Purdue's Sasha Stefanovic positioned for prominent role

Per Matt Haarms' recollection, at least, there was a moment in one of Purdue's basketball practices in which Matt Painter must have been imploring one of his defenders to get out to Sasha Stefanovic beyond the three-point arc.

"Coach Painter yelled, 'He's making 70 percent!'" Haarms said Wednesday at Big Ten media day in Chicago, "and I don't think Coach Paint yells out fake numbers very often. He deals with real numbers, and it's true.

"If (Stefanovic) has a bad practice, he misses one."

Making shots is nothing new to the now-sophomore guard, who obviously didn't carry the volume Purdue's higher-profile guards did last season, but was just as efficient on his opportunities as any of them, quietly shooting 41 percent from three-point range as a redshirt freshman reserve.