Catching up with ... Troy Lewis
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Purdue has had many great shooters in its history. And few were a better marksman than Troy Lewis.
The Anderson, Ind., native arrived in West Lafayette in the fall of 1984, having been co-Indiana Mr. Basketball with Delray Brooks, a Michigan City product who signed with Indiana. The 6-4 Lewis was a national recruit who had his picks of schools. And he chose Purdue, becoming one of the program's most beloved players.
Lewis was one-third of Purdue's famed "Three Amigos" trio that dominated the Big Ten in the late-1980s. Lewis, Todd Mitchell and Everette Stephens led the Boilermakers to back-to-back Big Ten championships in 1987 and 1988. As seniors, the Purdue threesome finished 29-4 overall, 16-2 in the Big Ten and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tourney. Alas, the Boilermakers were stunned in the Sweet 16 by Kansas State and finished ranked No. 3 in the nation in the AP poll, a bitter end to a spectacular run in West Lafayette for Lewis, Mitchell and Stephens---who forever will be linked together in Purdue lore.
Lewis ranks No. 5 in school history in scoring with 2,038 points (16.4 ppg), trailing only Rick Mount, Joe Barry Carroll, E'Twaun Moore and Dave Schellhase. Lewis played just his final two seasons with the 3-point line. If he had had the 3-pointer for all four seasons, Lewis may be the No. 2 all-time Purdue scorer.
As it is, Lewis is still an all-time great who was a first-team All-Big Ten pick as a junior and senior and who led the team in scoring three seasons. Best yet, Lewis took Purdue to four NCAA tourneys and four 20-win seasons while never finishing lower than fourth in the Big Ten.
GoldandBlack.com caught up with Lewis.
GoldandBlack.com: What are you up to?
Lewis: I am a sales executive for Victory Wholesale Grocery. I have been doing this for 27 years. I also coach high school basketball for Springboro High School, associate head coach. I live in Dayton. I have been here since the early 1990s, played for the Dayton Wings (WBL) starting in 1991. Been here ever since.
GoldandBlack.com: You have a daughter, right?
Lewis: Yes, I have a daughter, and grand daughter who will be 4 in April.
GoldandBlack.com: How did you come to select Purdue?
Lewis: I actually committed to Kansas. I came off my visit and my mom knew there was something different about me. I was usually tired off visits. But she noticed I had pep in my step and was talking a lot more. I told her I was thinking of going to Kansas, but she didn’t want to rush it. I hadn’t visited Purdue yet. When I got home, I got a call from Coach (Bruce) Weber. Next thing I knew, Coach Keady was calling me. I couldn’t figure out how they knew I already was back in town. I looked at my mom and said ‘Did you say something?' I guess my mom must have called them.
This was in October. The signing period was in November. I sat down with my parents, Coach (Norm) Held and they gave me the pros and cons of staying in state, what it meant to the city of Anderson and my parents. It came down to Purdue, Kansas and Duke. Once I said I was going to Purdue, it felt right. I walked out of my coach’s house and I felt like a Boilermaker. It was the strangest thing. I knew I made the right decision.
GoldandBlack.com: Did you consider going to Indiana to play for Bob Knight?
Lewis: No. My mom and I took an unofficial visit there. My mom just wasn’t a big fan of Bobby Knight. I grew up watching IU. Bobby Wilkerson was from Anderson, my home town. He was on that 1976 team. Ray Tolbert went there. Stew (Robinson). Winston Morgan was from Anderson. That’s why I watched Indiana basketball. I was rooting for the guys I used to watch play at the Boys Club.
And my mom and coach said there was no one from Anderson that really had made a mark at Purdue. Joe Campell played there. You can make your own legacy at Purdue that no one from Anderson has.
GoldandBlack.com: Did you commit before Todd and Everette?
Lewis: Todd says he was first. We go back and forth on it. The day I said I was going to Purdue, I called Todd. And he said he was going, too. He said he already told Coach. That’s when we decided to be roommates. Coach Weber told us, we have to get Everette. I heard Coach talk about him but wasn’t sure about him. But I saw him play in the state championship game on WGN, I was like, 'Oh, yes, we are gonna be OK.'
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GoldandBlack.com: What was your transition to Purdue like?
Lewis: I felt like I should have started at the beginning of (my freshman) season, but they took it slow with me. I didn’t start til the middle of the Big Ten season. Mack Gadis who was ahead of me, he played a big part in my maturation as a freshman. He could easily have been jealous or devisive. But he wasn’t. He was receptive. We hung out. It made my transition a lot smoother. I have to give him a lot of credit.
GoldandBlack.com: What are you fondest Purdue memories?
Lewis: It’s more off-the-court stuff. Playing Louisville my junior year when they were coming off winning the national championship and how loud Mackey was. They were playing the fight song right as the horn blew before the start of the game, and it got so loud ... I remember looking at Todd and going, 'Oh my god.' I was like, 'We cannot lose this game.' That stands out. Just playing in Mackey. Feeling like you were invincible each time we walked on the court no matter who we played.
