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Gold and Black Illustrated, Vol 26, Digital 4

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VOLUME 26, ISSUE 4 13 Although he can't play right now, Robbie Hummel's not taking a break from bas- ketball. Hummel, the former Boilermaker, is recov- ery from surgery for a torn labrum suffered while playing professionally in Italy and has in- formally been with the Purdue program since early January. His duties aren't much: He's around Mackey and can travel with the team, offering advice when possible. But he can't formally coach. Hummel is also using the time away from play to do studio work on BTN. We caught up with him to discuss. Q. NCAA rules prohibit you from on-court coach- ing or sitting on the bench, but what can you do to help? Hummel: "There's a lot of stuff you can't do. But I'm here for the guys on the team now, if it's questions about college basketball, professional basketball, anything they need. I'm happy to help. "I just think I can give them some perspective on things. I think when you haven't been through things or you're still young and in the moment, it can be hard to see why certain things are the way they are or from a basketball perspective, why we're doing what we're do- ing. In terms of the way we play, the way our team is built, we play a little bit different now. …. That's changed, but basketball's basketball. "When you've played in multiple places — whether it's the NBA, Europe or Purdue — I think you can offer a lot to these guys. I think at the end of the day, every one of the guys on that team has a goal of playing professional basketball and until you've done it, you can't know what it's like." Q. Could this be an early barometer of whether you'd like to coach at some point? Hummel: "I think it's a good test for me to see if it's something I'd really like to do. You play and when you play, you show up for practice, then you go home. It's shocking sometimes as a player when you realize how much time the coaches put in to watching film and pre- paring scouting reports, all that stuff. "It'll be a good indicator for me to see if it's something I might be interested in down the road. At this point in time, I still don't know what I want to do when I'm done playing. I guess if you can take a positive out of being hurt again, maybe that's it." Q. But you're not done playing. Hummel: "I'm not done yet. I'm still just 26 and I think I'm still (too) good of a player at this point to give it up. If I was 32 or 33 and starting to think I wasn't as good any- more, I might think about hanging it up, but I still think I can play at a very high level, whether that's the NBA or a Euro League type of team." — As told to Brian Neubert Boiler Index Tom Campbell

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