More: Purdue 2019-20 roster | Prospectus

Emmanuel Dowuona needs to keep learning, as he'd be first to admit, both the intricacies of Purdue's playing style and the finer points of a game in general that he's really not played for very long, just a few years now after he came over from Ghana.

That's what this past season, the freshman big man's redshirt year, was all about, learning, and that won't soon change now that the off-season has hit, and with the center position once again deep at Purdue, time is on his side.

"It just takes time," Dowuona said, during the NCAA Tournament, "but I feel like I've gotten better from when I came in."

From knowledge and refinement perspectives, that is, the pieces that will need to fall into place to allow Dowuona to best put to use his significant physical tools.

Purdue is well-stocked at center, with Matt Haarms' atypical height and length, Trevion Williams' overwhelming width and Evan Boudreaux's offensive skill away from the basket. Dowuona is different still, 6-foot-10, now 245 pounds (up about 20 since the summer) and looking the part of the rim protector sort of body type Purdue recruited him to be, with value added.

“He’s just a freak athlete," Haarms said. "You don’t want to jump with him, because he’s going to put it on your head. It’s impressive the way he runs. He really moves well for his size.”

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Purdue's worked during Dowuona's redshirt season to encourage him to use those tools.

“He’s not going to come across too many guys with his strength, but he can also run," said assistant coach Brandon Brantley, who works with the Boilermaker big men mainly.

He's told Dowuona this: "If you're not going to use that speed, then you're downgrading to a Volkswagen when you're a Ferrari."

For weeks midseason, Dowuona was stuck in park, due to a stress fracture in his foot, an injury he was mostly recovered from at season's end, but still rehabbing out of an abundance of caution, Dowuona said. He did not require surgery, just rest.

During a season in which learning was of paramount importance, the view from the sideline was a worthwhile one, Dowuona said.

"It helped me a lot, because I just sat down and listened to the coaches more," he said. "You have to watch and learn, and sometimes (when you're participating) you get tired and don't always listen as well because you're tired."

And as Haarms did a few seasons ago, Dowuona had the best seat in the house during a championship season and NCAA Tournament run.

"It's a lot of commitment," Dowuona said, "and you see day in and day out what my teammates have done to have success."

How much opportunity Dowuona gets next season to contribute to Purdue's success remains to be seen. This will be an important off-season for him, to get healthy, stay healthy and keep learning. And with three 2018-19 starting centers due to return next season, obviously the depth chart is another matter.

Dowuona's been patient through his redshirt season. He didn't have to learn to be; he embraced redshirting wholly on the front end. Patience may continue to be a virtue.

"I feel like I'm doing what I have to do to get (in position) to help the team," Dowuona said.

From an offensive perspective, Dowuona's shown the ability to make short-range jump shots and routine hooks around the rim, and looks good doing it, but will keep working on his post game, offensive understanding and overall skill level.

Defensively, physically, he looks like a rebounding and rim-protection presence in the short term, but guarding ball screens and fitting into scheme, to name a few things, are challenges for any young big man at this level, and he may be no exception.

“It’s going to be baby steps at times, because he doesn’t have the experience or background a lot of these kids have, but he’s eager to learn and he listens," Brantley said. "When we get him back next year, it’ll be good for us to have guys like Trevion and Matt for him to go against.”

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