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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 47 good athlete and had tight hips. The latter may not seem like a big deal, but it was, Bonhotal said, because restrict- ed, tight hips often lead to playing high. On defense, that's a problem, making it more difficult to stay in front of a player, especially when it comes to reacting and respond- ing quickly to change of direction. So Bonhotal set out to improve it all, setting the primary focus on speed because that, generally speaking, affects everything. Bonhotal's "gold standard" of measurement is a 20-meter sprint, which is laser-timed, to get the ultimate picture of improvement. Of course, he works on lateral speed, etc., as well but increasing general speed matters across the board. And Mathias certainly did that, trimming two-tenths of a second off his 20-meter time from when he first arrived at Purdue until now. It's shown up on the court. Coaches commented this summer about how fast Mathias looked — and not in the straight-line speed kind of way. They'd see him make a through cut to the oppo- site wing and get to his spot quickly, so when he caught a pass, he'd have separation to get his shot up. Getting that split-second before a defender is in his face gives Mathias better vision of the rim, too, which means the degree of difficulty changes on the shot. Mathias always has been a great shooter, but his three- point shooting percentage was 45 percent last season, a boost from 35 percent in his first two seasons. "One of the things he and I talked about (was) 'Did you all of a sudden magically become this much better of a shooter?'" Bonhotal said. "Maybe a little bit better. He's always been an unbelievable shooter. But because now he's so much faster than he was before, when he goes and makes a cut or he's got to get that defender off of him, now he's getting another step or two, so he has a little bit more space coming into his shot. "There's an element in confidence just in believing you're fast instead of like, 'I'm not that fast, so I've got to make up for it in some other way.' (Now it's), 'I know I can get away from this guy. I know I can get my shot here.' I think that's part of where his mindset has flipped a little as well." It seems like those offensive benefits are only a bonus, though. Mathias' physical transformation especially triggered the biggest jump in his game: From that "non-existent" defender to one who may be the frontrunner for the Big Ten's Defensive Player-of-the-Year. Early in Mathias' career, he was always behind plays, a step late, Gary said. Mathias simply wasn't physically able to keep pace. The increased speed has changed that, allow- ing Mathias to get through screens quickly, and his boost in conditioning helps as well. Now, Mathias has built the endurance to play at a high level more consistently. He's stronger, so his legs aren't fading in games and as the sea- son goes on. He has increased flexibility, too, which helps him to stay in a stance and stick with ballhandlers. "I think some of the things from a basketball IQ per- spective, especially on the defensive side of the ball, un- derstanding tendencies, understanding what Coach Paint is looking for with our rotations, I think those things were kind of there (as an underclassman)," Bonhotal said, "but now because he was able to take some of the next steps from a physical perspective, it put him in position to be able to utilize that high basketball IQ. Because you can have the highest basketball IQ in the world, (but) if you can't move, you can't guard. "Those physical improvements allowed him to kind of unlock some of the IQ and the intelligence that he had." Mathias always has been an intelligent player who knows the game. It was just a matter of his attitude click- ing to realize the importance of becoming a good defender. And that, in part, goes back to that trying sophomore sea- son — when he was watching others play in front of him. "He knew he probably didn't play as much as he should have his sophomore year," Painter said. "We were just loaded at that spot and I played Rapheal a lot. I think he just figured it out. Rapheal played a lot because I didn't have a lot of confidence in other guys defensively. He gave us that confidence in addition to A.J. (Hammons) pro- tecting the rim, and that made us a pretty good defensive team. (Mathias) is a smart person and decided he would become that guy even though he can do some other things offensively. He knows that keeps him in the game more than his offense does." Painter's trust in Mathias grew so much last season he inserted the rising junior into matchups against the op- ponent's best perimeter scorer. And, consistently, Mathi- as responded to the challenge, limiting the Big Ten's elite like Iowa's Peter Jok, Illinois' Malcolm Hill and Indiana's James Blackmon Jr., among others. On multiple occasions if Purdue was struggling to contain a certain player, Paint-