Express Word: Familiarity goes both ways
DETROIT — The Express Word is GoldandBlack.com’s weekly opinion column, written by Brian Neubert. In today’s edition, we discuss Purdue’s NCAA Tournament draw and more.
The Express Word is GoldandBlack.com’s weekly opinion column, written by Brian Neubert. In today’s edition, we discuss Purdue’s NCAA Tournament draw, tourney expansion and more.
FAMILIARITY GOES BOTH WAYS
Purdue might meet both Gonzaga and Tennessee here in Detroit in which it would be Honolulu all over again, only … in Detroit.
Purdue’s played Gonzaga two years running and Tennessee often over the years, there being a strange serendipity between the two programs.
So does that hurt Purdue, that familiarity?
It probably takes away the modest advantage that is the Zach Edey shock factor, because these teams have seen him, so that first five minutes — I compare it to speed in football requiring a bit of an adjustment after tipoff — but this does go both ways.
Both of these teams have shown their hands on how they’d plan to guard Edey and as importantly Braden Smith. And if they feel compelled to change, then they’ll be shifting to something they didn’t think was ideal the first time around and something they had a week — not a whole off-season — to implement.
The Boilermakers are better now than they were in November. They’re settled into what they do, their new guys back then are no longer new. And this is the time of year that you probably shouldn’t want to see Purdue, a team that has been all business all season in anticipation of this.
Much will be made of Purdue’s opponents’ familiarity with the Boilermakers and in the case of Gonzaga, its improvement since the fall. But Purdue is better, too.
I don’t think people generally was coming into this season. Last time Purdue met Gonzaga, it was Game 4. Tomorrow it’s Game 35. That was 1,265 minutes of basketball ago.
That’s a ton of experience Purdue didn’t have before Thanksgiving. Same for Gonzaga.
DON’T MESS WITH THIS EVENT
These next two weekends will be a great platform for coaches will street cred in the business to lobby for or against forthcoming changes to college basketball and specifically the NCAA Tournament, which is going to expand eventually. The NCAA and its schools have never been able to say no to more money and TV has never said no to dishing it out.
There will be more NCAA Tournament rounds before long, and it will not be a popular move.
The worst part is that last week, Utah State and Montana State played a hell of a play-in game, but that’s not what they have in mind. They want more mediocre high-majors in the field.
More … Virginia.
Coaches are going to be speaking out.
RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK
• Quick coaching landscape thought given what’s happened at Indiana and Kentucky the past few weeks: Once you have to come out and say, “We are not firing our coach,” you have fired that coach. Maybe not right away, but eventually, because you have made that man (or woman) a dead man or woman walking and are bound for your next season to be a pit of negativity and increased tensions.
Save millions of dollars in buyout, sure? But at what cost?
• This Trey Kaufman-Renn you’ve seen through two NCAA Tournament games, mark this down as his beginning to next season. Each of the past two seasons, Purdue has significant breakouts from key players. I’m not saying Kaufman-Renn is gonna be Zach Edey last season or Braden Smith this season, but he’s gonna be really, really productive once he slides into some of Edey’s usage.
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