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Replay: GoldandBlack.com Wednesday Night LIVE Purdue men's hoops chat brought to you by Acre Pro

Karpick_headshot500x500by: Alan Karpick5 hours agoAlanKarpick
Screenshot 2025-11-05 at 1.58.12 PM


A late-night Purdue men’s basketball chat with GoldandBlack.com’s Purdue men’s basketball beat writer Brian Neubert and host Alan Karpick.

Audio only

Purdue-Evansville Two Takeaways

(excerpt from Brian Neubert’s column from Tuesday night’s win.

JACK BENTER’S NICHE

First of all, tonight showed that Jack Benter has a chance to be a really valuable long-term asset for Purdue, but also someone who might be able to really help now even after the role you saw him play vs. Evansville shrinks when Trey Kaufman-Renn comes back.

Purdue’s won a ton of games over the years with Jack Benters, those high-IQ dribble-pass-and-shoot types who just make for good offense. When you’re big, you don’t always have that at the 4; when you have it, it makes for dynamic offense, particularly when you value ball movement and scheme for post entries.

It’s stuff like that that made Vince Edwards so valuable at the 4. Robbie Hummel, too. Purdue loves movers and cutters at four positions, and as good as Trey Kaufman-Renn, Mason Gillis and Caleb Swanigan were, or are in TKR’s case, they’re not necessarily that.

When Purdue says it can play different ways now, this is what they’re talking about.

And the impressive thing about Benter tonight: He wasn’t shy. Young players rarely shoot great right away, because they have to learn where shots are coming from and they’re not always ready. They’re thinking too much.

Benter looks more seasoned than he actually is.

Coaches’ kids always seem to work at Purdue.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=BJlOqDCLAl8%3Ffeature%3Doembed

THE REBOUNDING ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH … YET

It’s kind of complicated.

Is Purdue strong at the rim? Yes. Will it be stronger when Trey Kaufman-Renn is back? Yes. Is Purdue completely transformed at center? Yes.

But offensive rebounds have been way too abundant for opponents, all over the floor.

Thing is, opponents are settling for, or opting for, a lot of threes, sometimes tough ones. Purdue wants to protect the paint first and foremost, no layups and dunks. So that part of it is a win.

But when you’re forcing threes, you’ve got to rebound them and the shooting team normally has a step on you because it’s facing the rim. Purdue has to do a better job getting bodies on every prospective offensive rebounder in view, and then running down the long ones.

Purdue, once whole, will have all the pieces to be a good rebounding team, but it has to do it.

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