Primer: Purdue opens preseason practice

This is its mentality coming into every season but Purdue figures to be a salty defensive team this season, the potential to complement it by being a strong rebounding team, also.

The crux of its defensive potential: The luxury of having perhaps the two most impactful individual defenders in the Big Ten, at the two positions where defense can be most impactful: Point guard and center.

The front end of that equation, of course, is Nojel Eastern, one of the finest perimeter defenders Matt Painter's had at Purdue.

Defense and rebounding have been part of Eastern's formula for helping Purdue win a lot of games the past two seasons, especially last season, his first as a starter.

Now, though, he takes on a new gravity for the Boilermakers as an upperclassmen, as he and classmate Matt Haarms figure to be Purdue's foremost leaders, its defensive foundation, and much more prominent figures from a scoring perspective.

Toward the end of last season, Eastern became noticeably more assertive taking the ball to the basket looking to score, complementing his post-touch opportunities, transition chances and offensive rebounding in the scoring column.

Now, with the reasonable presumption being that Purdue will look to its more experienced players to wield more influence offensively, Eastern may be part of that, as Purdue may look to generate more opportunities for him at the rim.