It’s not often players becoming something new over the course of one season, but Dakota Mathias went from heady bench player his first two seasons at Purdue to a do-everything guard and best perimeter defender in the conference his junior year.
The transformation was breath-taking. With the loss of Raphael Davis, there was an urgent gap for a shutdown defender at the wing and guard position. All signs pointed to it being Vincent Edwards or perhaps even true freshman Carsen Edwards that would fill the signature spot of stopper for the Boilermakers, instead, a kid who hadn’t ever averaged 20 minutes a game in a college season turned into a two-way star playing over 30 minutes a night.