Express Thoughts: Purdue Basketball's identity, complementary roster dynamics and more

Gold and Black Express Three Thoughts column, with analysis of Purdue football, Boilermaker men’s basketball, recruiting, or whatever else comes to mind.

ON PURDUE BASKETBALL

Within a span of a week, you are going to see so much about the nature of Purdue basketball, the identity and collective personality that has brought it to this place.

Saturday afternoon were the program’s Fan Day scrimmages, as Mackey Arena was opened for anyone to come in to get autographs, then watch the No. 1 team in college basketball compete against itself, the program completely unconcerned about opponents gleaning any competitive advantages from the whole thing being video recorded, including clips of players those same opponents might want to tamper with starting now.

Many coaches would have built a seawall between their teams and the masses. College football coaches would have petitioned the feds to send in the National Guard.

Purdue doesn’t care. There was no party on Saturday, no pyrotechnics and minimal pro-am feel. Jusy engagement with fans and basketball, consistent with Matt Painter’s policy of celebrating nothing before seasons, before there’s really anything to celebrate. Purdue doesn’t recruit to appeal to young mens’ BMOC-status, rock-star sensibilities like many of its peers, and players get what they were promised: Basketball, opportunity, school, loyalty, etc. Not the frat houses and block parties and such. Saturday reflected that position of humility and — pardon me here while I completely make up a word — sexylessness.

Further, Friday, Purdue will visit Kentucky for an exhibition game, the outcome of which won’t matter now, but might in February if the Boilermakers are better off for it. Purdue loves going on the road for these things, loves setting foot in the oven and, deep down, appreciates losing when it occurs. Because it’s the big picture that matters more than anything. Painter is not like most of his thin-skinned and pampered peers in that regard.

Nor is Purdue’s administration, which it deserves credit for. There was a time when the revenue that would have come from a second preseason would have been the priority, and this you’d see Athletes In Action in West Lafayette instead of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and Purdue’s basketball team would be no better for it.

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ON PURDUE BASKETBALL AND COMPETITION

Purdue has a nearly perfect situation here. It has stars, a great complementary and complete caste around them and a roster and culture that should keep everyone’s foot to the flame at all times.

What Trey Kaufman-Renn is facing at the rim now in practice in either Oscar Cluff or Daniel Jacobsen is 10 times more formidable than he practiced against last season, and I’ll remind you that when he struggled, it was massive humans from Penn State and Michigan who were responsible. No, Kaufman-Renn isn’t playing center primarily anymore, but he’s still going to exist at the rim.

Gicarri Harris and CJ Cox are a developmental dream come true for Braden Smith and Omer Mayer and Jack Benter and Liam Murphy are fine simulators for Kaufman-Renn to have to guard away from the basket.

I’m not sure you could have AI-generated a sparring partner better for Jacobsen’s development than Cluff.

Purdue has at least seven starters, in my opinion, and that competition and depth matters just as much in practice than in games.

Look at it this way if you’re obsessing over starting lineups: View Cluff and Jacobsen as one All-Big Ten-level producer and look at Cox and Harris the same way.

There might be complications at times that come with having so many players, but no one in their right mind wouldn’t take too much quality over not enough.

ON PURDUE FOOTBALL

Full disclosure: I didn’t see the game Saturday, but following along from afar and seeing the final outcome said as much as the real-time experience could have.

I’m not sure what to say, other than to note the obvious. After a couple of steps forward in recent weeks, this was the first time this season Purdue clearly moved backward, which is really unsettling for an organization that has to start with competitiveness, discipline, details, pride and every other little-things buzzword you can think of.

This month was Purdue’s opportunity to grab some handfuls of Big Ten flesh and it’s slipping away quickly.

It is coaches’ jobs, yes, to have players ready to play and wanting more than anything to win, but this is where Purdue might be a reflection of the challenges of these roster overhauls. Yes, Barry Odom brought with him some of the players on this team, but only a few. Otherwise, how do you know what you have when you’re just playing “Hungry, Hungry Hippos” in the portal filling a roster.

Forget talent for a second. It’s important, but is it more important than getting motivated and conscientious and buoyant competitors on your team? How do you know? There have been success stories in this climate obviously, but there are going to be a lot of wayward programs next season, too, after roughly 175 jobs open this winter.

The conversation around college sports right now is dominated way too much by money vs. opportunity. Indiana is on top of the world right now because a bunch of dudes from James Freaking Madison embraced opportunity. Yeah, a multi-million-dollar quarterback purchase this year helped, too, but the foundation is the important part, and the foundation was built by self-starting people who wanted to prove themselves.

Right now — and “right now” is very important contextualization here, because things can change quick — Purdue looks like a team that may have gotten talent in the portal, but didn’t get enough substance. The outcome Saturday alone suggests a spirit toll having come from the Minnesota loss.

I didn’t see the Northwestern game, but have covered college football long enough to know that everybody has to be better, if not for the short term, but the long term. Because in a few weeks, dozens of these dudes will scatter and have to be replaced with more like them, and something of substance has to be established as a common thread to build upon.