GoldandBlack.com's Purdue Roundball Roundball is a periodic notebook to be published throughout the season, or at least until we start forgetting to do it.

Purdue's mid-season loss of Sasha Stefanovic was a curveball for Purdue during a season full of them, but if those three games the Boilermakers spent down an important piece helped them establish the scoring balance they now enjoy, perhaps it was worth it.

Since Stefanovic was first sidelined following Purdue's dramatic win at Ohio State, Ivey's averaged 13.2 points per game, second only to Trevion Williams' 14.3 during that span. During the Boilermakers' five-game winning streak to close the regular season, Ivey's averaged 15 points and shot 48 percent from the floor.

Ivey had been trending upward from a productivity perspective before Stefanovic was sidelined — he'd just won the Ohio State with a pair of clutch threes to finish off a 15-point game in Columbus, in fact — but when Stefanovic left the starting five, Ivey moved in and never looked back. His opportunities increased as Purdue relied upon him more.

That's the biggest reason why Purdue enters the postseason exhibiting its most balanced offense of the season.

In the past five games, Purdue's had four different leading scorers. In the 14 games prior, Williams led the Boilermakers in scoring in all but four of them.