Express Word: Basketball outcomes, additions and more

The Express Word is GoldandBlack.com’s weekly opinion column, written by Brian Neubert. In today’s edition, we discuss Purdue basketball’s best- and worst-case sort of scenarios, other hoops topics and more.

ON PURDUE BASKETBALL OUTCOMES

Just a thought exercise here examining all possible outcomes for Purdue this season.

Purdue exceeds expectations (use your imagination)
Well, Purdue is No. 1, so to exceed expectations, it would probably have to win the title and find Amelia Earhart’s plane. Kind of a hard expectations ceiling right there, but for the Boilermakers to do something historic, everything that might seem possible or even likely right now would not only have to materialize but jackpot. It would mean minimal turnovers, great (not just improved) defense, dominant (not just improved) rebounding, elite shooting across the board, pristine health and some luck. A friendlier whistle after last season and excellent (not just improved) foul-shooting would help, too, though that latter need essentially lies with one guy.

Purdue meets expectations (Big Ten champs, 1 seed, 30ish wins, etc.)
All that stuff mentioned above, only to more reasonable, realistic extents. Rebounding and size are going to clean up or cover up most of the rough edges from last season to an almost unrecognizable extent. Same core, very different, much better team. But this is going to be “the ball is the program sort of season” for Braden Smith, Omer Mayer and anyone else who might be handling the ball and making decisions. There are going to be a lot of nights where the only team that can beat Purdue is, well, Purdue. The turnover thing, again, is the poison pill. The offense is too good and the defense not good enough. Rebounding is a strength now, but you can’t rebound uncontested layups. When Purdue has lost in recent years it’s almost always been tied to turnovers. Never more true than now. Purdue’s been really consistent in showing up for every game for years now, but there have been chunks of game here and there that have undone them, almost always tied to turnovers.

Purdue falls short of expectations (no conference title, 4-5 sort of seed, 24-25ish wins)
Injuries, obviously, but the turnover thing, too. If Purdue gets cocky and makes things harder than they have to be and takes unnecessary risks at both ends of the floor, it’s going to assume risk in games it should win. To be clear, there are no red flags here.

Also, you just never know how these seasons are going to play out. Purdue has a favorable conference schedule, but winning on the road is a time-honored pain in the neck, and when you’re the big dog on the block, people are coming at your head. Court Storm Watch is back on. This group should be hardened against such things at this point, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy.

And, look, whether it sounds like crap or not, the whistles matter. Last year, Trey Kaufman-Renn was officiated as if the refs had listened to morons on Twitter opining on Zach Edey and wanted to even things up. If it gets a bad whistle again — it was almost poetic that Purdue’s season ended last year with an egregiously botched no-call — then again, the margins narrow.

ON PURDUE AND OSCAR CLUFF

Couple years back, Lance Jones turned out so perfect for Purdue in very specific ways, at a very specific moment, that it couldn’t have worked out any better and you could probably never expect things to work out so well in such a situation ever again. It was just too perfect.

Well, it might have happened again, in a relatively similar fashion. Jones was perfect for Purdue, and part of that was him wanting Purdue from the outset as much as Purdue wanted — or needed — him.

Well, now here’s Oscar Cluff, whose people essentially presented him to Purdue on a platter, understanding how well he’d fit. It just so happens that Cluff hits the Boilermakers’ most urgent needs right on the screws. He, by himself, might outright solve them. It’s, again, perfect.

If there’s a “He can’t keep getting away with it!” Jesse Pinkman meme to be made about Matt Painter, it has less to do with these high school 7-foot-whatevers who have mostly hit, but rather these low-maintenance transfer recruitments that keep transforming Purdue teams from good to great.

The intangible about Jones that mattered so much, too, was the joy and magnetism that endeared him to Purdue World immediately and brought a real deep breath into what could have been an absolute panic attack of a season.

It’s different with Cluff, but his egoless relentlessness and gravitational pull to the ball no matter what will check a lot of boxes on the list of things that Mackey Arena tends to respond to and teammates tend to love.

Again, it’s the perfect recruit at the perfect time.

He did in fact get away with it again.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL AND PROS

In light of G-Leaguers now being recruited to play college basketball, the sport is getting dangerously close to jumping the shark here.

The COVID year was one thing. The European professional wave another. Now, this.

Easy answer here: Age limit for initial enrollment, with reasonable exemptions for military service, religious circumstances, etc. It should take coaches at least a season or two to figure out how to game that part of it.

But schools can’t be enrolling — not playing, but enrolling — 22-year-olds.

If somebody wants to sue, fine. But, go get a job.

College basketball is supposed to be played by college kids, not pros or semi-pros. This Billy Madison stuff can’t stand.

PURDUE AT KENTUCKY

For the third time in as many years, Purdue’s going to play a great team, on its turf, in a game that doesn’t count. Coaches who are secure in themselves and have wisdom enough to understand the big picture fear nothing except, perhaps in some cases, clowns, which are terrifying, by the way.

Normalize this, though, with games that count.

You realize how hard it is to get high-level teams to play in Mackey Arena? The neutral-site deals are fine, I guess, but college basketball is meant to be played on campuses, in uncomfortable cement structures, with students frothing at the mouth.

It makes teams better.

Purdue and Michigan State got to where they are in the sport by picking on people their own size, and fighting up a weight class at every opportunity. Not by scheduling a can of Pringles in November and December. Duke and Kansas got hardened to life on the road in their conferences by playing marquee non-conference schedules and actually playing in Lexington or East Lansing in made-for-TV series.

It’s best for college basketball and best for teams.