What the run to the national title game meant
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Purdue fell just short of a national title this weekend, but its NCAA Tournament run was an immense development for the program, university, etc,
PURDUE IS SET UP
If you think Purdue falls off the face of the earth post-Zach Edey, think again. It’s not dumb luck that these great players keep popping up at Purdue. It’s evaluation and development and that’s not changing any time soon. There will be more to come. Not as great as Edey, but Purdue will have more stars.
You never speak too definitively in college basketball these days, but Purdue will have a top-10 sort of team next season, led Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn along with what should be improved Camden Heide and Myles Colvin. This now becomes Smith and Loyer’s team, and the two sophomores’ improvement will guide presumed role expansion, but the guy here is Kaufman-Renn, who’s bound to slide into much more usage.
Purdue will be younger, but still will have a chance to be very good in a very different way.
MATT PAINTER’S APPROACH WORKS, EVEN AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL
Purdue got here with Purdue guys, with offensive skill with size in the post, prioritizing intangibles over tangibles, without lying to recruits, without paying recruits. He builds culture and side-steps land mines on the front end, during recruiting.
Athleticism is important but not as important as skill, smarts and buy-in. Purdue was great this season, not just because it had great players, but because it was viciously competitive, focused on things that matter most and collectively selfless.
Stuff like this can sometimes lower teams’ ceilings. It raises Purdue’s because of the alignment that exists with its coaches and program culture and history.
Purdue is not going to live in the portal like many/most others.
It’s going to be about continuity, development and experience together.
It all just worked at the highest level and this was proof it can keep working.
THE PURDUE BASKETBALL EXPERIENCE ON DISPLAY
If Purdue wasn’t broadly known for its basketball zeal, it ought to be know. The turnout of Purdue people in Glendale was overwhelming, as the souvenir and apparel stands can attest. The Boilermaker-heavy crowd could be heard on TV and the airtime Gene Keady and Drew Brees — and now similarly celebrity-anointed Julia Edey — got was significant.
Prior weekends, Purdue fans turned arenas in Indianapolis and Detroit into de factor home floors.
And that says nothing of Zach Edey putting on a reign of terror over this NCAA Tournament and probably in some way changing the way you might think of modern college basketball.
The platform provided at the Final Four gave a wider audience for Matt Painter, who’s bound to become a prominent voice amidst the next generation of prime coaches. Painter always has interesting and informed opinions on college basketball issues, and thoughtful and often funny and common-sense-driven things to say otherwise. This was a major platform for him that reflected very well on Purdue as a whole.
If nothing else, this was all tremendous for Purdue’s brand, basketball and all across the board.
THE 1990s CENTER IS FAR FROM EXTINCT
As mentioned above, Edey’s dominance might alter perceptions that playing through giant centers is a thing of the past. Keep in mind, too, that Donovan Clingan now has two rings to support that notion.
It’s also testament to Painter’s malleability as a coach that he was never really guided by conventional basketball groupthink. He is analytics-driven, but he has built an offensive monster through the post, but also the three-pointer.
