Moving on with the day here at quittin' time, but did want to offer a couple quick thoughts on Anthony Johnson's departure, which followed those of Jacob Lawson and Sandi Marcius.
This, again, wasn't a surprise. Johnson has been telling people for a while of the possibility. And on the other side of the join, I wrote the other day that there is a difference between a coach encouraging a player to leave and telling a player they can't come back. Here's a case I wouldn't know how to categorize, quite honestly.
But pnce again, players want to play and the writing was on the wall for the junior, a headstrong type who obviously didn't always see eye to eye with his coaches. There might not have been a player on Purdue's team last season more sure of his abilities than Johnson, however marginal the pay-out may have been more often than not. In our experience with him, Anthony Johnson was always a nice, pleasant, accommodating person and a hell of a quote, but there is some attitude there, for better and worse. Worse in the form of some occasional resistance to coaching and body language issues. The exchange with Robbie Hummel at Iowa last year was laughed off after and one incident should not define a player, but yeah, there was that.
Purdue won a relatively high-profile recruiting battle for him a couple years ago when he was very highly ranked, getting him because Lenzelle Smith Jr. committed to Ohio State before Johnson could, as the story goes.
But once Johnson came out of redshirt, it never clicked for him. He showed flashes of some scoring punch here and there, but this season, with Purdue limited at the guard spots, not sure he was in the best position in a point guard's role. He handed out nine assists in the first game, but then 31 the rest of the season.
A couple things jump out now.
1. Purdue has no juniors now, unless they add a JUCO this spring. No juniors now means no seniors the year after.
2. Oh, Chicago. Marcus Green and Tarrance Crump are the lone Chicagoans to sign under Matt Painter who've completed their eligibility, and Green the only one to do so without incident. This includes guys like Gordon Watt and Marcus White, who were from Chicago and transferred in.
No one's bashing Chicago here, but there is a certain attitude that comes with kids from those types of environments oftentimes. Ask Illinois about it.
Of course, we're not generalizing here. Jordan Ash, wherever he goes, will do just fine. And though he's not from Chicago, per se, no one's going to worry about Kendall Stephens.
Just saying.
3. Purdue's left with 10 scholarship players, including only four true guards, one of which just underwent major shoulder surgery. I'm not counting Rapheal Davis as a guard, though maybe I should be.
Painter lamented after his team got run at Northwestern about not having enough backcourt options to put guys who needed to be benched on the bench.
Well …
There could be an addition-by-subtraction factor to what's transpired this offseason, but there's no doubt that quality additions are now needed.
The Boilermakers need help and have the scholarship space.
But they have to get the right guys. Reaches don't last, history tells us, and the last thing Purdue needs is to be turning over its roster like its tilling a garden every year.
For a story that'll be published tomorrow, Painter lamented some recruiting failings and said that he can talk all he wants about guys working harder to get better, but he should have recruited guys who were more skilled (translation: better) coming in.
Now is the time.
4. Redshirting.
The benefits of redshirting are obvious and the practice should not be deviated from in certain cases, but geez, it's been a bad year for redshirts.
Last year, John Hart walked for his fifth season after redshirting as a freshman. Didn't impact Purdue. This year Marcius did the same, costing Purdue a player it wanted to back. (Granted, Marcius redshirted mostly due to injury.)
And Anthony Johnson, another player who redshirted right away, busted out after two seasons. Lawson, who very publicly didn't want to redshirt as a freshman, did the same, though.
Donnie Hale now has a chance to become the first player under Painter to redshirt for non-injury reasons and do much of anything at Purdue.
This post was edited on 4/15 5:46 PM by Brian_GoldandBlack.com
This post was edited on 4/15 5:49 PM by Brian_GoldandBlack.com
This post was edited on 4/15 5:50 PM by Brian_GoldandBlack.com
This, again, wasn't a surprise. Johnson has been telling people for a while of the possibility. And on the other side of the join, I wrote the other day that there is a difference between a coach encouraging a player to leave and telling a player they can't come back. Here's a case I wouldn't know how to categorize, quite honestly.
But pnce again, players want to play and the writing was on the wall for the junior, a headstrong type who obviously didn't always see eye to eye with his coaches. There might not have been a player on Purdue's team last season more sure of his abilities than Johnson, however marginal the pay-out may have been more often than not. In our experience with him, Anthony Johnson was always a nice, pleasant, accommodating person and a hell of a quote, but there is some attitude there, for better and worse. Worse in the form of some occasional resistance to coaching and body language issues. The exchange with Robbie Hummel at Iowa last year was laughed off after and one incident should not define a player, but yeah, there was that.
Purdue won a relatively high-profile recruiting battle for him a couple years ago when he was very highly ranked, getting him because Lenzelle Smith Jr. committed to Ohio State before Johnson could, as the story goes.
But once Johnson came out of redshirt, it never clicked for him. He showed flashes of some scoring punch here and there, but this season, with Purdue limited at the guard spots, not sure he was in the best position in a point guard's role. He handed out nine assists in the first game, but then 31 the rest of the season.
A couple things jump out now.
1. Purdue has no juniors now, unless they add a JUCO this spring. No juniors now means no seniors the year after.
2. Oh, Chicago. Marcus Green and Tarrance Crump are the lone Chicagoans to sign under Matt Painter who've completed their eligibility, and Green the only one to do so without incident. This includes guys like Gordon Watt and Marcus White, who were from Chicago and transferred in.
No one's bashing Chicago here, but there is a certain attitude that comes with kids from those types of environments oftentimes. Ask Illinois about it.
Of course, we're not generalizing here. Jordan Ash, wherever he goes, will do just fine. And though he's not from Chicago, per se, no one's going to worry about Kendall Stephens.
Just saying.
3. Purdue's left with 10 scholarship players, including only four true guards, one of which just underwent major shoulder surgery. I'm not counting Rapheal Davis as a guard, though maybe I should be.
Painter lamented after his team got run at Northwestern about not having enough backcourt options to put guys who needed to be benched on the bench.
Well …
There could be an addition-by-subtraction factor to what's transpired this offseason, but there's no doubt that quality additions are now needed.
The Boilermakers need help and have the scholarship space.
But they have to get the right guys. Reaches don't last, history tells us, and the last thing Purdue needs is to be turning over its roster like its tilling a garden every year.
For a story that'll be published tomorrow, Painter lamented some recruiting failings and said that he can talk all he wants about guys working harder to get better, but he should have recruited guys who were more skilled (translation: better) coming in.
Now is the time.
4. Redshirting.
The benefits of redshirting are obvious and the practice should not be deviated from in certain cases, but geez, it's been a bad year for redshirts.
Last year, John Hart walked for his fifth season after redshirting as a freshman. Didn't impact Purdue. This year Marcius did the same, costing Purdue a player it wanted to back. (Granted, Marcius redshirted mostly due to injury.)
And Anthony Johnson, another player who redshirted right away, busted out after two seasons. Lawson, who very publicly didn't want to redshirt as a freshman, did the same, though.
Donnie Hale now has a chance to become the first player under Painter to redshirt for non-injury reasons and do much of anything at Purdue.
This post was edited on 4/15 5:46 PM by Brian_GoldandBlack.com
This post was edited on 4/15 5:49 PM by Brian_GoldandBlack.com
This post was edited on 4/15 5:50 PM by Brian_GoldandBlack.com
