The good news is the 25-9 finish was the most victories in exactly 10 years. The delicious news is that Purdue's core should return relatively intact next year. And that could make the Boilermakers the early favorites to win a conference championship.

The top eight scorers all return (four freshmen, two sophomores and two juniors), and now they have NCAA Tournament experience.

The only thing that could have made this year better would have been a Big Ten championship, which would have happened had it not been for a late season loss at Ohio State.

Still, the Boilermakers won 16 of 18 during a stretch after starting 7-4 and the freshmen continued to mature and progress throughout the season. E'Twaun Moore led the team in scoring at 12.9 points, but that number should rise dramatically next season.

"We had ups and downs, but we fought through it," sophomore Keaton Grant said. "That shows the character of our team ... We could have wilted a couple of times during the season. We had some hard times. We didn't give up. We kept fighting. We look forward to next season."

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