WEST LAFAYETTE — The muggy conditions inside Mackey Arena testified that basketball season remains a few months away.
But the Purdue men’s basketball team went through their first organized workouts since the end of the school year on Tuesday afternoon. Assistant coaches Jack Owens and Brandon Brantley put the Boilermakers through drills in three groups, separating the post players, forwards and guards.
NCAA rules allow two hours per week, but the players said a big tone can be set in a short amount of time.
“These are the guys at your position that you’re battling with,” sophomore forward Basil Smotherman said. “Every day, it’s nothing personal, but on the court you’ve got to bring it.
“Today, we established that guys are competing. People are hitting shots, showing who worked on their game in the offseason and who didn’t. Everybody’s competing, because we’re down about being in last place last year and we want to be back on top.”
OPINION:Purdue coach Matt Painter must step up recruiting
Purdue’s five freshmen — guards Dakota Mathias and P.J. Thompson, forwards Vince Edwards and Jacquil Taylor and center Isaac Haas — arrived on campus over the weekend. The veterans played with them in an open gym on Monday night and are busy answering questions on and off the court and helping ease their teammates’ transition to college basketball.
The initial reviews, especially in terms of attitude, are positive.
“I love them already,” junior wing Rapheal Davis said. “Coming into weights this morning, they were all, I think, 45 minutes early. After open gym last night, I was talking to Dakota and asked him what he was going to go do, if he was going to go eat or whatever. He told me he was going to go study.
“First day of summer school and he tells me he’s going to study. That says a lot about them. Isaac came in and said the same exact thing. It says that they’re a hard-working group and they’re hungry for the task.”
That task is turning around a program coming off of consecutive losing seasons, including a last-place Big Ten Conference finish last season. Purdue’s roster contains no scholarship seniors and only two juniors on scholarship: Davis and center A.J. Hammons.
The Boilermakers need those five freshmen to acclimate quickly. Kendall Stephens, a Big Ten All-Freshman team performer a year ago, offered simple advice to the newcomers.
“You’ve got to take in as much as you can and listen to the coaching staff,” Stephens said. “It’s really their way. You come in with your own ideas, but when you get here, you need to buy into the philosophies and go as hard as you can.”
Comments are closed.