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Purdue basketball returnees set sights toward 'redemption'

Purdue Season Reviews ($): Vince Edwards | A.J. Hammons | P.J. Thompson | Ryan Cline | Isaac Haas | Caleb Swanigan | Jacquil Taylor | Johnny Hill | Rapheal Davis

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Ryan Cline says he still hasn't brought himself to re-watch Purdue's stunning NCAA Tournament loss to Little Rock, the end-of-season disappointment that puts a qualifier on everything else the 2016-17 Boilermakers accomplished.

P.J. Thompson, meanwhile, ran right home upon returning from Denver and did watch, maybe in hopes of making sense of what had just happened and why it had happened.

Isaac Haas says he still loses sleep over that result, one in which Purdue led by 13 with less than four minutes to play only to lose in overtime, for the second consecutive season in the NCAA Tournament, by the way.

"Honestly," Haas said. "At night, I still kind of have nightmares about it."

Asked the simple question of, "What happened?" Vince Edwards goes quiet for a thoughtful moment before coming up with the term "discombobulation" to describe Purdue's various undoings. The Little Rock ending was not the only such incident of its kind.

As these players and their teammates move into off-season workouts, like the one held on Cardinal Court Wednesday afternoon, the reactions remain different but the goal the same: Purdue has to move past its March thuds and if possible, improve from them, because the fact remains: The Boilermakers stand to be pretty good again next season.

"Guys are turning the page," Edwards said. "I don't think it's fully there, but you have to use that motivation to make you better. … You have to turn that page but sometimes it doesn't hurt to look back at what you just passed. … We all have to look at that as a team and look ourselves in the mirror and talk about."

That's the first step toward redemption if redemption does lie in Purdue's future.

It should have the team for it.

Gone are important seniors A.J. Hammons and Rapheal Davis, but returning is a solid corps of proven players, though Caleb Swanigan's and Edwards' NBA decisions loom large over the ultimate complexion of the roster, and some edges stand to be smoothed over in spring recruiting.

But in Swanigan, Edwards, Haas, Dakota Mathias, Cline, Thompson, incoming freshman Carsen Edwards and others, Purdue would seem to have enough pieces returning to match this season's successes, if not exceed them.

But after the last two seasons were ended abruptly by end-of-game meltdowns in NCAA Tournament games that Purdue had won, the charge for next year's team too will be to make amends for its predecessors' failures when it has mattered most.

For now, fair or not, Purdue is branded by its NCAA results of the past two seasons, open to being viewed as a program that can win a bunch of regular season games, but can't cut it when the lights are brightest.

That adds pressure to next season's team, again fair or not. It's its aim to dispel such thoughts.

Part of changing things might be about embracing how they got where they are.

"You don't put those behind you," Mathias said of Purdue's two NCAA losses. "As competitors, you can't do that. Every day you come to work, that's in your mind. It's never going to be truly erased, but a little redemption could come next year if we turn it around, but it's never going to be fully erased from your memory."

Postseason Analysis ($): Purdue Basketball - Now what? | Offseason questions | More

Edwards said much the same, predictably considering his wiring. This is a player who last year literally carried around with him the guilt of missing a difficult buzzer-beater against Cincinnati. He made a photo of that failed shot the screen-saver on his phone.

"Guys are turning the page. I don't think it's fully there, but you have to use that motivation to make you better," said Edwards, who like Swanigan has until May 25 to decide whether he's staying or going. "… You have to turn that page but sometimes it doesn't hurt to look back at what you just passed. … We all have to look at that as a team and look ourselves in the mirror and talk about it."

That's part of the fix.

The basketball part matters, too.

The common denominator among Purdue's lead-blowings this season was pressure. When opponents pressured Purdue, Purdue often came unhinged, losing its poise and falling prey to game-changing turnovers, decision-making and defensive lapses.

When spring workouts began a few weeks ago, they introduced more press work into it, in order to better test their guards in a controlled environment.

This hasn't been instructional, walk-through type of stuff. Purdue is pressuring its guards in workouts, with managers and even coaches getting in on the constructive harassment.

"It's live," said Thompson, the only point guard on the active roster right now. "It's tough, but it's been good for us."

Purdue's non-conference schedule next season will fit a team of the Boilermakers' perceived caliber. National champ Villanova will visit Mackey Arena and there will be games against Notre Dame, Arizona State and possibly NCAA Tournament participant Texas Tech or Auburn. Whoever Purdue gets in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge - on the road - probably won't be a cupcake, to put it mildly.

There will come games where Purdue leads in the final minutes, needing to just make some of the simplest plays in the book to win.

Then, the NCAA Tournament will roll around - as of now, Purdue can safely be projected to participate - and these memories will inevitably come out.

What happens then? Do the ghosts of the past two seasons take hold?

The jury will remain out until cause for doubt is debunked. That is Purdue's next team's goal.

"If you can't learn from two years in a row in the NCAA Tournament," Thompson said, "then you probably shouldn't be here."

Purdue Season Reviews ($): Vince Edwards | A.J. Hammons | P.J. Thompson | Ryan Cline | Isaac Haas | Caleb Swanigan | Jacquil Taylor | Johnny Hill | Rapheal Davis

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