After giving a brief overview of what happened with the 2019-20 Purdue Basketball Season, let’s take a bit of a deeper dive into the different position groups and the individual players’ performance for the year. This isn’t going to be a game by game breakdown but more of a holistic view of each player and if applicable, what they need to work on moving into next year.

We move on to the biggest position group on the team, both literally and figuratively. The center position at Purdue has always been very important and this hasn’t changed in the modern game. This also means we move on to our final 3 players on the roster as we wrap up our look back at the odd 2019-20 season. We will cover Matt Haarms, Trevion Williams, and Emmanuel Dowuona over the next couple of weeks. The center position was one of strength this year, as it is always, as these players set the foundation on offense and defense. We saw growth in some players and regression in others as well as potential. As of the writing of this article, this position is more up in the air and we will touch on that as well.

Emmanuel Dowuona

Emmanuel Dowuona came to Purdue in the 2018 recruiting class as the No. 87 player in the ESPN 100 where he redshirted in 2018-19 before beginning his eligibility this past year. Emmanuel is 6’10 and very long and athletic. He has only been playing basketball for a few years as he is still learning to play the game after giving up soccer to focus on basketball.

Preseason

Going into the 2019-20 season, Emmanuel had the expectation of continuing to learn and grow since he had the chance to play behind Trevion Williams and Matt Haarms. He would be able to learn from these two in practice to learn how to utilize his athleticism as well as build the fundamentals necessary to play in the Big Ten conference. Emmanuel wasn’t expected to come in and play 20 minutes a game and dominate the league. He is more of a developmental center that will require more time before Purdue fans will be able to see his potential come to fruition.

In-Season Results

As expected, with Matt Haarms and Trevion Williams having the first two strings locked up, Emmanuel only appeared in 9 games this season. But when he was in, you could see his potential through his athleticism. He is a twitchy athlete as he is able to get into the air at a moments notice. Since only appearing in 9 games, it’s hard to draw too many conclusions from Emmanuel this year, fans knew that this wasn’t a year where he was expected to play very much and had the luxury of continuing to learn and grow with the game to potentially provide relief minutes when necessary in the future.

ED: Athleticism

You really get a chance to his Emmanuel’s potential in the last couple of minutes of this game. You can see his ability to get off the ground quickly to knock the ball away on the defensive end. Then next you see his potential in a back to the basket situation, even though neither of his shots fall they are decent looks at the rim. Then you see more athleticism as he finishes his game with a block.

Season Stats/Averages: [PurdueSports.com]

GP/GS/Avg Mins/FGM/FGA/FG%/3PT/3PtA/3Pt%/FTM/FTA/FT%/PPG/AvgReb/TotalAST/TotalTO/TotalSTL/TotalBLK

9/0/3.4 /6/13/46.2% /0/0/0% /0/0/0% /1.3 /0.9 /1 /2 /2/2

Takeaways

Nothing too surprising when looking at his stats on the season. It’s hard to do too much when you’re only getting 3.4 minutes per game in 9 games total. It was nice to see him hit nearly 50% of his shots from the field as well as averaging approximately 1 rebound per game.

He did have a bit of an issue when it came to fouling as he found himself with at least two fouls in four of his nine games.

Best Game

His best game was against Chicago State where he got the most minutes of any game this season with nine. He finished the game with 4 points, 2 rebounds, 2 blocks and a steal. While it was Chicago State, these games are great opportunities to give players like Emmanuel some extended run and let them play enough to where they can fully settle into the game. Emmanuel filled up the stat sheet and showed a lot of potential that hopefully translates as we go forward into 2020-21.

Final Thoughts

With the unexpected departure of Matt Haarms this off-season, Emmanuel now finds himself with the opportunity to take more minutes with the only established center left being Trevion Williams. He will need to make a leap if he is going to suddenly start playing in the 15 minute per game range. How he responds to this opportunity may set the tone for the rest of his Purdue career. With the addition of Zach Edey in the 2020 recruiting class, if Emmanuel can’t establish himself this year, it will only get harder for him going forward. I look forward to seeing his progress in 2020-21!

As Always, Boiler Up, Hammer Down, Hail Purdue!