Off the court, just hanging out with Todd and Everette, a lot of stuff I can’t even talk about.
GoldandBlack.com: Do you stay in touch with Todd and Everette?
Lewis: Oh, yes, we still talk. We always talk about the weight room and how weak Everette and I were our freshman year. We couldn’t even lift 135 pounds.
Todd is in Toledo and Everette is in Lafayette. Todd works for a pharmaceutical company and referees. Everette is a city bus drive in Lafayette.
GoldandBlack.com: Talk about your first Big Ten title in 1986-87 as a junior
Lewis: My first two years, we weren’t close because of Michigan, which had (Roy) Tarpley, (Richard) Reliford, (Antoine) Joubert. My junior, it was right there. We were about to play Indiana and Dean Garrett told the Indianapolis Star that we don’t want it as bad as they do. Coach Keady put it all over our bulletin board and locker room. That fired us up. We played them in Mackey and beat them. Then, they got beat again. We had a one-game lead, then won at Michigan State. We were celebrating. So we had a share of the title wrapped up. The worst we could do was tie. And we got beat pretty bad at Michigan in the last game.
GoldandBlack.com: What happened in that finale at Michigan in 1987?
Lewis: We weren’t focused. That’s the bottom line. Coach told us to play loose goosey. Michigan was fighting to get into the tourney. We were relaxed. They were fighting for their life. Senior Night for Antoine Jourbert and he went off. It was a disaster. That cost us a No. 1 seed. We weren’t a No. 3 seed. (That's what Purdue got.) That irks to this day. To have Indiana a 1 seed and us a 3, and we had the same record (25-5 overall; 15-3 Big Ten), it made no sense. (Purdue lost to Florida and Dwayne Schintzius in the second round and finished No. 7 in the final AP poll.)
GoldandBlack.com: What was the hype like going into your senior year of 1987-88?
Lewis: We thought we were the No. 1 in the country. Coming from Anderson, that’s what I was used to. My sophomore and junior seasons at Anderson, we were preseason No. 1 in the state. It wasn’t foreign to me. We wanted it (No. 1 ranking). Al McGuire had us No. 1. Playboy did. AP and Coaches had us No. 2 coming into the season.
I was a little surprised we weren’t No. 1. It may have been because of how we finished the season before against Florida in the tournament.
GoldandBlack.com: Then, you guys lost to Iowa State in an NIT game at home early on.
Lewis: Not to make any excuses, but I broke my foot in August. Not many people know that. I had no preseason conditioning. Todd had arthroscopic knee surgery in October. Neither one of us was in great shape playing Iowa State. They were a good team. I wasn’t 100 percent. I had gotten hurt in pickup game in Mackey. I went up for layup and came down. … I was out eight weeks.
After we lost to Iowa State, it had to be the worst week of practice in my life. I never in my life went through anything as hard as that week of practice. We had no game scheduled because we were supposed to be in New York for the NIT. It was awful that whole week. I was in shape after that.
GoldandBlack.com: You guys rallied to have a terrific season, going 16-2 in the Big Ten.
Lewis: The celebration (in 1988) was awesome. That’s the picture (top of story) that shows us three and Coach. That was how we felt. It was a strong connection between Coach and us three seniors. We didn’t care who scored. We all had the same goal: Win a national championship. That senior year was special.
GoldandBlack.com: Your mom liked to have fun at games, I recall her dancing with the San Diego Chicken.
Lewis: I didn’t know she was out there. My mom, Todd’s parents ... we were close. The families would come to our apartment, (Todd's) dad would make the chili. It was one big family. We lived together all four years, in Tarkington and then out past Morris Bryant, in The Villas.
GoldandBlack.com: Do you stay in touch with Coach Keady?
Lewis: We talk all the time, about games, how people are doing, golf, what’s going on in the world.
He was a father figure away from home for me. He meant what honesty is, hard work is, how you treat someone, how to discipline someone and let them know you still care about them. I use a lot of his philosophy in how I coach. Take responsibility, play with discipline and care about your teammates, play the right way, be positive at the end of a criticism.
GoldandBlack.com: The 3-point shot was introduced in your era, but you had it for just two seasons.
Lewis: Yes, it came in my junior year. We weren’t allowed to run to the line (and shoot). (Gene Keady) wasn’t Rick Pitino. He didn’t embrace the 3-point line when it first came out. Not at all. I recall we were blasting Northwestern my senior year and he pulled Everette and I aside and told us not to shoot anymore 3s. That’s how it was. You didn’t run on the break and stop at the 3-point line. He gave me freedom to shoot, but it always was within the offense. I shot a 3-point coming right down the court at times, but it better had gone in or I would have heard about it.
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