As the doldrums of summer continue, the Boiled Sports staff has been busy personally, but had little to report on the front of our favorite topic, Purdue sports. That said, both the NFL & NBA drafts occurred during this season and these drafts were promising for Purdue fans.

First off, Anthony Spencer made the Purdue family proud by following up his stellar Senior campaign by being drafted in the first round (#26) by the Dallas Cowboys. Early word out of Dallas is that there's a good chance the NFL rookie will play a significant role this coming season and will possibly start, depending on their injury situation. Spencer was the first Purdue player picked in the first round of the NFL draft in 20 seasons.

Spencer's play was really the only thing to write home about in Purdue's sub-par 2006 defense. Our Boilers ranked 114th in total defense despite Spencer's efforts. Many games he was double or triple-teamed. And when he wasn't out-manned, the opposition would simply run away from him. Spencer's dominant play made him the first All-American Boiler D-Lineman since 1975. While his motor, athleticism and toughness will be missed by fans, I look for the '07 Boiler defense to improve greatly (could it really get any worse?).

More recently, power forward Carl Landry was picked first in the second round (#31 overall) of the NBA by the Seattle Supersonics. The rights to Landry were soon-after traded to the Houston Rockets. Landry became the first Boiler picked in the NBA's draft since Brian Cardinal in 2000. The situation for Landry in Houston should be pretty good as his strong, hard-nosed style of play is greatly needed in the Yao Ming-led Houston frontcourt.

Landry exceeded many expectations with his play for our Boilers in his first season in a Purdue uniform ('04-'05). The next year, his injured knee kept him off the court. But in '06-07, Landry carried the Boilers at times by leading the under-sized Boilers in scoring and rebounding. His efforts earned him the Big Ten's player of the week for a record three weeks in-a-row, at one point. Carl was named to the All-Big Ten team for 2007