9/6/2016 basketball Edit

Purdue point guards aim to provide stability

Brian Neubert • BoilerUpload

GoldandBlack.com staff

A while back, P.J. Thompson "got on" Isaac Haas about the importance of his conditioning, Purdue's smallest player speaking up to campus' largest human in a leadership context.

Thompson believes the message resonated. Haas was spotted in Mackey Arena the next day drenched in sweat following a workout done on his own time.

But on a broader level, the anecdote may reflect an aspect of the Boilermaker point guard's growth, and what it may mean for Purdue now.

Thompson's always held the inclination and charisma, and probably the credibility, to serve as a leader even while he was a young player.

Now that he's not, he seems to feel fully empowered.

That might be important for Purdue, which needs something from its point guard this season to come, something that transcends statistics and whatnot.

It needs presence.

Thompson gets that, believing that experience will help him and fellow point guard Spike Albrecht be that presence.

Specifically to Thompson, he rattles off Purdue's series of failures in tight situations the past two seasons as reason to expect better now.

He brings up Purdue's overtime NCAA Tournament losses the past two seasons, both of which the Boilermakers held commanding leads in during the closing minutes.

"(Experience) is huge," Thompson said. "When you go through those experiences, you've got to learn from it. If you don't learn from it, that's a problem. That's what makes or breaks you. We'd watch film after those games - Iowa at home, as well - and be like, 'Man, did we really just do that?' That stuff matters and I think experience has really helped bring us to where we are now. Those are things you never forget, either."

For Thompson, it's failure that resonates now; for Albrecht, it should be success.

"Spike's done it. He's been there before," Thompson said. "He talks about it, breathes life into us about it."

Albrecht was part of two Final Four teams and one Big Ten regular season champion at Michigan. He's the only Boilermaker who's experienced an NCAA Tournament victory.

"With my experience in college basketball, I've always said that the teams that win championships and go far in the tournament have great guard play," Albrecht said. "That's really important, not just for me and P.J., but Carsen (Edwards), Dakota (Mathias) and (Ryan) Cline. We're all going to have to do a great job taking care of the ball, making good decisions, making free throws at the end of games, things like that."

Purdue displayed a poise problem last season, a difficulty maintaining its composure, particularly when protecting leads.

Purdue's point guards were far from solely being the problem.

"But when times get tough, who are you going to lean on? Most of the time, it's your guards," Thompson said. "Your guards are the ones who, when someone's hot, you have to find them, or when you need a stop, it's (saying), 'OK, let's go.' It comes from your guards. We worked on it last year and I think we'll (show) it more this year."

Thompson and Albrecht each have experience on their side now, though the latter is obviously new to the program and still rounding back into form physically.

Experience has been a slippery luxury at point guard for Purdue lately, but this projects to be the first season since 2013 that it's not essentially starting from scratch at point guard come fall.

"We're older, been through it," Thompson said. "We've lost in the first round in the NCAA Tournament twice when we were supposed to be win, got beat in the Big Ten Tournament (title game) when we thought we had it. We took those Ls my freshman year like Gardner-Webb, North Florida. When you go through experiences like that and you get older, you've got to learn from it, and I feel like this is the year that (shows)."

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