Athlon has Purdue at Preseason #14

[punaj]

Nova coming to Mackey, #3, should be an awesome non-conference game!

http://athlonsports.com/college-basketball/athlon-sports-2016-17-college-basketball-top-25

 

[nagemj02]

Nova coming to Mackey, #3, should be an awesome non-conference game!

http://athlonsports.com/college-basketball/athlon-sports-2016-17-college-basketball-top-25

The magazines always seem to be released late in the FW area. The earliest I've ever seen them in stores here is early September. Yes, many people say that Blue Ribbon (order online) is the best preseason magazine and it probably is but I've been collecting preseason magazines every season for the last 25 years (1991-1992 preseason were the first ones I got in real time), so I'll always get an Athlon, Sporting News, or whatever else (there used to be one called Petersen's) from the store every year.

Anyway yes, it has the potential to be a great game!

Boiler Up

 

[Dakota Girl]

14 and 10 so far. Good confidence. Seems like the rankings "experts" are pretty supportive of this rendition. I am guessing that they see the much more offensively talented and balanced team that many of us see.

 

[punaj]

There's obviously going to be more offense on the floor this year. We lose two B1G defensive players of the year this year. They were great defenders, but ok to good offensive players. So we are going to need to score more just to make up for that. I think it's going big to be fun to watch, especially adding Carsen, but we might be throwing our foam bricks at the tv all year long and screaming about defense. Let's just be happy it won't be Crean defense.

 

[northside100]

AJ an ok to good offensive player? He was one of the most efficient offensive players in the country, he'll be missed on both ends.

 

[Bluegrass Boiler]

Nova coming to Mackey, #3, should be an awesome non-conference game!

http://athlonsports.com/college-basketball/athlon-sports-2016-17-college-basketball-top-25

And matchup with #13 @ Louisville will be a big test too.

 

[*Shockerrr*]

Guess being ranked high doesn't matter to the 2017 class of recruits...smh!

 

[BoilerBiker]

AJ an ok to good offensive player? He was one of the most efficient offensive players in the country, he'll be missed on both ends.

Definitely.
Impressive to be 17th all time on the Purdue scoring list, and also 21st nationally in FGP his senior year.

 

[Dakota Girl]

There's obviously going to be more offense on the floor this year. We lose two B1G defensive players of the year this year. They were great defenders, but ok to good offensive players. So we are going to need to score more just to make up for that. I think it's going big to be fun to watch, especially adding Carsen, but we might be throwing our foam bricks at the tv all year long and screaming about defense. Let's just be happy it won't be Crean defense.

i wouldn't just assume a massive drop off on defense. It's just not as simple as addition and subtraction.
Each returning player makes some type of improvement every season in three categories, physical, mental, and emotional. How much varies based by the individuals.
Then there are changes in defensive strategy. No that doesn't mean changing from man to zone necessarily. It's typically more subtle changes such as, do we pressure the ball all over or do we pick it up at 25 feet? Do we position ourselves closer to shooters or do we shade in to take away driving lanes? Do we go after passing lanes aggressively or keep everything in front of us? And so on.
The result will be a team that is different defensively, not necessarily worse or better, and not likely as drastic as many seem to think either way. Anybody CAN play good defense.
Offense on the other hand requires skills. If you do not have them the impact is much more obvious.