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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 27, ISSUE 5 61 into that sort of role, with it being fully possible no one man can do it. But if Vincent Edwards is back, he looked the part of a leading man down the home stretch of the season for Purdue and with Swanigan gone, would finally get an op- portunity to play that sort of role nightly. His ability to score in all sorts of ways was put on display in some of his bigger games this season — at Indiana, in both Purdue's wins over Northwestern and in two NCAA Tournament victories — and it would stand to reason to suggest his usage would increase considerably sans Swanigan. Purdue would obviously continue to play through the post with Haas back, but there would probably be a ceiling on the volume of minutes he could handle at a high level, and there were some modest consistency issues this past season. Minus Swanigan, everyone would be affected. Haas benefited from Swanigan's presence in high-low action and there's really no metric that can accurately contextual- ize how much Swanigan meant to Purdue's deadly three- point shooting, not just with his own nearly 45-percent shooting but more so with his passing out of the post and the respect he commanded in said post. That being said, Purdue should bring back a dangerous perimeter arsenal, led by seniors Edwards (should he re- turn), All-Big Ten candidate Mathias, point guard Thomp- son and budding standout Carsen Edwards, in addition to upperclassman sharp-shooter Ryan Cline. Carsen Edwards is a particularly interesting case. He was brilliant at times — many times — as a fresh- man, suggesting stardom to come for a player unlike most anything Purdue's had practically ever. There were some inconsistencies there, sometimes painful ones, but that could have been predicted and there weren't so many of them to suggest the second-year player isn't a few attainable fixes away from making a significant leap forward and being an outstanding player for the Boil- ermakers now and for years to come. Around him, Mathias would project to be Purdue's best two-way player, probably by a wide margin, next season, its best perimeter defender again and its best passer and shooter, most likely. That combination easily could have Tom Campbell The likely departure of Caleb Swani- gan (left) will change the dynamics, but if Isaac Haas (right) returns, that'll help Purdue.