Dakota Mathias' defensive improvement has been key for Purdue

As a senior in high school, after he'd signed with Purdue, Dakota Mathias was known to travel from his Ohio home to West Lafayette for Boilermaker practices, during which he'd take notes as he looked on.

That sort of diligence has made him one of Purdue's great success stories of this season, not just at the offensive end of the floor — the portion of the game that's always defined him — but more so on defense.

Mathias has been the face of a Boilermaker team that's been better defensively than many might have expected, itself included. And he's been a veritable billboard for the benefits of simple preparation.

"I can't (say enough) about his preparation. It's really good," teammate P.J. Thompson said. "He might have to make up for some faults with athleticism, but his mental game is probably better than a lot of people in the country. He does his homework and that makes him successful.

"He told me at practice (Monday), 'Man, I was bored over break, so I watched all 200 clips of (Iowa's) Peter Jok offensively.' I'm like, 'I was chilling with my family, playing video games with my brother.'"

Jok, the Big Ten's leading scorer who'll lead Iowa into Mackey Arena Wednesday night for both teams' Big Ten opener, is averaging better than 22-and-a-half points per game. He's the biggest test yet for Mathias, but a challenge he now has every reason to look forward to.

He might have last season from a competitive standpoint, but he's far more up to the job now than he'd have been last season.

In many ways, Mathias served in the preseason as the embodiment of Purdue's concerns at the defensive end, concerning enough that Matt Painter again tweaked his defensive scheme to accommodate a roster long on offensive skill, but short of quickness and athleticism on the wing and smarting from the graduation of former Big Ten Defensive Player-of-the-Year Rapheal Davis in that sense.

Davis left a void, but sometimes, "void" is just a synonym for "opportunity." And Purdue didn't have to look any further than Davis' ascension from sophomore to junior for an example of what a player might be capable of in such a situation.

Mathias isn't going to be Defensive Player-of-the-Year like Davis was, but what he's already done has been to follow almost the same path to this point, including athletically, where Mathias has become noticeably quicker and more agile laterally.

But preparation has been the bigger piece. Davis constantly preached the value of prep work. He studied his forthcoming matchups to painstaking degrees. Mathias has done the same.

"I'm in a lot better shape than I was, but another thing is I've spent a lot more time studying film, studying the guys I've been guarding, paying attention to the plays they run," he said. "We spend a lot of time on that in walk-through, but film study's a big part of that, because you can know what's coming. You don't have to be the quickest (player) if you know what they're going to do. It can put you a step ahead of them.'"

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NOTABLE PERFORMANCES FOR MATHIAS ON DEFENSE

Villanova	Auburn	Notre Dame	Western Illinois

The numbers didn't fall off all that much from the first half to the second, but when Mathias took on 'Nova All-American Josh Hart for most of the second half, it clearly made a difference for Purdue, which pushed the No. 1 team in the country to the final possession that day.	Auburn leading scorer Mustapha Heron got 15 points against Purdue, but only one field goal and one shooting foul against Mathias, his primary defender, accounting for just four of those points. There was another shooting foul with Mathias as primary defender, but it was the responsibility of the big.	Mathias guarded leading scorer Steve Vasturia in the first half. Vasturia scored three points on 1-of-3 shooting in the half. Mathias spent much of the second on VJ Beachem, who was scoreless after halftime after scoring 10 in the first.	It wasn't the highest-profile of games, but nevertheless ... with Mathias mostly guarding him, Leatherneck leading scorer Garret Covington scored six points on 2-of-12 shooting. He'd been averaging better than 20 points per game prior, but was a total non-factor in the Boilermakers' rout.

That's been the biggest piece for Mathias, whose basketball IQ has always been almost savant-like anyway.

"He's a guy who's really paying attention to details on the defensive end," said associate head Jack Owens, "someone who'll really take my defensive notecards and study it, go and watch film, then we'll talk about it. He'll watch every clip on Synergy of the guys he's going to guard. He's doing what Ray did. He's watching a lot of film, buying into what we're saying, taking our game plan and following it to a T."

When Davis showed up at Purdue, Owens once told him - half-jokingly, but only half - that he was the worst defensive player he'd ever seen at this level.

Mathias himself would admit he didn't see himself becoming this sort of all-around player. His defensive assignment more often than not in high school could probably be best described as, "Score."

Painter was asked Tuesday if he recruited Mathias to be this sort of player as opposed to just the scorer and facilitator he's already well established as at Purdue and said, "I did not."

But that's what he's gotten, a better-than-expected defender who's "spearheaded" - Painter's word - Purdue being further along in redefining itself on D than it might have expected to be at this stage.

Mathias said this defensive emergence was a priority for him coming into the season, knowing he'd be playing a more prominent role and drawing higher-profile adversaries. He came into this season well aware of Davis' humble beginnings as a defender, too, and thus far has followed a similar path in a program known for its defensive culture.

"It's just what they make you into here at Purdue," Mathias said.

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