Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/114608
e d i t o r b r i a n n e u b e r t leadership from unlikely sources ow do Hnebulous,you quantify leadership, that critical, but bedrock for success in any team sport? If a team is playing well, does that mean it has leadership? If a team is awful, does that mean it doesn't? So much goes into winning and losing, how do you ever really know? Well, in the case of the men's basketball team, we do. We can safely say in this case that leadership is not something Purdue's enjoyed a surplus of this season, looking oftentimes like a rudderless ship on the court, a bad body language team that has sorely lacked a steadying influence to steer it through difficulties. That's not always someone's fault. Every team mixes differently and for 85 percent of this season, Purdue's mix went together like peanut butter and Quaker State. But lately, things have reversed. Two weeks ago, Matt Painter wanted his team in the postseason. Now, the Boilermaker coach wants his team in the postseason, now eager to keep coaching as long as he can a team that's prob- ably taken a few months off the end of his life. That's how stark the turnaround has been. In a season of misery in which the program's standards have been breached — whether they be its standards for success, for effort, for work — everything's positive right now after Purdue finished up playing a recognizable form of basketball, the cliché of Purdue playing "Purdue basketball" again. Strike that: Not quite everything is positive. There's an asterisk. It has to be difficult for any Purdue partisan to get too worked up over its turnaround without a sense of regret, or at least curiosity, that this didn't happen months ago. Had it, the Boilermakers would be preparing for their seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament, not (probably) mobilizing for the backhanded compliment that would come with being the first Big Ten team to ever play in the College Basketball Invitational. Make no mistake: I'm not dismissing the significance of Purdue's finally getting out of its own way. It was critical that it happened, because it shows this thing's not broken. From Day 1, Purdue's been a talented enough team to be a winning team. It bodes well for next season, since most of this team is slated to return. But it hasn't come together until now. That brings us to leadership. So many have had a hand in Purdue getting its act together. But two players in particular have shown that leadership can come from anyone at any time. Sandi Marcius is a junior center who's not played all that much in his career, falling backward every time he's ever ascended into a prominent role. He's kind of a goofball, and I mean that as a term of endearment, with a sort of mascot quality people seem to respond to when he's playing well and playing with his trademark enthusiasm. Rapheal Davis is just a freshman, a particularly spirited and determined freshman, but a freshman nonetheless. His leadership has grown organically simply from the most basic of origins: He's trying hard. Both have been centerpieces of Purdue's modest run to close the season, a stretch of games in which the product has looked better than the results. After all, the Boilermakers were just 2-2 in their last four. Both players would belie the prototype for leadership. We tend to look at accomplished or particularly vocal players as leaders. Marcius has hardly played and when he does, he's done his talking more with his energy than his broken English. PURDUE PRIDE f r o m Warren Hill, ME '63 Jim Hill, MET '95, MBA '03 Jim Billard, LA '90 Brian Teyema, ME '87 Scott Dierking, IM '77 Russ Nelson, BCM '00 David Pikey, PH '97 Angela Billard, ED '90 Bill Silfies, MBA '03 Nick Muscolino, MET '06 Matthew Crawford, MET '05 Bob Hill, BCM '06 Ryan Stojkovich, BS '97 Mike Ivanovic, AS '81 Anthony Borgnini, ME '07 Anthony Camasta, MET '04 Beth Beigelbeck, SM '97 Deborah Toth, MET '07 Daniel Block, ME '08 Daniel Gasser, BS '04 Jason Jones, MET '08 Nick Johnson, BCM '09 Bryan O'Neill, BCM '09 Steven Sitkowski, BCM '10 Chris Summers, ME '10 Isaac Townsend, ME '10 Don Wunderlich, ME '13 Chris Gushurst, BCM '11 Joe Motuliak, MBA '11 Taylor Spaulding, ME '12 Grant Fillipatch, MET '12 Jessica James, BS '13 Robert C Krier, MET '13 Andy Mack, BS '15 Kevin Morrisroe, ME '15 Michael Rish, BCM '13 Martin Smith, MET '13 We tend to look at experienced players as leaders. Davis is 18. You don't always know where leadership is going to come from, but you know it when you see it. And the past couple games, we've seen it. Finally. j Neubert can be contacted at BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com We're proud to be Illinois' largest HVAC contractor and to have 37 outstanding Purdue alumni on our HVAC/Plumbing team. THE HILL GROUP CARLE HOSPITAL – Urbana, IL The Hill Group was chosen for the HVAC, medical gas piping, plumbing, fire protecton, test and balance, and commissioning for this new nine-story, 378,000 square foot hospital. hillgrp.com GoldanDBlack express • volume 23, express 25 • 4