Gold and Black Radio: Purdue July men's basketball recruiting talk and more

In our July 7 edition, host Derek Schultz and GoldandBlack.com’s Brian Neubert discuss Purdue men’s basketball happenings, including the recent commitment of point guard Kevin Savage and more.

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MORE ABOUT PURDUE COMMIT KEVIN SAVAGE JR. (excerpt from Brian Neubert’s ‘Thoughts’ column)

Having now seen Savage play the past 18 months or so in three different national events in three different states, and watching as much video as I could possibly find access to, I can say this: I think he is a traditional Purdue guy.

Don’t get so caught up in stats and skill set and things like that. Look at the intangibles. Savage strikes me as a really high-level competitor and looks kind of like a football player.

The kids like to call them dawgs with a W, and Purdue largely resurrected itself with that particular species of canine, whether it was David Teague, Chris Kramer and Keaton Grant, Lewis Jackson, Caleb Swanigan, and on down the line.

Lately, Purdue has been almost an academic sort of offensive program. Skill has taken precedence as the rules changed to more or less disallow the sort of defense Matt Painter brought to Purdue when he first succeeded his own college coach, Gene Keady.

Long term, that shift might end up proving to be one of the best things that ever happened to Purdue basketball, because Purdue has been extraordinary offensively for many years running now and has a Final Four and championships to show for it, as well as some of the biggest stars in college basketball over the past decade.

But you never get to a point where you don’t need a balance between having elite offensive skill and savvy, and guys who will just punch you in the throat to get the ball.

Here’s guessing Savage is a little bit of both, which I’m sure will lead to no puns whatsoever in things written about him during his Purdue career if he pans out.