Express Thoughts: A long season

GoldandBlack.com’s Three Thoughts from the Weekend column runs every Monday morning, with analysis of Purdue football, Boilermaker men’s basketball, recruiting, or whatever else comes to mind. In this week’s edition, Purdue basketball postseason topics and more.

TAKE A BREAK

College basketball these days is a 365-day deal, but iIf there’s ever a team, and staff, that deserves an extended break, it Purdue’s returnees and its coaches.

This actually just kind of resonated with me prior to the national title game, that not only was Purdue playing on the very last day of the season, but its season, you might say, began in the summer, when it played in Europe. The normal grind of a Big Ten season was preceded by quite possibly the most vicious non-conference slate in the country, two trips outside the Lower 48, an exhibition game played 650 miles away, a distant Big Ten Tournament, etc.

That Purdue played some its best basketball at the end of the season and that Purdue never no-showed any game this season really was a testament to that team’s demeanor and will. And conditioning, of course.

This off-season more than any other, Purdue’s coaches owe their sanity and their quality of life to the fact that they didn’t have to run right home from Glendale to jump into the Purge movie that is portal life right now, stitch together a roster on short notice then coach a bunch of guys all summer who just met in June.

ON MASON GILLIS AND ETHAN MORTON

After what their class did for Purdue and as much as they endeared themselves to those around the program, here’s guessing a lot of fans’ gag reflexes are going to be triggered by seeing portal-dwelling Mason Gillis and Ethan Morton wearing different uniforms next season, but this was always going to be the deal.

Since this COVID-year silliness came about, Purdue has very clearly kept on as normal, never really bending over backwards to recruit players back for a season outside the normal term of a college career. Things run their course and at some point, it comes time to keep your promises to those you promised an opportunity to. Play four years and get your degree, that’s the deal. Thank these guys for their contributions and their selflessness and hope they go be someone else’s Lance Jones.

You can still root for the individuals even if they’re not on your team. The interest in Brandon Newman this season among Purdue partisans spoke to that.

But this also speaks to a broader issue in modern college sports: Just how impersonal things are becoming, better said how transactional it’s all become. People around here connected with Gillis and Morton and those like them, but the business part of this more or less demands they relocate and the practical part of this more or less demands Purdue move on planning to be without them. The “no vacancy” sign having to be put on seems cold, but it is what it is.

Meanwhile, it’s not uncommon right now for peer programs to be assembling their teams right now. These dudes who are being recruited not off stars or rankings but off price tags, how invested are they going to be in the schools they play for? How invested are schools and communities going to be in them? I mean, look no further than any college football program at the moment, Purdue included. There’s going to be 20 guys on the roster every year you don’t know a damn thing about, who you’d never heard of until someone reported he was visiting one weekend, a week after the program made first contact.

I believe people love college sports because they feel like those participating are playing for their school. I love college sports because I think it’s fascinating watching young people grow up, mature, persevere and become adults right before our eyes, with very few filters.

It’s all changing so much.

Mason Gillis gave everything he had at Purdue. Purdue stood by Mason Gillis through major injury, personal strife and more. I hope he gets a giant bag from somebody, because he deserves it. Ethan Morton, I hope he gets paid, but also an opportunity. He helped Purdue win a lot of games in his four years, in some tough situations, too.

ON KYDRAN JENKINS

I am not prepared to opine on football at the moment, but something did come to mind that I figured I’d type out. I mean, it’s called “Thoughts.”

So Purdue is moving its top returning pass-rusher, Kydran Jenkins, to middle linebacker. Bold move for a program that really features pass-rushers. What Purdue did schematically for Nic Scourton last season really unlocked his immense talent. (Hope Texas A&M does the same for him, because that guy has no business needing much more college football.)

Jenkins, certainly part of Scourton’s success last season, too, could have been that guy now, but instead moves inside, where he’ll be positioned to make more plays and perhaps provide a pretty nasty middle blitzer. I’m reminded of a few years back when the disastrous tenure of Bob Diaco for Jeff Brohm yielded one positive — just one — development. It seemed like a bad idea moving Derrick Barnes from rush end to middle linebacker, didn’t it? Ask Barnes’ bank account how that turned out.

Anyway, I also think Will Heldt can be excellent, have since his Carmel days. The more run he gets, the faster he gets there, so Jenkins’ move affords him a bigger opportunity, I suppose. Then the transfer guys need to make impacts.

But suffice to say, this is a pass-rushing program now/again, and in Year 2 under this defensive-minded staff, Purdue’s defense may only be as good as those chasing the quarterback.