GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 4 15
O
n Feb. 25, Dakota Mathias,
Vincent Edwards, Isaac
Haas and P.J. Thompson
said good-bye to Mackey Arena,
where the four seniors' legacy won't
soon be forgotten, though that lega-
cy's final chapter is yet to be written.
But as of senior day, the group had
established itself as one of the pro-
gram's most successful classes ever,
with championships and various
superlatives to show for it, steering
Purdue into its final March together
ranked top-10 nationally, having fall-
en just shy of a second consecutive
Big Ten championship.
Their impact was felt most, though,
in context, in the substance they
brought to Purdue's program when
substance was desperately needed.
Rapheal Davis is widely credited
as being the leader who guided Pur-
due out of the misery of back-to-back
lost seasons, but had Davis' prodding
fallen on deaf ears, what good what it
have done? The 2014 class served as
a willing and eager audience and one
happy to take those reins from Davis
when he graduated.
And, they've been really good bas-
ketball players, all four of them having
spent the past few seasons scribbling their names all over
Purdue's record books in one way or another.
Here's how it all began, how all four wound up Boiler-
makers, as told by those most involved.
DAKOTA MATHIAS
Matt Painter and Greg Gary knew
it.
Struggling with teams that couldn't
shoot and too often wouldn't pass, the
Boilermaker coaches found Mathias
in Elida, Ohio, and, they thought, the
solution to their program's offensive problems. For as
elite a shooter as Mathias looked like, there was reason
to debate whether it was even the strength of his game,
considering his savant-like passing.
HERE'S HOW PURDUE'S INFLUENTIAL
SENIORS
NOW ON THEIR WAY OUT
CAME IN
BY BRIAN NEUBERT
Neubert@GoldandBlack.com
How It Came To Be
Charles Jischke / Purdue Athletics
Matt Painter took several looks at Dakota
Mathias before the Elida, Ohio guard com-
mitted. Timing was everyhing in getting him
to Purdue.
Tm Campbell
