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.

Last season, Purdue was clearly missing a certain something, a competitive edge, perhaps you'd say.

In that regard, this season for the Boilermakers has generally played out very differently than last, despite a roster that very easily could have proven to be prohibitively young. But already this season, Purdue's won games it might not have won a year ago under similar circumstances, and competed with and even beaten the teams that gave it so much trouble a year ago.

The Boilermakers have made progress in that intangible area, clearly, and you don't have to look too hard to recognize that Mason Gillis and Brandon Newman have been a key part of the solution to this point.

The two youngsters were part of last season's team, but only in a one-foot-in, one-foot-out sense, since they were redshirting and didn't play.

They got to see enough to recognize a need, though.

"The dynamics of last year's team, it was really up and down, really high and low," Newman said. "Myself and Mason coming in, keeping that same mindset, that same mentality every day, I think it can help us build on wins and continue to be hungry for more wins and to get better every day.

"You have to keep building on your success instead of taking a step back if you get a win here or there."