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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 24 BY THE NUMBERS 55.7 % Purdue's effective field goal percentage in 2016-17, per KenPom.com, factoring in the added value of the three-pointer. Only 15 teams operated at a higher effective clip last season. 74 The number of wins Purdue's senior class of Vincent Edwards, Dakota Mathias, Isaac Haas and P.J. Thompson have been part of during their college careers, putting them in position to potentially crack the hundred-win mark. E'Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson remain Purdue's winningest set of fourth-year seniors, with 107 victories. 6.1 % Purdue's block per- centage last season, per KenPom.com, ranking 312th nationally out of 347 Division I teams. The Boilermakers, coming off the loss of Defensive Player-of-the-Year A.J. Hammons, blocked only 87 shots in 35 games. 7.3 % Purdue's steal per- centage, per KenPom.com, ranking 276th nationally, after the Boilermakers shifted their focus decidedly from pressure to containment on defense last season. Purdue benefited from only 11.7 turnovers of any kind last season, ranking 281st in the NCAA. people don't know how to do that. I think each of us has done that to the best of our ability and we're going to continue to do that as we go this year. I think that's what's made us so successful." The term "role" often comes with a certain stigma, reading like a backhanded compliment, but there's no minimizing what the senior class has meant to the pro- gram in terms of productivity to this point or what it'll have to mean this season to come. Edwards enters his senior season with star potential. He's been profoundly productive on numerous fronts in his Boilermaker career with his first real chance to be Purdue's leading man, so to speak, now at his doorstep. If he plays this season like he did last March, or this summer at the World University Games, he'll deliver. Much of the same can be said for Haas, who's split minutes with pros at center his entire career, those pros now being, well, pros. Mathias is one of the top two-way players in the Big Ten, Purdue's best shooter by percentage and its best passer by the eye test and a returning member of last season's Big Ten All-Defensive team. He's every bit the first-team all-conference candidate Edwards and Haas should be. Thompson, for his part, may not quite be in that mix, but there may not be a player Purdue would rather have taking an important shot, considering his track record. He's always wanted to be known at Purdue as a winner, and that enduring legacy can be considered sealed, no matter what happens this season. Actually, that label will follow not only Thompson, but his whole class. "That we turned this thing around and we brought Purdue basketball back to where it is, and that's a hard, gritty, blue-collar program," Mathias said of his class' legacy. "That we were a group of good guys that were going to go out and bust it every night out on the floor." As of today, that's the lasting identity Edwards, Thompson, Mathias and Haas have established. That doesn't mean it's complete. They will lead Purdue one final time, as the bedrock of Painter's 13th team.