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.

Isaiah Thompson admits he's been up and down this preseason, not as consistent as he'd have liked, "good days and bad days," as he termed it.

"Recently, I've been getting a lot better, though," Thompson said, "just being consistent with shooting, and then just defensively, getting better each day, and trying not to turn the ball over."

Purdue will hope this upswing is the start of a trend, because with invaluable veteran Eric Hunter — Purdue's "most consistent" and "best defensive" guard as Thompson called him — out and Ethan Morton moving past a bout with mono, the sophomore guard comes to the forefront. Regardless of the fact the opportunity didn't come as Thompson would have preferred — a teammate getting hurt — opportunity is opportunity.

He points to consistency as the pathway to him making sure the good days decisively outnumber the bad.

"Just staying consistent with little things," Thompson said, "just doing little things to help the team, getting into the ball defensively, picking up 94 feet and staying consistent with that, and then just being aggressive on offense."