It's not been unexpected news that Vincent Edwards and Isaac Haas are returning to Purdue for their fourth and final seasons, but it bears underscoring nonetheless.

Don't let this get snowed under by the third-annual spring episode of Swanigan Theater: Purdue returning its entire four-man senior class for its final go-around was crucial for next season and seems wholly appropriate that Edwards, Haas, Dakota Mathias and P.J. Thompson go out together, the rare class of such profound impact to stay together this long in today's college basketball.

These players — the signing class of 2014, minus classmate Jacquil Taylor, who's been bounced around the eligibility chart by circumstance — has represented the footing Purdue regained after falling on its backside for a couple years prior to their arrival.

They were the ideal class at the ideal time for a Boilermaker program that needed a new foundation at the time of its arrival. All that this group has meant to Purdue, it's done it as a collective, the foursome's value trumping that of any particular individual.

Parallels can absolutely be drawn to the class of '07, which represented much the same at a different point in Purdue's history, a group of very good college players, all of them players for which four years of college made the most sense.

There may not be an All-American in this class like there was that one, but rather four very good players that Purdue's rebuilt its program — and locker room — around, a group that'll leave together most likely with a hundred-plus wins, four NCAA Tournament appearance and at least one Big Ten title.

And a real and meaningful legacy.

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