Again, as I said, of course it doesn't hurt (unless it disrupts chemistry which we've seen quite a bit in college basketball the last couple of years). But I'm nowhere near ready to say it's a necessity. Hell, it's only January.
This team is substantially better than the team that loss games. Not going to say they can beat Auburn if Auburn doesn't have a bad game, but could win the other games. I think the things that Caleb AND CJ bring fill in some voids in this team. Have they arrived? No, but they are playing better and we are starting to see the freshmen start to get it. Next year Jacobson will help, but he will be a freshmen essentially and he will have some learning experiences happen. Now if Myles and Cam can show some more improvement (starting to see Cam put it on the floor a little to pull in the D) that will also improve the team.
Now as a shocker and no I'm not drunk. I see this team with a higher ceiling than last year. I also see this team with a lower floor than last year and the average being lower. The 3 pt shooters on this team "potentially" in a given game raise the ceiling...that just isn't the normality of the team. Zach allowed that consistent scoring no matter what the other team did typically, but his consistency shooting twos can't match the unlikely event of this team being hot behind the arc. Last year's team would beat this years team most the time, but if this years team plays at a magic level (borrowing from Gene) it can be very good.
Bottom line nobody can access what if anything Purdue needs next year and I know that the coaches with all the work they put in want to win the final game of a season as well and the portal one way or another will have all their work and desires going into the decision deeper than what we know. Matt has shown he will grab portal players when he thinks they can help. We shall see what happens in a few months. Personally, I'm guessing he may take one...maybe two, but more confident (not most , but more) in one player and believe it will be a 4 or 5 and I think that can swing with either position depending on the particular skill set a 4 or 5 have.
