, it's more consistent than last year," Perry said. Purdue got a chance to test that for a couple weeks in the late summer, when it had 10 practices before a trip to Italy in August where it played three games against professional competition. The Boilermakers won all three games. It wasn't always pretty — Purdue shot only 39 per- cent and showed vulnerability on the glass — but the most important stat, for a team that had done so much losing, was that the Boilermakers scored more than their opponents. They again had a taste of winning, even if the games had no bearing on the season. "It really was nice to win," Thornton said. "Because last year was so bad and we've never been that way. And even in previous years, people in high school have Tom Campbell Sharon Versyp, in her 10th season, stressed the "little things" in the offseason.

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