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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 46 After that end-of-the-season meeting with Painter, Mathias immediately decided to stay on campus for May- mester to get an early start on much-needed work. And all he did was mold himself into one of the Big Ten's best defensive players, continuing to transform his body into more of an athlete and becoming more flexible, and earn- ing the trust of the coaching staff and his teammates with his crafty, unselfish play that also has flashed moments of offensive brilliance. Mathias, it seems, has developed into a complete player heading into his final season for Purdue. "I think every year, I've progressed and gotten a little bit better. I just want to keep doing that, keep improving, on both ends of the court," Mathias said. "Obviously, defen- sively last year, I took a big step. I want to keep being able to do that and keep being a guy who plays both ends of the floor and does whatever it takes to win. There's going to be games where I don't have to score that much, but there's going to be games where I need to score that much. What- ever it takes to help the team win, I'd be willing to do that and I'm excited to do that." Now that Mathias checks all the boxes in the dribble- pass-shoot-defend model, he's more able to help. And there's hard evidence for that. When Mathias was on the court last sea- son, it directly impacted Purdue's results. His plus-minus was the best on the team (plus-390). "The analytics of us against good oppo- nents last year suggest that we are better of- fensively when he is on the court and we are better defensively when he is on the court. When you look at the numbers, it is not even close. He just makes things work," Painter said. So Mathias was on the court. Often. He played more than all but one of his teammates — a guy now in the NBA — av- eraging nearly 32 minutes on the season. Mathias was productive in that time, too, leading the team in assists, shooting 47 per- cent from the field, limiting turnovers, being a key facilitator on the offense and adding the new wrinkle of a lockdown-type defend- er as the Boilermakers won 27 games and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2010. That increased playing time, career-best production and winning big, including a league championship, helped Mathias' enjoyment factor a bit. "To finally relax and enjoy it … I played better last year. I was enjoying it a lot more," he said. "So (it was) just re- alizing you can have fun while playing this game, it's the best time of your life, and you're winning, you're playing with your brothers." But Mathias isn't done yet. He doesn't really like the idea of looking back on his career because he sees what could be coming in his final year: Another special season, he hopes. He figures to play a key role because he's transformed both physically and emotionally in the last three-plus years. When Mathias arrived at Purdue, he was limited phys- ically, in part because of the virus that left him drained and often unable to focus. He wanted to show coaches and teammates he belonged, but he started getting held out of practices because he couldn't make it through them. That meant any time director of strength and conditioning Josh Bonhotal wanted to ramp up training, he couldn't. And Mathias needed the work. He was slow, not a very