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Gold and Black Radio: Purdue heads West with momentum

by: Derek Schultz01/14/25
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Gold and Black Radio

Purdue hoops talk with host Derek Schultz and GoldandBlack.com’s Brian Neubert as the Boilermakers head to Seattle and Eugene for their first West Coast swing in Big Ten play.

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ON THE PURDUE BREAKOUT DIFFERENCE-MAKER OF THE SEASON

(EXCERPT FROM BRIAN NEUBERT’S THREE THOUGHTS COLUMN)

Purdue’s hot right now. It hasn’t played a Big Ten contender yet, but what are you not seeing from the Boilermakers right now to make you think they won’t keep playing at a really high level when Oregon, Illinois, Michigan, etc., start coming around?

The stars are doing their part and the young players are coming around, but honestly and at the risk of overstating this, the guy who’s completed all this has been Caleb Furst, during the first and only opportunity of his career to be an every-game difference-maker.

Purdue has had real concerns on its front line, especially after Daniel Jacobsen got hurt. Furst is masking those concerns.

Purdue has been vulnerable as a rebounding team. Furst is masking those concerns.

Purdue wasn’t a great defensive team early this season. Suddenly it’s a pretty good one. Furst has been one of the main change agents there.

Don’t give up on players, folks. That’s the lesson here after Furst ended last season basically outside the playing rotation.

ON TALENT AGGREGATION VS IDENTITY

For years, a segment of Purdue fans bellyached about Matt Painter not being able to get this recruit or that recruit, most of their knowledge about said players being the number of twinkly little stars next to their names.

It’s understandable. Talent is important, but talent takes you only so far, in life, and especially in college basketball.

Not to pick on your friends down south who keep falling into the same trap every year, conflating stars and NIL dollars spent with winning, but it’s happened again.

And it’s happening at Rutgers, one of the Big Ten’s standard-bearers for consistency of culture.

People seem surprised that Steve Pikiell’s team stinks despite having two stud NBA prospects. They shouldn’t be. This easily could have been predicted by anyone who knows what Rutgers’ program has been all about and what type of player its excellent coach has won with in the past.

It’s hard to say no to Dylan Harper or Ace Bailey in recruiting, I’ll grant you, but it’s easier to pick your battles in recruiting in a self-aware way and recruit your guys.

That Rutgers team is the exact opposite of what Rutgers has been, because age and toughness have been replaced by youth and softness; hunger and grit have been replaced by conflicting agendas.

At a place like Duke or Kansas or anywhere John Calipari coaches, it works, because the program is built for it.

At Rutgers, it’s been a disaster.

And honestly, the players and their people should have recognized it. Talent overcomes all on Draft Night, but losing is a bad look regardless.

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