Hello, everyone and greetings from the bowels of Mackey Arena, for the first time since the Rutgers game two years ago. The media is now allowed downstairs, so hopefully they have nailed down all the furniture and office supplies.
Anyway, it's a new season and it kinda sorta starts tonight with this exhibition game against the Greyhounds of the University of Indianapolis, and their coach, Paul Corsaro, who makes me feel about 78 years old because I covered him as a football recruit years back.
People are excited about this season, as you'll experience tonight through the muffled shoutings of a sell-out crowd tasked with keeping their viral loads to themselves.
That may be the best sentence I've ever typed, but I'm happy to get to type it, even if I do have re-acclimate to life with lines at the men's room at halftime.
I'm not important. Purdue is, and most of this team will be playing in front of a real Mackey Arena crowd for the first time. I do think that maybe makes for a little extra significance added to these early games, that maybe it's a chance for these guys to let whatever adrenaline rushes they may experience dissipate before Florida State comes to town.
Tonight, Purdue won't be pushed, but it's important that it compete against itself if nothing else.
I didn't see the Providence scrimmage, but I didn't have to to know that Purdue wasn't nearly good enough on defense, and for the Boilermakers to play at the level expected of them at some point this season, they have to make a leap forward defensively, and that starts with simply wanting to. You'd like to see Purdue play with an energy level that reflects such a commitment.
That's Job 1 tonight, if you ask me, and if that's not carried out, you are going to see people sit.
This is going to be a really interesting season because of the options Purdue has. There are scenarios where your ninth and 10th men right this second are Trey Kaufman-Renn and Ethan Morton, and one had a North Carolina offer and the others offers from Michigan and Ohio State. Purdue has more players than it can realistically maximize, and things get even stickier when Mason Gillis is activated.
What happens then, I guess, is that Painter rides the hot hands on a night-to-night basis, which would seem to just dare inconsistency to strike, or the guys who don't defend, they sit.
Teams are rarely as loaded in reality than they are on paper before a game has been played, but I don't see any way this season that Purdue doesn't have at least 10 legitimate dudes here, and while that might seem like a dream scenario, it very well could contribute to some choppiness early on this season. I do think there could be some uneven-ness as players figure out what "value" means to them and they coalesce around roles. You saw it the last time Purdue won a Big Ten title. That team took the whole non-conference season to figure it out.
This one will start off in a better place than that one, but still is a team for which much is being assumed. Rightfully assumed, but assumed nonetheless.
This group had a good season last year in a weird year, then did nothing in the postseason.
It has all the ability in the world. It has all the depth in the world. It has two elite centers, two stud freshmen and maybe the best guard in the country, plus a whole bunch of nice pieces around them.
But it has to take a huge step from last season, at both ends of the floor, a step it should be able to make but one it hasn't made yet. Purdue's being perceived as what it could be and should be, and not what it is. We will see how much these sophomores have improved and matured, how locked in these seniors are and how ready these freshmen are, starting tonight.
This is just an exhibition game, but it's also Step 1 on what could be a really memorable journey for Purdue if it's up to that challenge.
Lots to cover there.
Thanks everybody for reading.
After the game, I will have post-game video and coverage, analysis, our Wrap Video, a podcast, and our end-of-night Final Thoughts piece. The whole nine yards.
In the meantime, join our pre-game thread here. I'll try to do as engaged with it as I can 'cause this game isn't on TV. But also follow me at my award-winning Twitter account, @brianneubert.
Thanks everyone.
Anyway, it's a new season and it kinda sorta starts tonight with this exhibition game against the Greyhounds of the University of Indianapolis, and their coach, Paul Corsaro, who makes me feel about 78 years old because I covered him as a football recruit years back.
People are excited about this season, as you'll experience tonight through the muffled shoutings of a sell-out crowd tasked with keeping their viral loads to themselves.
That may be the best sentence I've ever typed, but I'm happy to get to type it, even if I do have re-acclimate to life with lines at the men's room at halftime.
I'm not important. Purdue is, and most of this team will be playing in front of a real Mackey Arena crowd for the first time. I do think that maybe makes for a little extra significance added to these early games, that maybe it's a chance for these guys to let whatever adrenaline rushes they may experience dissipate before Florida State comes to town.
Tonight, Purdue won't be pushed, but it's important that it compete against itself if nothing else.
I didn't see the Providence scrimmage, but I didn't have to to know that Purdue wasn't nearly good enough on defense, and for the Boilermakers to play at the level expected of them at some point this season, they have to make a leap forward defensively, and that starts with simply wanting to. You'd like to see Purdue play with an energy level that reflects such a commitment.
That's Job 1 tonight, if you ask me, and if that's not carried out, you are going to see people sit.
This is going to be a really interesting season because of the options Purdue has. There are scenarios where your ninth and 10th men right this second are Trey Kaufman-Renn and Ethan Morton, and one had a North Carolina offer and the others offers from Michigan and Ohio State. Purdue has more players than it can realistically maximize, and things get even stickier when Mason Gillis is activated.
What happens then, I guess, is that Painter rides the hot hands on a night-to-night basis, which would seem to just dare inconsistency to strike, or the guys who don't defend, they sit.
Teams are rarely as loaded in reality than they are on paper before a game has been played, but I don't see any way this season that Purdue doesn't have at least 10 legitimate dudes here, and while that might seem like a dream scenario, it very well could contribute to some choppiness early on this season. I do think there could be some uneven-ness as players figure out what "value" means to them and they coalesce around roles. You saw it the last time Purdue won a Big Ten title. That team took the whole non-conference season to figure it out.
This one will start off in a better place than that one, but still is a team for which much is being assumed. Rightfully assumed, but assumed nonetheless.
This group had a good season last year in a weird year, then did nothing in the postseason.
It has all the ability in the world. It has all the depth in the world. It has two elite centers, two stud freshmen and maybe the best guard in the country, plus a whole bunch of nice pieces around them.
But it has to take a huge step from last season, at both ends of the floor, a step it should be able to make but one it hasn't made yet. Purdue's being perceived as what it could be and should be, and not what it is. We will see how much these sophomores have improved and matured, how locked in these seniors are and how ready these freshmen are, starting tonight.
This is just an exhibition game, but it's also Step 1 on what could be a really memorable journey for Purdue if it's up to that challenge.
Lots to cover there.
Thanks everybody for reading.
After the game, I will have post-game video and coverage, analysis, our Wrap Video, a podcast, and our end-of-night Final Thoughts piece. The whole nine yards.
In the meantime, join our pre-game thread here. I'll try to do as engaged with it as I can 'cause this game isn't on TV. But also follow me at my award-winning Twitter account, @brianneubert.
Thanks everyone.
