Express Word: Guard play key for Purdue

The Express Word is GoldandBlack.com’s weekly opinion column, written by Brian Neubert. In today’s edition, we discuss Purdue’s evolution into its current form, the Boilermaker seniors and more.

THE GUARDS’ TIME TO SHINE

Zach Edey is great, so great that a bad game for him is still good. You’d take his floor over virtually anyone else’s roof. He’s the most known commodity there is in this NCAA Tournament. There are no questions there. Questions about the zebras, maybe, but not Edey.

Hence, if Purdue is going to make the sort of run it aspires to, it’s on the biggest differences between last year and this year to make it happen.

Whereas they may not quite have been up to the moment last season — or worn down by all that came prior — Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer look ready. Provided Smith’s healthy. We can only take him at his word that he is. And Lance Jones, this is his time in his first NCAA Tournament. It’s up to him to be the lightning bolt he’s been all season, but also solid enough to provide additional steadiness when guard play matters most. Now, Jones’ sunny personality matters a little more, because this is the pressure-cooker.

Mature and dynamic guard play always seems to rise to prominence in March and Purdue should have it now, with a group of players who also happen to have their hands on the scales of two of the Boilermakers’ main hot buttons: Turnovers and three-point shooting.

Turnovers are Purdue’s path to getting beat if it’s not careful.

The responsibility managing that without compromising the aggressiveness that has made Purdue so good this season falls in the lap of everyone, but to an outsized degree, the guards. They control Purdue’s decision-making, its malleability between styles and tempos and the Boilermakers’ ability to manage matchups against high-end backcourt players on defense.

My read on this is that Purdue is much readier to win in the NCAA Tournament than it was a year ago, and that difference lies mostly in the backcourt.

ON THE GUYS WHO HELPED MAKE THIS POSSIBLE

As Purdue enters the NCAA Tournament as one of the best teams in college basketball, let’s take a moment to recognize some of the players who made it happen. And I’m not talking about Zach Edey.

Let’s start with Hunter Dickinson and Ryan Kalkbrenner, the two big guys whose commitments elsewhere paved the way for Edey to come to Purdue, where he’ll soon be the national player-of-the-year two years running. This one is a bit complicated because both Dickinson and Kalkbrenner have been great college players themselves.

But Edey’s been better and an excellent cultural fit for Purdue. Dickinson abruptly chopping Purdue years back was one of the more stunning recruiting developments I’ve covered around here. He cut the perfect program for him seemingly from out of nowhere. Had he not, he’d have been a great player at Purdue, but likely not an ideal fit for Matt Painter and this program’s long-standing identity of modesty and workmanlike approach. Edey has been the face of it. Kalkbrenner would have fit better, but maybe not developed into a really high-end offensive player at what is now an offensive program above all else.

That brings us to Nijel Pack, Tyrese Hunter, Jahmir Young, Malachi Smith and the rest of the veritable cast of thousands Purdue chased in the transfer portal before last season, desperately needing a guard. Had Purdue landed any of those guys, Braden Smith is likely stifled and isn’t the player already that he is. Maybe he could have beaten out that transfer, but then what happens when said transfer who expected a starring role is backing up a freshman? Would an experienced newcomer have given Purdue a bit more security? Well, Purdue won the Big Ten and finished with 29 wins playing a freshman, so …

Plus, what would a shot-hunting guard last season have meant to Edey’s emergence? Could have helped, could have hurt. But it’s 1,000-percent true that none of those players above would have played the same role in Edey’s development as Smith has, especially this season.

That brings us to Jameel Brown, a great kid and a good player recruited during COVID. He committed early, basically to Micah Shrewsberry, without ever having visited. Not surprisingly, he backed out when Shrewsberry left for Penn State, ultimately winding up in State College himself.

The scholarship he vacated was ultimately filled by Smith.

Where would Dravyn Gibbs-Lawhorn fit on this team? It wouldn’t be a positive situation. That worked out best for all parties.

Funny how it goes, that sometimes when you lose CJ Walker, you wind up with Carsen Edwards. You miss on Tyler Zeller, but JaJuan Johnson becomes an All-American when he might otherwise not have.

It’s not just the recruits you get, but also those you don’t.

RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK

• Is expanding the NCAA Tournament a bad idea? Yes.

Does it matter? No.

Remember, when it comes to college sports and television inventory, more is undefeated.

Power conferences are going to want more teams in — despite Virginia’s efforts to send viewers running for the hills Tuesday night — even though conference tournaments are de facto NCAA Tournament access.

Add a few more play-in games, fine, but if they start pushing this past that, it will hurt the event. Coaches want more teams in because coaches have an aversion to getting fired, but does anyone think ADs and presidents and fans aren’t just going to adjust their definitions of success.

How long would Nick Saban have kept his job at Alabama had the Tide been playing in the Shreveport Bowl every year? Making the NCAA Tournament as a 17 seed at a high-major program every year isn’t going to save you.

• Speaking of, I can’t help but think this year’s selection committee threw out too many — which is to say any — legacy bids and seeds. Virginia had no business being in this event, and I’m not only saying that because they stunk the other night. Michigan State had no business being a 9 seed. But Tony Bennett and Tom Izzo have national titles, so the benefit of the doubt gets them in? These aren’t lifetime achievement awards.

• I wasn’t at the NCAA Tournament last season, so I don’t know what Columbus was like, but here’s guessing Indy is surreal on Friday night, packed with Purdue fans. It was just a couple weeks ago that Purdue Presence took over Crisler Arena. This may be the same deal, which might balance out some things from the past. I’ve personally covered Purdue playing Washington in Portland, Kansas in Kansas City and Villanova in Hartford, all of the de facto road games.