Playing 'free,' Nojel Eastern aiming to give Purdue competitive spark

Last time Purdue faced Illinois, the Boilermakers bottomed out, one of the worst offensive showings in school history, but worse yet, not their finest hour competitively.

The visiting team that night, as it has been prone to do, got behind early, and never really responded.

"I think if you're not slightly pissed off about how you played, or how we played as a team," guard Sasha Stefanovic said, " then like Coach Paint said, there's something wrong with you."

That night in Champaign — just two-and-a-half weeks ago — Purdue lacked "fight," the term mentioned ad nauseum afterward.

Nojel Eastern, himself having struggled in some areas on a night when "no one played well," as Painter has often said, vowed to be part of the solution, to "battle every single person I'm in front of" from there on out in practice.