6/21/2018 basketball Edit

For Purdue seniors, draft night comes following shift of expectations

Brian Neubert • BoilerUpload

GoldandBlack.com staff

Whether they're drafted or not, outgoing Purdue seniors Dakota Mathias and Vincent Edwards get their first indications beginning tonight what might be the next steps in their basketball careers.

It may go very differently than what they may have expected earlier in their careers, for one reason or another.

While it's very possible that Mathias and Edwards — and classmate Isaac Haas — go undrafted, it's the free agency period that would follow that could set them on their paths.

For Mathias, the past year has changed his outlook.

A big senior season and his multi-year development into a strong defender, then a successful workout season this summer, vaulted him from a player who was never really generally considered a draft prospect for most of his career to one that, at worst, should be a very attractive free agent should he go undrafted.

Mathias worked out for Toronto, Charlotte, both Los Angeles franchises, Sacramento, Philly, Boston, Golden State and others, and was seen by a number of teams at a pro-day event put on by his representatives in Chicago. The volume of workouts he was invited to reflects the impression he's made on scouts.

Through the process, he earned significant positive feedback, validation, as you might call it.

"I don’t think I really needed that, but it’s definitely always good to hear," Mathias said after a recent pre-draft workout. "That positive feedback, it’s just another confidence level you can get to, after competing against some of the best that you might not have played in your college career. It definitely helps."

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While Mathias' expectations changed for the better, Edwards' have morphed into questions.

The All-Big Ten forward and midseason Player-of-the-Year candidate declared for the draft each of the past two years, returning to Purdue both times. He did so in preparation for now, expecting to be a top-60, draftable sort of prospect when his time came.

Now, he doesn't know.

Edwards says his outlook has changed after a midseason illness and late-season ankle injury derailed the upward trajectory he was riding as a senior.

Then, in his first NBA workout, for Golden State, he says he injured his other ankle, sidelining him for a few weeks, limiting him the rest, and adversely affecting the impression he could make on evaluators, though he said of them, "They know you by now."

In addition to that ill-fated workout for the Warriors, he worked out for Oklahoma City, Dallas, Utah, Brooklyn, New York, Minnesota, Houston and Boston.

Tonight, he'll watch the draft in Ohio with his family, not knowing what to expect.

“I’m not really expecting anything," Edwards said. "I’m just ready to find a team that’ll give me the best chance, the best opportunity and a chance to showcase what I can do.”

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