DETROIT– Purdue forward Mason Gillis came off the bench during the first five games of his redshirt freshman season in 2020-21 as the Boilermakers got off to an uneven 3-2 start. Then, while in search of the right lineup combination, coach Matt Painter swapped Gillis into the starting lineup on Dec. 12, relegating a veteran to come off the bench instead.
“I got the spot, and I took somebody’s spot,” Gillis recalled. “I saw him not necessarily get upset about it — and he’s a great guy who I love to this day and we have a great relationship — but he almost came off defeated instead of still trying to fight for his spot back.”
For three years, Gillis remained either a full-time or part-time starter for Purdue. Then, entering his sixth season with the program, he was faced with the same situation as the veteran who’d come before him.
Painter explained to Gillis that he was leaning toward going with sophomore forward Trey Kaufman-Renn in the starting lineup over Gillis entering the 2023-24 season. The news left Gillis, who had started 63 career games, looking back to three years earlier, when he was on the other side of this situation.
“I didn’t want that to be myself,” Gillis said. “Whether I got my spot taken or not, I wanted to provide for the team and play to the best of my ability, just because that’s who I am. No matter what anybody else does, I can control what I’m doing. Having that experience and then going through this experience, I’m happy with how I handled it.”
So is Purdue. With Gillis embracing his role as the sixth man, the No. 1 seed Boilermakers are on the cusp of their first Final Four appearance since 1980. They will play No. 2 seed Tennessee on Sunday in the Midwest Region final as the only team to make the NCAA Tournament’s second weekend with the same starting lineup for every game during the season.
Barring an unexpected shakeup, the Purdue unit of Braden Smith, Lance…
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