GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 22
F
our years after playing a
leading role in steadying
Purdue's program, its Class
of 2014 will soon leave it on
rock-solid ground.
That, above all else, will
stand as the collective leg-
acy of Vincent Edwards,
P.J. Thompson, Isaac Haas and
Dakota Mathias, the four seniors
who helped Purdue to a Big Ten
championship and the program's
first meaningful NCAA Tournament
success since 2012 last season after
back-to-back winning years the two
seasons prior.
But, there's more to be written,
they hope, as the foursome carries
Purdue into its defense of its con-
ference crown and a season that will
make for a case study of sorts on the
value of experience in college bas-
ketball nowadays.
The Boilermakers are loaded with
it, led by those seniors, dubbed by
Coach Matt Painter years ago as ex-
actly what his program needed "ex-
actly when we needed it" after Pur-
due had struggled during the two
seasons prior to the class' arrival.
Painter credits the 2014 freshmen
for following Rapheal Davis' lead
from Day 1, then effectively filling
his void.
"We've played for Purdue and
we've played to win," said third-year
starting point guard Thompson. "I
don't think there's any doubt in my
mind that each one of our seniors
could have gone to a different school
and maybe averaged more points, a
couple of us could have averaged
more rebounds. What we have done
at Purdue, though, as far as learn-
ing how to accept our role, a lot of
MORE
TO COME
BY BRIAN NEUBERT BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com
Seniors take center
stage for Purdue in
Big Ten title defense
Men's Basketball
